Officials on both sides of the aisle are criticizing Bill McKibben’s 350.org after it sent several volunteers to follow Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) as she ran a charity 5K race
August 16, 2016
Bill McKibben’s 350.org Has Masked Men Stalk U.S. Senator At 5K Race Benefiting Cancer Center
Officials on both sides of the aisle are criticizing Bill McKibben’s 350.org after it sent several volunteers to follow Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) as she ran a charity 5K race.
Concord Monitor reports:
Volunteers with the climate advocacy group 350 Action wore [Donald] Trump masks while trailing Ayotte during part of the charity race. The group filmed the protest and posted the video on YouTube under the header “Kelly Ayotte Can’t Run From Her Trump Problem.” … Some said the image of Ayotte being chased by masked men evoked negative connotations of stalking.
The report is rich with irony, given that McKibben recently complained about being filmed at public events in The New York Times.
If it seems disingenuous or hypocritical for McKibben to complain about cameras at public events and then send volunteers to stalk Ayotte, it’s because it is.
Even Democrats, though, said the 350.org protesters went too far in trailing Ayotte with masks. One Democrat called McKibben’s tactics “distasteful”:
“It just jumped out as something that I really found distasteful,” said Byron Champlin, a Democrat and Concord city councilor who posted about the image on his Facebook page.
Ayotte was running in the Cigna/Elliot Corporate 5K Road Race in Manchester, New Hampshire, which benefits a local cancer center.