Op-Ed: I Was at the RNC - Here's What Happened to Me When I Left the White House
My name is Lori Klein Corbin and I’m currently serving on the board of the Republican National Committee as the Arizona national committeewoman.
I was so proud to be invited to attend the acceptance speech by our president, Donald J. Trump, along with our Arizona delegation while at the Republican National Committee’s meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Aug. 23.
Our whole delegation immediately changed our return home date to attend this most historic event on the White House lawn.
After spending two nights at one of my girlfriend’s homes in Pentagon City, I thought it wise to book myself at a hotel across from the White House, and since The Willard, one of my favorite hotels, had a smoking deal to stay, I booked two nights, coming in on Wednesday and leaving Friday.
Little did I know that upon leaving the White House grounds around midnight, I along with three other couples would be surrounded and verbally and physically accosted by an angry mob of violent thugs screaming the vilest and most obscene names at me and our little group.
No police were there between us and the angry mob. Since we tried to stay together and I was holding up the rear of the group, we had to divert ourselves to The Washington, which was a little closer than The Willard, which was completely blocked by so-called protesters, although it was only a block from the White House exit on Hamilton street on 15th Avenue and Pennsylvania.
One of the men in our group was hit in the face by a mob member. I don’t want to call them protesters as they were not protesting: They were vile and acting like monsters and animals, not peaceful protesters but leftist agitators.
They got right in my face, spitting and calling me every name in the book because I love my country, have been a conservative activist for over 40 years and was supporting freedom and my president by attending a White House event.
These radical leftist so-called protesters were not only screaming hate at me, commenting on my race and my sex and even threatening physical violence to my person, but they were also threatening to burn down and destroy my beloved country that they claim to revile and hate.
I was sickened and have never been more afraid of being attacked physically. I realized there was no reasoning with this wall of hatred, so I did not look any of them in the eye, nor did I utter a word but kept moving forward with our surrounded small group until we made it into the lobby of The Washington — which was not my destination.
Upon feeling relatively safe at The Washington, the two remaining couples and I asked for help from the front desk to get to our respective hotels.
Unfortunately, the hotel staff were rude and unhelpful when I asked if there was any way I could go underground to my hotel on the corner or get escorted to my hotel. They refused any assistance.
The other two couples were staying at the Sofitel and Trump International. So we planned to camp out in the lobby until we could get help going to our hotel when a man came in and said that there was a driver out front who would take us to our hotels for $50 each, to which we all said “yes!”
It turned out to be a very nice man who was the driver for Karl Rove. He had seen us being accosted and asked if he could help us. So he drove the couple from Queen Creek to the Sofitel and then the driver let me off on 14th Street and kindly escorted me to the entrance of my hotel at approximately 1:00 a.m. He was a lifesaver and a very kind man.
After this, I was informed by the front desk that the area around our hotel would be blocked off for about seven blocks unless I wanted to leave at 6:00 a.m. — and I had a 3:00 p.m. flight on Friday. I opted to leave when we could get a taxi and at least felt safe at the airport until I boarded my flight to return home.
I never in my life thought that angry mobs comprised of radical leftists who hate America would be allowed to openly threaten to violate our rights to freely assemble without fear of violence.
This happens in third-world countries where the rule of law is not upheld and you have radical factions that use fear and violence to take power. I never thought the communist factions in our country would come out of the shadows and be so emboldened by the Democratic Party and leftist media to actually terrorize cities and towns as they are doing now.
The Democratic Party has been taken over by these radicals who are using antifa, BLM and other Marxist groups to divide and take power. It isn’t really about black lives, although I agree all black lives matter and all of us are God’s children and God is colorblind as we all should be.
I must say that the vilest person attacking me on my way to the hotel was not black but a white agitator who — had he damaged me physically — would have been let out of jail and garnered bail.
This is clearly a violent mob using terrorist tactics to generate fear to stop Trump supporters and those who clearly don’t buy into their Marxist ideals and revolutionary tactics to tear down a great nation that our Founding Fathers built upon the idea that all men are endowed by their Creator with inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
It seems there is no regard for those hallowed ideals and the left is using race to divide this nation when, as Martin Luther King famously said, all men are to be judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin.
The violent rioters out for political power by force obviously never got the memo.
The views expressed in this opinion article are those of their author and are not necessarily either shared or endorsed by the owners of this website. If you are interested in contributing an Op-Ed to The Western Journal, you can learn about our submission guidelines and process here.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
