from Sunday Herald, 17 January 2016
Police in Scotland are investigating a threat of physical violence against a campaigner who is battling the American hard right in her bid to ban Donald Trump from the UK.
Suzanne Kelly, a 54-year-old New Yorker who has made her home in Aberdeen, has complained to Police Scotland about an email warning her not to leave the UK and suggesting that she could end up picking cotton.
Kelly started a petition calling on the UK government to bar Trump, the front-runner to be the Republican Party’s candidate for US president, from entering the UK. It has been signed by over 574,000 people, and is due to be debated by the UK parliament on 18 January.
Last week Kelly went on The O’Reilly Factor, a widely-watched Fox News talk show hosted by the tough-talking right-wing pundit, Bill O’Reilly. “He didn’t eviscerate me, which was good,” Kelly said.
“He’s a staunch conservative showman who got more than a bit of an aggressive twist to him. Clearly O’Reilly and Trump have a bit of bromance going on.”
For the four minutes she was on air Kelly was allowed to speak for just 1 minute and 15 seconds, with O’Reilly talking for the remaining 2 minutes 45 seconds. It looked like more of a harangue than an interview.
While insisting that he didn’t agree with all of Trump’s comments, O’Reilly highlighted problems allegedly caused by Mexican immigrants in the US and Muslim refugees in Europe. He said it was wrong of Kelly to accuse Trump of “hate speech” and try to have him banned.
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