As if they didn’t have their hands full addressing their rivals’ attacks, three of the GOP presidential campaigns had run-ins or near run-ins with Occupy Wall Street protestors on Monday night in New Hampshire.
At a rally in Bedford, Mitt Romney took the unprecedented step of asking a question of a group of protesters when they began chanting, "Live free or die!! Always occupy!" He said: “How about, instead of shouting, why don’t you say what you mean? What’s your view?”
After a few exchanges, Romney sought to turn the incident into a jab at President Obama: “Who’s the president who’s spending more money to campaign than any in the history of America? … And you know what, this country is too important to hand over to President Obama for a second term.”
Romney later told the audience: “I get the chance to see these guys who come out here to protest and now and then I ask them, tell me, what would you replace America with, what kind of system would you have? “
When a Romney supported shouted, “They don’t know,” the former Massachusetts governor agreed: “They don’t know! And the truth is, there has never been any place on earth that has freed people from poverty like free enterprise American style… and that’s why in this room, we’re going to stand up and live free or die for freedom for us and for our kids.”
Meanwhile, in Manchester, Newt Gingrich’s campaign canceled a scheduled stop by the candidate at his New Hampshire headquarters, citing security concerns. The decision came after a crowd of more than 50 people gathered outside the offices, including some Occupy Wall Street protestors in addition to Gingrich backers.
Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond said the campaign’s security team had security concerns about the entrance and exit and made the decision not to have Gingrich stop there.
"We decided that it wasn't worth risking some kind of big confrontation," Gingrich told Fox News' Sean Hannity later.
Elsewhere in Manchester, a group of about 15 protestors surrounded Rick Santorum and chanted “bigot” at him as he walked into an evening rally.
Naureen Khan contributed
Click through to watch this and other moments of confrontation with hecklers on the campaign trail. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
A gay-rights activist (not pictured) throws a cup of glitter on Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney as he walks to the stage at the start of a campaign rally in Eagan, Minn., on Feb. 1, 2012. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
A protester is removed from the auditorium at the University of Iowa as Newt Gingrich speaks during a discussion about brain research on Dec. 14, 2011. Click to the next slide to watch footage from the exchange. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
The former House speaker was at the University of Iowa College of Public Health in Iowa City, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
A heckler at President Obama's Los Angeles fundraiser on September 26 shouted at the president about Jesus Christ before being escorted out by security from L.A.'s House of Blues. He also called Obama "antichrist." (PHOTO: PABLO MARTINEZ MONSIVAIS/AP)
At a fundraiser in San Francisco in April, Obama was heckled by a table of 10 people who broke into song, criticizing the treatment of Army soldier Bradley Manning, who is accused of passing top-secret material to Wikileaks. Their chorus? "We paid our dues, where's our change?" (PHOTO: PABLO MARTINEZ MONSIVAIS/AP)
While speaking at the Iowa State Fair in August, Mitt Romney was confronted by a group affiliated with Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement. They shouted questions to the former Massachusetts governor about Social Security, as well as tax rates for corporations and the wealthy. "Corporations are people, my friend," Romney responded. (PHOTO: CHARLIE NEIBERGALL/AP)
While campaigning in a Portsmouth, N.H., restaurant in August, Texas Gov. Rick Perry faced protests from the New Hampshire Alliance for Retired Americans, who oppose his proposed changes to Medicare and Social Security. (PHOTO: DARREN McCOLLESTER/GETTY IMAGES)
At the Republican debate held in Orlando on Sept. 22, members of the crowd booed after Stephen Hill, a gay soldier stationed in Iraq, asked the candidates if they would honor the end of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy. (PHOTO: JOHN RAOUX/AP)
Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., has twice been heckled for her stances on abortion and same-sex marriage during Iowa campaign events. In April, a group of students at the University of Iowa questioned her at an event on campus, and a gay rights advocate did the same in August at the Iowa State Fair. (PHOTO: CHARLES DHARAPAK/AP)
At the Republican debate in Tampa on Sept. 12, Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, was booed by the crowd for explaining why he believes U.S. occupation had a role in causing the 9/11 attacks. "We have to be honest with ourselves," Paul said. "What would we do if another country, say China, did to us what we do to all those countries over there?" (PHOTO: CHRIS O'MEARA/AP)
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