Hillary Clinton dodges a shoe thrown at her while giving Las Vegas speech
11-04-2014 11:11 AM
Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - First it was George W. Bush — and now it’s deja shoe for Hillary Clinton.
Clinton was forced to duck Thursday when a female protester threw a shoe at her as she spoke at a Las Vegas event.
Clinton had just begun a speech about recycling when the shoe whizzed by her right ear.
The startled former secretary of state flinched and moved to her left, yelling, “Was that a bat!”
The shoe was thrown by a blond woman in a blue dress, who raised her hands as if under arrest as she was hustled out of a meeting room at Mandalay Bay casino resort.
Clinton immediately shook off the disruption and continued her speech on metal recycling after making light of the woman’s poor aim.
“Is that somebody throwing something at me? Is that part of Cirque du Soleil?” Clinton joked.
“My goodness, I didn’t know that solid waste management was so controversial. Good thing she didn’t play softball like I did.”
The crowd gasped when the shoe went flying, then cheered the former First Lady’s reaction. The shoe-thrower, whose name wasn’t released, was taken into custody and will face criminal charges, a Secret Service supervisory agent told the Associated Press.
She appeared to be wearing sandals on both feet when she was removed from the hall, indicating she likely brought an extra shoe with her to throw at Clinton.
A black and orange shoe was found on the stage, the agent said.
The scare came as Clinton spoke to Scrap Recycling Industries. Mark Carpenter, a spokesman for the institute, said the woman is not a member and should not have been allowed inside.
The appearance was one of several paid speeches Clinton, who is considering a 2016 presidential bid, has given to industry groups this year.
The episode was reminiscent of a 2008 shoe-tossing attack on Bush during a press conference in Baghdad.
An attendee later handed a reporter a piece of paper that was apparently thrown by the woman. It appeared to be a copy of a Department of Defense document labeled confidential and dated August 1967; it referred to an operation “Cynthia” in Bolivia.
*NY Daily News