‘This little girl is afraid to leave’: Idaho woman harassed and violently dragged out of Republican town hall for speaking out
A woman was harassed, mocked, threatened with pepper spray, and violently dragged across the floor of a Republican town hall meeting by a group of men because she spoke during Rep. Ron Mendive’s address.
The horrific altercation is just one of many disturbing instances of violations of free speech since Donald Trump took office. To name a few incidents, the Department of Justice contacted Rep. Robert Garcia because he spoke out against Elon Musk and called him a “d*ck” during a DOGE subcommittee meeting. Meanwhile, former NFL player Chris Kluwe was arrested for giving an anti-Trump speech at a city council meeting in California to peacefully protest the dedication of a plaque to Trump at a public library. Days after Trump’s inauguration, a meteorologist was fired for criticizing Musk on her personal Instagram page. The president of the NYU chapter of College Republicans was also forced to resign because she didn’t embellish Barron Trump’s college experience.
However, no incident has been quite as rattling as the one that took place in Idaho, where multiple men assaulted an innocent woman because she spoke.
What happened at the Idaho GOP town hall?
Recently, the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee held a town hall meeting at Coeur d’Alene High School. Typically, a town hall meeting is an opportunity for local politicians to talk to their constituents. However, in this meeting, politicians like Mendive tried to preach to constituents and scold them for speaking. Hence, attendee and Democratic candidate for the 2024 Idaho House of Representatives, Dr. Teresa Borrenpohl, called out several times, “Is this a town hall or a lecture?” What happened next was captured in a viral video that has left women and Democrats appalled.
Kootenai County Sheriff Robert Norris approached her and demanded that she leave. Borrenpohl had every right to attend the meeting, so she refused to leave. Norris continues getting her face, demanding her to go. When she refuses, he grabs her and tries pulling her out of her seat by her arm. At one point, he threatens her with pepper spray, asking, “Do you want pepper spray?” He then instructs three unidentified men in black clothes to remove her. The men wore no distinguishable security uniform and refused to show her their badge. She continually demands to know who these men are as they start roughly grabbing and pulling at her all over her body. She’s eventually pulled from her seat onto the floor, where one of the men falls on top of her before they grab her by her wrists and violently drag her across the floor.
During the entire ordeal, emcee Ed Bejarana remained on stage, laughing and jeering at Borrenpohl, saying things like, “This little girl’s afraid to leave” and “your voice is useless.” While a few crowd members called for the men to stop, not a single person tried to physically block these three random men, who no one knew if they were even security, from dragging a woman with them out of a town hall meeting.
Meanwhile, the Republican committee was initially proud of what happened, as they took to Facebook to show a picture of Borrenpohl being dragged across the floor by her arms. In the caption, they claim that she “violently resisted” arrest. Not only that, but the committee chairman, Brent Regan, pathetically tried to file battery charges against Borrenpohl. Fortunately, they can’t change the narrative when the video clearly shows Borrenpohl doing nothing other than sitting in her seat as four men assault her and make her believe she is being kidnapped since they refused to show their badges. Coeur d’Alene Police Department Sgt. Jared Reneau quickly dismissed the battery charge and recommended that the company, LEAR Asset Management, which the three unmarked security guards worked for, have their security license revoked.
Borrenpohl will, rightfully, take legal action against the committee and everyone involved in this event. A GoFundMe for her legal defenses has already raised $242,414, and she will hopefully soon retain a skilled lawyer to prosecute the committee, sheriff, and security workers. There is simply no way to justify what happened. She’s a voter, taxpayer, and constituent who had every right to speak at a town hall meeting. The fact that she was a Democratic candidate raises concerns that the committee may have blatantly targeted her.
This wasn’t an instance of the committee following protocol to remove a heckler. This was the committee ganging up on and physically attacking and taunting a woman because she disagreed with them. No woman in America should have to fear that if she attends a town hall or school board meeting and dares to speak, she could be attacked and practically kidnapped by a group of unidentified men while so-called “men” onstage taunt her and egg her attackers on.
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