Education Secretary Linda McMahon was interrupted during an appearance at a conservative event on Wednesday by protestors blasting circus music and audio insults played over nearly a dozen Bluetooth speakers spread throughout the room.
The incident occurred during McMahon’s appearance at the 47th National Conservative Student Conference in Washington, D.C., hosted by Young America’s Foundation.
As McMahon attempted during a sit-down interview with YAF president and former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, McMahon was interrupted mid-sentence by loud audio of a man who, among other things, accused the secretary of being a “corrupt billionaire.”
In response, Walker quipped that “apparently, the [Chinese Communist Party]” didn’t like her remarks, and that “they’re cutting into our technology.”
The audience laughed, and Walker and McMahon attempted to move on. But the interruptions did not end there.
Later, a recording of a woman ranting about “fat geriatric[s]” elicited an audible gasp from the audience. Students began to whisper to one another as the interruptions, which threatened to drown out the secretary’s comments, continued seemingly at random and from different corners of the auditorium.
Nevertheless, Walker and McMahon plowed ahead with their scheduled discussion, speaking over the chaos as YAF staffers scrambled to find and confiscate the personal audio devices.
“This is so weird,” one attendee whispered.
Event organizers collected an estimated eight Bluetooth speakers found under tables and chairs.
“This afternoon, a joyless, sore-loser leftist sought to silence the 13th Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon, during her fireside chat with YAF President Governor Scott Walker at our National Conservative Student Conference,” YAF spokesman Spencer Brown told The Daily Wire.
Brendon Poteet of the University of Missouri, Columbia, told The Daily Wire that, “The first time it happened, I thought it was just a silly little YAF thing … and then it kept on happening again, and then it happened at my table.”
“I was just sitting, second row, and we noticed the Secret Service Agent inching closer and closer towards us,” he added. “That’s when I was like, ‘this is kind of ominous.’ And one of the people found a note attached to one of the speakers.”
The Post-it note the student says he found bears the Latin phrase “Vox clamantis,” which translates to “a voice crying out.”
“I didn’t think it was sabotage [at first],” said Isaac Hoilman of the University of North Carolina Asheville. “I thought the wires were messed up or something. But when it started playing clown music, I thought something was up.”
Finally, as McMahon discussed Trump’s hiring and managerial choices, Bluetooth speakers began to blare Julius Fucik’s “Entrance of the Gladiators,” an 1897 military march that has become the unofficial theme song for clowns and circuses.
YAF staff instructed students on the way out of the session to take their personal belongings so that “the CCP and the teachers’ unions can’t interrupt us anymore.”
The National Conservative Student Conference, which began on Monday, had not previously experienced any technical issues or interruptions.
Olivia D’Angelo is a reporter studying journalism at the National Journalism Center in Washington, D.C.
