Katelyn Caralle, Daily Mail, November 21, 2019

Dozens of protesters interrupted Elizabeth Warren’s campaign rally at Clark University in Atlanta, Georgia the night after the debate, causing supporters in attendance to counter with chants of their own.

The protesters, nearly all black men and women, were all wearing matching black shirts with white lettering that read: ‘Powerful Parent Network.’ About five minutes into her stump speech, the group began stomping their feet on the rhythmically on the gymnasium risers in the L.S. Epps Gymnasium at the historically black university.

They then began recited several chants, including: ‘We want to be heard.’

This prompted the hundreds of others attending the rally in support of Warren to chant back, ‘Let her speak.’

Warren gave up trying to speak over the shouting and appeared to want to wait it out.

When she was able to continue her speech after a few minutes of protest, the demonstrators persisted.

Finally, freshman Representative Ayanna Pressley, a black congresswoman for Massachusetts who has endorsed Warren and introduced the candidate a few minutes earlier, came back on stage to attempt to silence the protesters.

‘I want to say something,’ Pressley said when she joined the candidate on stage. ‘No one is here to quiet you, least not this black woman, who know what it is when people have tried to put me in a corner and tell me to be silent.’

Warren stood over Pressley’s right shoulder as her congressional colleague came to her defense.

‘You are welcome here,’ she continued. ‘The senator is here to talk about the contributions fighters like you have made to history.’

The audience, including some protesters, applauded the black congresswoman.

‘So, I want to just say something, so in this moment there are many people who do not know this story because we have been rendered as a historical footnote in history. So I am going to appeal to you, to not dishonor this history. We are grateful for your activism and your voice, and you are welcome here, and we would love to convene after this about the issues that you are here to stoke our consciousness about.’

Pressley was visibly riled up and frustrated with the attempts to silence Warren during her speech.

‘When these women have been ignored this lone, this is their moment, and we are going to hear the story,’ Pressley asserted.

She was able to tame the crowd, and more than half of those wearing the matching t-shirts stepped off the risers and exited the gymnasium.

There were no more interruptions from the audience throughout the remainder of Warren’s time onstage.

Pressley gained widespread notoriety when she was lumped in with fellow freshmen progressive Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib when Trump dubbed them “the squad.”

The four minority congresswomen held a press conference earlier this year where they jointly called for Trump’s impeachment – and now there are active impeachment proceedings underway in the House.

Pressley broke from the group earlier this month when she endorsed Warren. The other three lawmakers threw their weight behind self-described Democratic socialist Bernie Sanders.

Warren made her stop at Clark Atlanta University Thursday as a victory lap to the fifth round of Democratic debate the night before at Tyler Perry Studios where viewers claimed she, and the other frontrunner candidates, gave a lackluster performance compared to the four preceding debates.

At the rally, she made her case to a room full of majority black voters, outlining her plans for equality and addressing race issues in America.

Although Warren largely delivered her usual rally remarks, this time around she focused on issues specific to the black and African American community, and especially black women.

Before the rally commence, a project screen above the stage read spelled out ‘Value the work of black women,’ and organizers passed out campaign posters to audience members that said, ‘Women for Warren’ and ‘Black Voters for Warren.’

‘The fighters I want to talk about tonight are black women,’ Warren said toward the start of her speech, before she was interrupted by demonstrators.

After Pressley shut down the protesters, the remainder of her rally went smoothly.

The progressive Massachusetts Senator also didn’t miss an opportunity bashed Donald Trump and label him as racist.

‘Racism bumps up the wealthy and the power, leaving them to take more wealth and more power for themselves,’ Warren said, pausing for applause and dramatic effect.

‘Which brings me to Donald Trump,’ she continued, garnered cheers, laughter and boos. ‘Donald Trump didn’t create the corrupt system, but he wouldn’t be in power without it.’

Warren has been the No. 1 female candidate virtually since launching her campaign, and ahead of the debate in a suburb of Columbus, Ohio last month, she surged in some polls to the No. 1 spot among all candidates vying for the Democratic nomination.