A caravan of nearly 100 pro-Trump vehicles surrounded a Biden-Harris campaign bus on an interstate in Texas on Friday, in what was apparently an attempt to stop the tour bus in the middle of the highway. The group of cars, decorated with flags and signs in support of President Donald Trump, formed a blockade around the Biden-Harris bus, at one point reportedly slowing it down to roughly 20 mph.
The episode took place on the state’s last day of early voting, as the campaign bus—which was carrying Biden staffers and supporters, like former Texas state senator Wendy Davis, but not Joe Biden or Senator Kamala Harris—was traveling from San Antonio to Austin in a final pitch to Texas voters. A video posted by historian Eric Cervini, who traveled to Texas to help with the Biden-Harris campaign, shows a line of vehicles bearing pro-Trump paraphernalia and American flags that Cervini said “were sitting along I-35, waiting to ambush” the campaign bus. In one instance, according to the New York Times, “the vehicles pulled in front of the bus and tried to stop in the middle of the highway.”
Campaign staffers on the bus called 911 and were eventually assisted to their destination by local law enforcement. According to the Texas Tribune, different police departments received reports about the caravan as the bus passed through multiple jurisdictions in Hays County. Hays County Sheriff Gary Cutler, a Republican running for reelection on Tuesday, seemed to suggest that the Biden campaign could have prevented the ambush, telling the Tribune that “the planning of this was questionable.”
Campaign events scheduled for later on Friday were cancelled out of “an abundance of caution” following the confrontation, Biden officials said in a statement. “Rather than engage in productive conversation about the drastically different visions that Joe Biden and Donald Trump have for our country, Trump supporters in Texas instead decided to put our staff, surrogates, supporters, and others in harm’s way,” Tariq Thowfeek, the Texas communications director for the Biden campaign, said in a statement. Asked by the Tribune’s Abby Livingston for a comment regarding the incident, Texas Republican Party Chairman Allen West dismissed her inquiry as “more fake news and propaganda” and told her to “prepare to lose…stop bothering me.”
The president reacted gleefully to the incident at a campaign rally on Saturday. On the topic of his supporters “taunting” Biden, Trump recalled the highway blockade with a laugh: “Anybody see the picture of their crazy bus driving down the highway, they are surrounded by hundreds of cars, they are all Trump flags all over the place.” And on Twitter that evening, Trump posted a video of the MAGA caravan surrounding his opponent’s campaign bus to Twitter with the comment, “I LOVE TEXAS!” The apparent words of encouragement come amid concerns of voter intimidation as Trump sends his followers to “go into the polls and watch very carefully.” His campaign has been building “Trump’s Army,” a poll-watching operation it has reportedly poured millions of dollars into and recruited 50,000 volunteers to execute.
More Great Stories From Vanity Fair
— Progressives Are Going Rogue to Flip Pennsylvania for Biden
— White House Reporters Fume Over Team Trump’s “Reckless” COVID Response
— Why Anti–Trump Attack Ads Might Actually Be Helping Him
— Tax Mess Aside, Can Trump Pay Off His $1 Billion in Debt?
— News Media Begins to Contemplate a Post–Trump White House
— The Kimberly Guilfoyle Sexual Harassment Allegations Get Even Darker
— As Trump Falters, Democrats See an Expanding 2020 Senate Map
— From the Archive: Inside Trump’s Twisted, Epic Battle for Mar-a-Lago
— Not a subscriber? Join Vanity Fair to receive full access to VF.com and the complete online archive now.