CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Two people were arrested during Sunday’s march in uptown that drew hundreds of protesters, according to Charlotte-Mecklenburg police.
About 700 chanting protesters launched a march through uptown with calls for reform on Sunday afternoon. Organizers had previously expected anywhere from 2,000 to 10,000 protesters.
One protester, 23-year-old Anna Marie Wright, was arrested for violating a law by wearing a mask, according to police. Wright was arrested at 2:25 p.m. At the time of the arrest, she had a knife, police said.
Chris Stevens, 32, was also arrested for disorderly conduct, assault on a government official and resisting arrest in the 200 block of South College street. Stevens was drunk, CMPD police chief Rodney Monroe told reporter Dianne Gallagher, and was not part of the March on Wall Street South.
*****
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Vice President Joe Biden launched a new attack on Rep. Paul Ryan in his home state of Wisconsin today, criticizing the Republican vice presidential candidate for not admitting in his convention speech that he was a member of the bipartisan deficit commission he railed against Wednesday evening.
“What he didn’t tell you is he sat on that commission,” Biden said at the National Railroad Museum in Green Bay. “He sat on that commission, and were he and his house Republican friends that he leads, had they voted with the commission, it would have been voted on, but he voted no. He would not let it go to the floor. He walked away.”
During his convention speech Wednesday, Ryan criticized the way President Obama initiated and handled the commission, but the Wisconsin congressman failed to mention his own role on it.
“[Obama] created a bipartisan debt commission. They came back with an urgent report. He thanked them, sent them on their way, and then did exactly nothing,” Ryan said in Tampa.
*****
President Barack Obama says the ribbing Clint Eastwood gave him at the Republican National Convention last week doesn’t mean he won’t watch his movies.
“I am a huge Clint Eastwood fan,” the president said in an interview excerpt released today.
“He is a great actor, and an even better director,” he continued. “I think the last few movies that he’s made have been terrific.”
USA Today asked the president about Eastwood’s participation at the GOP convention while Obama was traveling to Iowa on Saturday. The interview will be fully released on the publication’s website Monday and in print Tuesday.
Eastwood was a much-hyped mystery speaker at the three-day long event, rousing the crowd in a 12-minute oratory that included a satirical “interview” with Obama, in the form of an empty chair. The president said he didn’t hold a grudge against the blunt performance, which some considered borderline vulgar.“One thing about being president or running for president — if you’re easily offended, you should probably choose another profession,” the president said.