Randy Rainbow turns his creative focus to Vice President-elect Mike Pence’s recent visit to the Broadway smash hit Hamilton: An American Musical, and his boss’ Twitter melt-down in the aftermath of that escapade.
As many know, Pence was booed as he entered the Richard Rodgers Theater by many members of the audience. And at the end of the curtain call, Brandon Victor Dixon – one of the stars of the show – read a message from the stage concerning the cast and creators’ concerns about the incoming administration.
Randy’s musical Trump/Pence tribute is a parody of the Hamilton tune “You’ll Be Back,” originally performed by out actor/hottie, Jonathan Groff.
Rainbow skewers both Trump and Pence for the days long fallout from the Pence pack’s night at the thea-ah-tah.
“Don’t denounce a Broadway play when you won’t denounce the KKK”
Pence said he, his daughter and her cousins “enjoyed the great, great show.” He also told his daughter that the “boos” they heard when he entered the theater “is what freedom sounds like.”
Pence said, unlike his new boss, he wasn’t offended and that he didn’t want an apology. Bu he did add, “I’ll leave it to others to decide if it was the appropriate venue.”
Donald Trump continues to use the Hamilton/Mike Pence incident on Friday night to distract from the fact that he just settled a huge fraud lawsuit regarding his failed Trump University for $25 million.
After posting two tweets yesterday morning, the Donald took to Twitter again on the subject. First he tweeted the above missive, which he promptly deleted.
Didn’t he just go after Hillary Clinton for deleting internet communications?
And then he posted the below tweet in the middle of the night. In the post, he again demands an apology from the cast for calling Pence “sir,” telling the audience not to “boo” Pence, and expressing their concerns as constituents in a calm voice.
Along the way, he slams Hamilton as “highly overrated.” The show is one of the most celebrated in Broadway history and sold out for the next 8 months. But, whatevs….
Is this really “presidential?”
The cast and producers of Hamilton, which I hear is highly overrated, should immediately apologize to Mike Pence for their terrible behavior
With the 2016 election now firmly in the rear view mirror, political activist Aaron Baldwin joined me today on my BlogTalkRadio show, also named The Randy Report, to discuss the fallout of the presidential election including:
• The last minute collapse of the Hillary Clinton campaign
• The floundering Trump transition team caught unprepared for winning
• Trump still taking to Twitter for occasional meltdown
• Trump has already backpedaled on several key campaign promises – will he disappoint his followers?
• Sen. Jeff Sessions in as Attorney General
• RNC Chair Reince Priebus tapped for Chief Of Staff
• Former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani angling for Secretary of State, but Mitt Romney is meeting with Trump for same position
• Former Trump campaign nemesis Sen. Ted Cruz eyeing U.S. Supreme Court seat
Plus, I share a fabulous little thing that happened on Broadway last night when Vice President-elect Mike Pence decided to take in the blockbuster hit, Hamilton: An American Musical.
President-elect Trump took to Twitter this morning saying his VP, Mike Pence, was “harassed” last night when Pence attended a performance of Hamilton: An American Musical.
What happened was this:
Upon entering the theater, the audience – not the cast – but the audience booed Pence.
And during the curtain call, Brandon Victor Dixon (who plays “Aaron Burr” in the play) read a message from the cast and creators of the show.
But this is how Trump framed the incident:
Our wonderful future V.P. Mike Pence was harassed last night at the theater by the cast of Hamilton, cameras blazing.This should not happen!
The message read to Pence during the curtain call was anything but “harassment.” Read in a calm voice, asking the audience not to “boo,” addressing Pence as “sir,” the message to Pence asked that he “uphold our American values and to work on behalf of all of us.”
That constitutes “harassment?”
Here’s the text of the message as well as video.
“You know, we have a guest in the audience, and Vice President-elect Mike Pence I see you walking out but I hope that you will hear us a few more moments. There’s nothing to boo here folks. There’s nothing to boo here. We’re all here sharing a story of love. And I encourage you all to pull out your phones, and tweet and spread our message far and wide.”
“Vice President-elect Pence, we welcome you and we truly thank you for joining us here at Hamilton: An American Musical.”
“We, sir, we 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 our inalienable rights, sir.”
“But we truly hope this show has inspired you to uphold our American values and to work on behalf of all of us,” Dixon said. “This is one American story told by a diverse group of men and women of different colors, creeds and origins.”
As the cast gathered on stage for their curtain call, Brandon Dixon addressed Pence directly, to the cheers of the audience.
“You know, we have a guest in the audience, and Vice President-elect Mike Pence I see you walking out but I hope that you will hear us a few more moments. There’s nothing to boo here folks. There’s nothing to boo here. We’re all here sharing a story of love. And I encourage you all to pull out your phones, and tweet and spread our message far and wide.”
“Vice President-elect Pence, we welcome you and we truly thank you for joining us here at Hamilton: An American Musical.”
“We sir, we 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 our inalienable rights, sir.”
“But we truly hope this show has inspired you to uphold our American values and to work on behalf of all of us,” Dixon said. “This is one American story told by a diverse group of men and women of different colors, creeds and origins.”
“The cast, the creators, we all felt that we must express our feelings to vice president-elect Pence. This is not a normal time, this is not a normal election. This has not been a normal result. And in a democracy, one must let his and her voice be heard, and we were not going to the show tonight without expressing how we feel,” said (producer Jeffrey) Seller. “Everybody should be able to see this show, regardless of their politics, but it does just so happen that the politics of this administration have been so negative toward minorities, people of color, gay people that we felt the need to speak up. As a cast comprised of minorities, women, gay people, it was necessary. We had to speak. We had to express how we feel.”
Pence is known for his anti-gay legislation, which was criticized by several fans and theatergoers as they learned he was attending the show. Both O’Malley, who plays King George, and Javier Munoz, who now plays Hamilton, are openly gay and involved in LGBT advocacy. As governor of Indiana, Pence opposed gay marriage, signing into law a bill that made it legal for business owners to refuse service to LGBT customers, citing religious freedom. He is also known for supporting “conversion therapy.”
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is out and Vice President-elect Mike Pence is now running Donald Trump’s transition team as Trump gets ready to assume the presidency.
Christie becomes a “vice-chair” and Pence elevates to the lead due, no doubt, to his six terms as a Congressman. Christie has become much less visible in the Trump camp since the guilty verdicts in the Bridge-Gate scandal were handed down.
Republican National Committee chair Reince Priebus, who gained Trump’s trust over the long haul of the general election, is being rumored as front runner for the all-important role of Chief of Staff.
The transition team includes three of the Trump children – Eric Trump, Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump – plus Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Trump campaign CEO Steve Bannon, campaign manager Kellyanne Conway, Newt Gingrich, Rudy Giuliani and Sen. Jeff Sessions are also part of the transition camp.
Last night, voters got to see their vice-presidential candidates – Democrat Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia and Republican Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana – face off for the one and only time this election cycle.
While Kaine had some issues with style (the interrupting from the get-go was a bit off-putting), he did what he needed to do. And that was bring up all the distasteful things Trump has said throughout the campaign, which Pence tried to deny.
Pence was successful in looking calm and presidential, hoping to tamp down some of the fallout from last week’s first presidential debate where his running mate Donald Trump ran off the rails a bit.
As an LGBT advocate, I was disappointed that Kaine didn’t take an opportunity to highlight Pence’s virulently anti-LGBT record, which I’ve documented many times here on The Randy Report. MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow felt the same way.
It did seem Kaine got under Pence’s skin a bit by bringing up Trump’s anti-Mexican comments. At one point Pence turned to Kaine and said, “You whipped out that Mexican thing again,” which immediately became an Internet meme.
The CNN/ORC poll right after the debate showed Pence won by a narrow margin. A CNN focus group of undecided voters, however, felt Kaine was the victor.
However, when it came to who defended their running mate better, Kaine won by a wide margin.
In the end, I don’t think the debate will move the needle much in either direction. As others have said, Pence helped Pence while Kaine helped Clinton. Kaine knew exactly what he was doing.
Kaine’s pugnacious performance made it possible to produce videos like the two below, which are devastating to the Trump/Pence campaign.
6. In the end, Kaine enable the Hillary campaign to produce this video, which is devastating pic.twitter.com/lAcAxI2n1U
Moments ago, Republican Vice Presidential candidate Mike Pence told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that his running mate Donald Trump has given “tens of millions” of dollars to charities.
Trump has given away “tens of millions” of dollars to charitable causes, Mike Pence says https://t.co/FfA7gK9Gyb
