Local bus driver claims he was assaulted after the Donald Trump rally in Coachella

[luxmatic]

Source: KESQ News Channel 3

When the bus driver was finally able to pull into the venue, the driver says people became unruly.

"I heard a lady fall down and I went to go check on her at the back of the bus," claimed the driver. "I walked towards the back of the bus, and I got to the middle of the bus, and I had a slam or a slap against my left side of my face. I was nearly knocked down, and I came to my senses and realized my face was swelling up. My eye I couldn't see, and then my nose started bleeding heavily. I turned around and whoever hit me was already gone."

That's when he went back up to the front of the bus and found a tissue for his bloody nose. The driver, an Army Veteran, says his military training helped him manage the dangerous situation.

"I think my military training allowed me to refocus and get myself in a place of safety and get it called in so that no one else got hurt," said the bus driver.

After dropping his passengers off the driver was taken to the Eisenhower Emergency room for treatment.

Read more: https://kesq.com/news/local-news/2024/10/15/local-bus-driver-claims-he-was-assaulted-after-the-donald-trump-rally-in-coachella/

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Backs up the post yesterday, for the most part, where someone commented "Proper headline: Random redittor makes up a story - gullible people believe it", and another said "I'm pretty sure this is complete bull shit. Somebody trying to get people to read his reddit posts"

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100219568507

[PedroXimenez]

1. the skepticism was very much warranted

and in fact still is. At least this is an actual news source, but still some red flags. Just an anonymous account, not corroborated in any way. No comment sought from the bus company or the hospital. An attempt to reach the police, at the end of the story, but it looks like that wasn't about the attack on the bus driver.

But, a little better than a guy on the Internet!

[LauraInLA]

4. The problem is, the bus driver may be afraid of retaliation if he's named. Much like the Arlington employee.

So the whole story never comes out.

[chowder66]

6. Yep. The article states....

"He wanted to remain anonymous, over fears of retaliation, but the driver says what started out as a normal shift, quickly took a turn for the worse."

""At the beginning, everybody was really conforming to what they needed to do. But towards the end is when everything changed. They started pushing. They started shoving. They started, you know, throwing stuff," said the driver. "I think the overwhelming crowd of people even inundated the law enforcement. People were tire and hot, they probably didn't have a lot to eat, a lot of factors created this frustrating mess for attendees.""

"We couldn't get in to let people out, because the traffic was so stretched out," said the driver. "One of the problems was the transportation was going the same way the cars were going, so it slowed everybody down."

When the bus driver was finally able to pull into the venue, the driver says people became unruly.

[SunSeeker]

14. The skepticism is not warranted. A major L.A. TV station spoke to the driver.

One driver, who wanted to remain anonymous, told KTLA 5 News that he and other drivers were physically assaulted and decided to stop shuttling passengers.

The Riverside County Sheriff’s Office said deputies assisted some attendees by providing rides in their vehicles but deferred questions about the transportation issues to Trump’s campaign organizers.

https://ktla.com/news/california/attendees-describe-absolute-chaos-after-trumps-southern-california-rally/?ipid=promo-link-block1

The Riverside County Sheriff is a Trumper, spoke at the RNC, and plans to run in 2026 for California Governor as a Republican.
https://ktla.com/news/local-news/conservative-riverside-county-sheriff-chad-bianco-considering-run-for-governor-in-2026-report/

So don't expect Sheriff Bianco to say anything negative about the shitshow at Trump’s Coachella rally or his fellow Trumpers. That's why he referred comments to the Trump campaign.

[Girard442]

2. A real mensch. Disgusting what he had to deal with.

[Wiz Imp]

3. I was one of the people who strongly doubted the veracity of the reddit post

I admitted I was wrong and it was not completely made up as I suspected. See here: https://democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=19571738. That said, this news story does NOT fully confirm the Reddit post. In fact, I think it helps to discredit part of that post.

While the driver mentions some people were getting "unruly" there is no indication of anything like riot conditions. It's unclear when this happened but it's certainly implied it was after 10:00 pm which was well after people started complaining about being stranded. If that is the case then, no, this was not a major reason people were stranded.

I think this line offers the key explanation to why people were stranded:

Rally organizers with the Trump campaign used Coach USA, an LA based company, to contract out local drivers.

They were originally hired to operate busses between 5:00 and 10:00 p.m.

And as I said before, people were already complaining about being stranded at 10:00. So ultimately, it's clear this whole situation was the complete fault of the Trump Campaign who never made arrangements to make sure there would be enough buses to transport attendees back to their cars. This is gross negligence and indifference by the Trump campaign. They made sure they got as many people to the venue as possible, but couldn't be bothered to care whether the people made it back safely or not.

[catchnrelease]

7. Re: the hours they were hired

What do you want to bet that if they were hired to work after 10pm, or for more than 5 hrs, there would have been overtime involved and you know the campaign didn't want to do that. They don't want to even pay the normal costs for rallys, let alone anything extra. I can imagine one of the organizers saying something like 'Five hours is enough time to get them out of there, we're not paying overtime!'

[Torchlight]

5. I think I'm beginning to guess why the skepeticism was so aggresive

It's a really bad look for the right wing, and underscores the danger they have been posing more and more often in election related events. I kinda figure these incidents may become less isolated as election day nears.

I'm guessing there was a rapid response to get on top of it quickly, plant the seeds of doubt, and establish the "my unsupported skepticism is more valid than your unsupported belief" as an immutable premise.

[Klarkashton]

8. There were a lot of Sherlocks on here that also

Didn't believe that the bus thing happened at all.

Even after it's reported on a broadcast News channel it's "I don't know..." JFC already.

[Kaleva]

11. Was there a riot as originally claimed?

[SunSeeker]

17. Bus drivers were assaulted.

One driver, who wanted to remain anonymous, told KTLA 5 News that he and other drivers were physically assaulted and decided to stop shuttling passengers.

The Riverside County Sheriff’s Office said deputies assisted some attendees by providing rides in their vehicles but deferred questions about the transportation issues to Trump’s campaign organizers.

https://ktla.com/news/local-news/conservative-riverside-county-sheriff-chad-bianco-considering-run-for-governor-in-2026-report/

[Kaleva]

18. Where is the riot and riot police?

Also, there is no mention that the busses stopped running because of this one assault as had been claimed in the OP in GD

https://kesq.com/news/local-news/2024/10/15/local-bus-driver-claims-he-was-assaulted-after-the-donald-trump-rally-in-coachella/

[SunSeeker]

20. It was not one assault. More than one bus driver was assaulted.

And the bus driver interviewed by KTLA (a major independent TV station for the Southern California area where I live) told KTLA that is why they stopped shuttling passengers. I gave you the link and quote above. Here it is again:

One driver, who wanted to remain anonymous, told KTLA 5 News that he and other drivers were physically assaulted and decided to stop shuttling passengers.

The Riverside County Sheriff’s Office said deputies assisted some attendees by providing rides in their vehicles but deferred questions about the transportation issues to Trump’s campaign organizers.

https://ktla.com/news/california/attendees-describe-absolute-chaos-after-trumps-southern-california-rally/?ipid=promo-link-block1

And there were no riot police because there was no expectation of a riot. The rally was held on private property of a rich Trump donor in Coachella in Riverside County.

It does not appear there was any security outside the rally after the rally ended, which is why the Trumpers were able to assault the bus drivers with impunity.

Riverside County Sheriff deputies showed up, but by then the busses and assailants were apparently gone. Sheriff deputies used their patrol cars to ferry some Trumpers from the site of the rally to their parking lot.

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco is a Trumper, former dues paying member of the Oath Keepers (the group that participated in the Jan. 6 insurrection), spoke at the RNC, and plans to run in 2026 for California Governor as a Republican.
https://ktla.com/news/local-news/conservative-riverside-county-sheriff-chad-bianco-considering-run-for-governor-in-2026-report/
So don't expect Sheriff Bianco to say anything negative about the shitshow at Trump’s Coachella rally or his fellow Trumpers. That's why he deferred questions to Trump's campaign people.

Why are you so insistent this didn't happen? Seems like a weird hill to choose to die on. Credible reporting (KTLA) shows it happened.

[Kaleva]

21. The OP in GD clearly claimed there was a riot and riot police were on the scene

From the other thread:

"People got angry and began to riot. Throwing themselves in front of buses, banging on the windows and doors, and attacked two bus drivers. "

"The news didn't report this and even riot police showed up because of this behavior with the buses..."

Do you agree that the above are false?

Your comment:
"Why are you so insistent this didn't happen"

I've never claimed that no bus drivers were assaulted. I have consistently questioned the validity of the claim that there was a riot such as below:

"41. 137 recs for a story that hasn't been confirmed
Tuesday
No videos posted showing the riot. No legitimate news source reporting on the riot . Yet this gets over a hundred recs."

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=19568813

[SunSeeker]

23. Well he may have been referring to the Sheriff deputies, who did show up.

The video in the OP article does describe a crowd out of control. Did you watch the video? I'm referring to the 3 minute 51 second video at this link:
https://kesq.com/news/local-news/2024/10/15/local-bus-driver-claims-he-was-assaulted-after-the-donald-trump-rally-in-coachella/

In the video, the bus driver says people were "pushing, shoving, and throwing things," and "even inundated law enforcement." He said the attack on him happened as people stormed the doors of his bus and were pushing people and knocking people down to get a seat. He said he was hit him on the side of his face, which made his face swell up, his nose began bleeding and his eye closed up from the impact, and he has had to take days off work to recover. https://kesq.com/news/local-news/2024/10/15/local-bus-driver-claims-he-was-assaulted-after-the-donald-trump-rally-in-coachella/

[Kaleva]

24. The bus driver described the people as unruly

Do you agree that the claim that there was a riot is false?

[SunSeeker]

25. No, the bus driver described a crowd committing violence, much more than merely "unruly."

In the video, the bus driver says people were "pushing, shoving, and throwing things," and "even inundated law enforcement." He said the attack on him happened as people "stormed the doors" of his bus and were pushing people and "knocking people down" to get a seat. He said he was hit him on the side of his face, which made his face swell up, his nose began bleeding and his eye closed up from the impact, and he has had to take days off work to recover. https://kesq.com/news/local-news/2024/10/15/local-bus-driver-claims-he-was-assaulted-after-the-donald-trump-rally-in-coachella/

[Wiz Imp]

12. I went back and looked at all the threads I could find on this from Sunday and Monday.

I found exactly 1 person that didn't believe it was true (the people being stranded because the buses weren't picking them up, that is). Last I checked, 1 usually doesn't qualify as "a lot"

[Klarkashton]

13. Good for you. You left out the ones that didn't believe

The reddit thing, including yourself probably.

[Wiz Imp]

15. You said "There were a lot of Sherlocks on here that also didn't believe that the bus thing happened at all. "

And you were proven wrong. Spectacularly wrong as a matter of fact.

This whole thread was started about "the Reddit" thing as you call it so leaving out the people who questioned that was completely irrelevant because that was not what your our comment was directed at. And bringing it up now shows you are just trying to cover up for being spectacularly wrong in your original statement. It doesn't change the fact that your post trying to insult (non-existent) people as "sherlocks" was total BS.

[SunSeeker]

9. K & R for exposure.

[Kaleva]

10. The other thread talked about a riot and riot police

From the other thread:

"People got angry and began to riot. Throwing themselves in front of buses, banging on the windows and doors, and attacked two bus drivers. "

"The news didn't report this and even riot police showed up because of this behavior with the buses..."

[Wiz Imp]

16. Right. So far the only parts of that reddit post which were confirmed by the news report were

one bus driver was assaulted and some people were "unruly". In fact, the news story pretty much debunked the title of that post (The actual reason trump supporters got stranded) as it effectively proved that the "unruly" behavior happened long after people had already been stranded for a significant period of time so that wasn't a major reason they were stranded.

[Kaleva]

19. This OP in LBN pretty much proves the OP in GD is bunk

[SunSeeker]

22. KTLA reported that the bus driver told them more than one bus driver was assaulted.

Last edited Thu Oct 17, 2024, 05:42 AM - Edit history (2)

The bus driver interviewed by KTLA (a major independent TV station for the Southern California area where I live) told KTLA that is why they stopped shuttling passengers. Here's the KTLA link and quote above:

One driver, who wanted to remain anonymous, told KTLA 5 News that he and other drivers were physically assaulted and decided to stop shuttling passengers.

The Riverside County Sheriff’s Office said deputies assisted some attendees by providing rides in their vehicles but deferred questions about the transportation issues to Trump’s campaign organizers.

https://ktla.com/news/california/attendees-describe-absolute-chaos-after-trumps-southern-california-rally/?ipid=promo-link-block1

It was a violent attack. In the video at the KESQ link cited in the OP, the bus driver says people were "pushing, shoving, and throwing things," and "even inundated law enforcement." He said the attack on him happened as people stormed the doors of his bus and were pushing people and knocking people down to get a seat. He said he was hit him on the side of his face, which made his face swell up, his nose began bleeding and his eye closed up from the impact, and he has had to take days off work to recover. https://kesq.com/news/local-news/2024/10/15/local-bus-driver-claims-he-was-assaulted-after-the-donald-trump-rally-in-coachella/

I would describe that as a riot.

[BoRaGard]

26. G.O.P. a-holes sucker punching American veterans - sucks

The republicons think its ok to attack veterans since their
G.O.P. draft-dodger in chief called our soldiers "suckers and losers."

That is so dark and twisted