GOP state rep says Trump tweet got him booted from seating at Pence rally

State Rep Niraj Antani (R-Ohio) said he got booted from the VIP section of a rally for Mike Pence after a tweet he wrote about Donald Trump.

(Image credit: Darren Hauck/Getty Images)

published 11 August 2016

A Republican state representative said he showed up to a town hall for vice presidential nominee Mike Pence on Wednesday only to find that he no longer had a place to sit. While State Rep. Niraj Antani (R-Ohio) had initially been seated in a VIP area for elected officials, he says he was relegated to the general admission section because of a tweet he'd written about Donald Trump:

Antani, who was a delegate for Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R), claimed he'd received a call from the Trump campaign Wednesday requesting he take down the tweet. Though he thought the tweet was "pretty blasé," Antani said he agreed to remove it. He found out about the seating snub afterwards.

Though Pence called Antani after the event to apologize for the "misunderstanding," Antani said he probably won't be endorsing Trump now. "I don't care about the tweet, I don't care abut the seating, this is more how they treat people who weren't with them in the primary," he said. "This is how they treat someone whose willing to come on board. I wonder how they treat people who are against them."