Protesters out front of Munster’s Center for Visual and Performing Arts Saturday evening saw “shock jock” Shaun Thompson’s people coming a mile away. The young man with the long, wavy locks and video camera and older woman with the fashionable straw hat told the dozen or so protesters they weren’t with radio host Thompson, who was the keynote speaker for a $100 a pop fundraiser for Republican U.S.
District 1 Congressional candidate Randy Niemeyer. They did, however, ask them if Thompson — who has claimed that former First Lady Michelle Obama is a man, that Russia invading Ukraine is a just cause, Dr. Anthony Fauci is a serial killer, and that non-Republicans support terrorism on his Facebook page — had a right to be there.
Of course he did, said protest organizer Ryan Dean. But the Munster Republican Central Committee’s keynote choice wasn’t the entire point of them being out there. “He has his opportunity to say what he wants, and this is our response to his hate,” Dean said.
But Dean wondered why Niemeyer, who’s running to represent all of Northwest Indiana against incumbent Democrat Frank J. Mrvan, would choose to attend an event where extremist views were espoused. “The LGBTQ community and Black Americans are under constant attack, and we’re seeing an event for (Niemeyer) perpetuating these lies,” Dean said.
“I’ve met Randy, and he comes off as being for the Region, but I don’t think he’s out in the Region enough, because there are a .