Lawyer For Man Who Disrupted Chicago 'Hamilton' Says 'Hostile' Audience Provoked Him
By Rachel Cromidas in News on Nov 22, 2016 4:31AM
'Hamilton' / Courtesy of Broadway in Chicago
The man who reportedly had a very public, possibly drunken, pro-Trump meltdown at a Chicago performance of Hamilton over the weekend says he was provoked by the audience, his lawyer told reporters Monday.
John Palmer, 56, was reportedly set off by a line in the show that goes "Immigrants / We get the job done." Witnesses said he disrupted he show by saying, "We won. Trump is president. Get over it," and "Let's go Democrats. I'll kill you all."
Palmer, of the 100 block of East Illinois Street, was charged with one misdemeanor count of criminal trespass to land after theater workers asked him to leave for causing a disturbance and he refused to.
Now Palmer's attorney, Jonathan Feldman, says he was provoked by a "hostile," "biased," and "partisan" audience, the AP reports. (You mean the kind of people who might attend a multi-ethnic musical theater performance about the Founding Fathers, with hip-hop, in Chicago?) Feldman also denies that Palmer was intoxicated at the theater.
Speaking to reporters in Chicago on Monday, Feldman argued that the New York City Hamilton cast's message to Vice President-elect Mike Pence on Friday night contributed to a partisan environment at the theater in Chicago the following night.
"It is unfortunate that I have to say that it seems as if the only party responsible for creating a hostile, partisan and biased audience ... might very well have been the cast and production of Hamilton itself," Feldman said, according to the Tribune. "Hamilton has created an audience environment that is very against our president-elect and it is unfortunate someone who supports the president-elect cannot feel welcome attending theater with his family."