Trump’s fit of pique over theater professionals expressing their First Amendment rights did divert attention away from perhaps more significant developments, like
a Washington Post report that foreign diplomats are spending money at his new hotel in Washington in a clear attempt to curry favor with him, and that he had agreed, on Friday, to pay $25 million to former students of Trump University who sued him for fraud.
The attention paid to the “Hamilton” protest prompted some objections that reporters were giving too much weight to the president-elect’s temper tantrum and not enough to the lawsuit or the
many financial conflicts of interest he has shown no interest in resolving before he takes office.
Although Pence was met with
a mixture of boos and applause by audience members before the show, the actor who plays Vice President Aaron Burr, Brandon Victor Dixon, silenced scattered jeers when he addressed the incoming vice president during the curtain call at the end.
“There’s nothing to boo, ladies and gentlemen, there’s nothing to boo,” Dixon said. “We have a message for you, sir, and we hope that you will hear us out,” he added, pulling a piece of paper from his pocket.
Vice President-elect Pence, we welcome you and we truly thank you for joining us here at “Hamilton: An American Musical.” We really do.
We, sir, are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us, our planet, our children, our parents, or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights. But we truly hope that this show has inspired you to uphold our American values and to work on behalf of all of us.
Thank you truly for seeing this show, this wonderful American story, told by a diverse group of men and women of different colors, creeds and orientations.
After Trump’s indignant response on Twitter the following morning, it was left to the actor to explain to the man who will swear to uphold the Constitution on January 20 that the expression of dissent is not harassment.
https://theintercept.com/2016/11/19/trump-cant-hear-cast-hamilton-tried-tell/