John Wisely

Detroit Free Press

Club says protest organizer joined just before speech to buy 20 tickets.

Club president said she has forwarded her apologies to Trump campaign.

Protesters who heckled Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump Monday at Cobo Center got into the members-only event by fraud, Detroit Economic Club president Beth Chappell told members in an e-mail today.

"A misguided 23-year-old man fraudulently bought a new membership and invited female guests to do his dirty work," Chappell wrote. "New memberships were reviewed during the hectic few days leading up to the Trump meeting. His 20 guests could have raised a flag but did not since he purchased the membership under the name of a very reputable company. Turns out the perpetrator was let go from the firm two years ago. Important lesson learned."

Chappell's e-mail didn't name the company or the individual who bought the tickets. She couldn't be reached for comment.

Security officers and police removed 14 protesters, including former State Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Detroit, after they began shouting at Trump as he laid out his economic plan to the typically buttoned-down business crowd. All but one of the protesters was a member of the Michigan Peoples Campaign, a statewide activist group that advocates for economic and racial justice.

The group's director, Ryan Bates, denied any fraud.

"Absolutely not. The tickets were acquired by a Detroit Economic Club member in good standing and all the rules were followed," Bates said. "I don't want people to focus on the minutia of how we got the tickets, but on Donald Trump's stand on the issues."

Bates said the Economic Club should not have granted a platform to a candidate whose position on Muslims and immigrants is so far outside mainstream political discourse. Bates said that once the club agreed to host Trump, the presence of protesters, whom he called heroes, was inevitable.

"That's the risk you run in hosting Donald Trump," he said.

Tlaib, who was the first Muslim woman in to serve in the Michigan Legislature, told the Free Press that as a mother and a Muslim, she felt obligated to demand that Trump be a better example for children.

"We need to be heard ... you cannot stay silent," Tlaib said Monday. "He doesn't love Detroit. He doesn't love no one who isn't Donald Trump."

Sara Messer, 27, was another protester who got her ticket through the Michigan People's Campaign.

Messer told the Free Press she was ejected after she stood on a seat to interrupt Trump with questions about women's rights. The audience booed her, she said.

Chappell said the club apologized to the Trump campaign, and she thanked members for drowning out the protesters with applause.

"We respect the right of free speech and the right to protest, but in an appropriate way and not inside a DEC meeting," Chappell wrote. "Detroit was in the international spotlight yesterday and a knucklehead disrupts an historic speech? This is not reflective of our club or our city."

Contact John Wisely: 313-222-6825 or jwisely@freepress.com. On Twitter @jwisely.