Updated at 3:11 p.m. ET
The black CNN camerawoman whom two Republican National Convention attendees threw nuts at earlier this week has spoken out, saying the incident did not surprise her “at all.”
“This is Florida and I’m from the Deep South. You come to places like this, you can count the black people on your hand. They see us doing things they don’t think I should do,” Patricia Carroll, 34, told the Maynard Institute. An Alabama native, Carroll is now based in CNN’s Washington, D.C. bureau.
After the attendees threw nuts at her and said, “This is how we feed animals,” Carroll told colleagues and CNN security about the incident. In a separate interview with Witches’ Brew, Carroll said the incident occurred around 3 p.m. Tuesday. She looked up and saw two men throwing peanuts at her, she said. The head of the delegation of an unidentified state told her the nut-throwers were likely not delegates, according to the Maynard Institute report.
CNN has been “behind me 100 percent,” Carroll said, thanking the network. CNN was initially tight-lipped about the incident, and has declined to provide much detail since. It published a sparse report online, saying there were multiple witnesses to the exchange. Wedneday evening, Wolf Blitzer reported the story on air, calling it “truly shocking.” CNN political analyst Donna Brazile said during the segment that she hopes the two attendees have their convention credentials revoked.
CNN released a statement Thursday afternoon saying it doesn’t know the identity of the two people removed from the convention and neither do convention officials.
Convention officials condemned the attendees’ actions, calling the behavior “deplorable.”
“This kind of behavior will not be tolerated,” convention spokesman Kyle Downey said in a statement.
Carroll told the Maynard Institute that no one took down the names of the attendees who pelted her. Read her interviews here and here.
David Taintor
David Taintor is TPM’s News Editor. He contributes to TPM’s Livewire coverage, among other areas. David is from Chanhassen, Minnesota, where, yes, it gets very cold. Reach him at taintor [at] talkingpointsmemo.com
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