Photo of incident at rally in Indiana spreads across social media, showing man placing his hand in front of the lens of a photojournalist

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

A member of Donald Trump’s advance team physically blocked the shot of a photographer trying to take a picture of a protester at a campaign rally on Thursday night.

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A photo of the incident spread across social media after the rally in Evansville, Indiana, where Trump doubled down on his attacks on the press.

The photo by Associated Press photographer Evan Vucci shows the suited man, whom he identifies as a volunteer member of the advance team, leaning to place his hand in front of the lens of a photojournalist taking pictures.

The protester, who had disrupted the rally at the Ford Center arena, was being removed from the venue as Trump paced on stage.

He was in town campaigning for the Republican Senate candidate Mike Braun, who is running against Senator Joe Donnelly, a Democrat.

Journalists condemned the volunteer’s move on social media. “This is crossing a line,” the USA Today White House reporter Gregory Korte said on Twitter.

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Trump has railed against the press, condemning them as the “enemy of the people” and “fake news”.

The FBI arrested a man on Thursday who threatened to kill staffers at the Boston Globe, saying, “You’re the enemy of the people, and we’re going to kill every fucking one of you.” The Globe led a push to publish editorials in newspapers around the country condemning Trump’s attacks on the free press.

Trump continued his attacks at the Indiana rally where the photo-blocking incident took place.

“These are just dishonest, terrible people, I’m telling you that. Not all of them, honestly, not all of them. I’d say 85%,” he said of journalists, according to the Huffington Post, specifically naming the New York Times, CNN and NBC and complaining about stories he disliked.