Watch CBS News

Trump Volunteer Blocks Photojournalist's Camera During Rally

(CBS) -- A volunteer member of the advance team for President Trump blocked a photojournalist's camera as he tried to take a photo of a protester during a campaign rally in Indiana Thursday night.

A photo taken by Associated Press photographer Evan Vucci in Evansville shows the volunteer stretching out his hand over the lens of a news photographer's camera after a protester disrupted Mr. Trump's campaign event.

The president paced on stage at the Ford Center as the protester was led out.

Mr. Trump's campaign didn't immediately respond to a request for comment late Thursday.

Trump Volunteer Blocks Camera
A volunteer member of the advance team for President Donald Trump blocks a camera as a photojournalist attempts to take a photo of a protester during a campaign rally at the Ford Center, Thursday, Aug. 30, 2018, in Evansville, Ind. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

The president was in town to stump for Republican Senate candidate Mike Braun, who is looking to unseat Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly in what is viewed as one of the nation's most competitive Senate races.

In the same rally, Mr. Trump railed against social media companies for, as he said, censoring free speech. The president has recently criticized websites such as Google, Facebook and Twitter for supposedly silencing conservative voices.

Mr. Trump became vocal about this issue after several sites removed pages by Alex Jones, a controversial right-wing conspiracy theorist.

Mr. Trump also said earlier this week that Google was filtering search results about him to only show negative news.

"There's a thing called free speech rights," Mr. Trump said at the rally. "I've made it clear that we as a country cannot tolerate political censorship, blacklisting, and rigged search results."

"We will not let large corporations silence conservative voices," the president said.

 

© 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.