Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden is condemning some Trump supporters in Texas for surrounding one of his campaign buses and trying “to run it off the road.”
“We’ve never had anything like this. At least, we’ve never had a president who thinks it’s a good thing,” said Biden during a campaign event in Philadelphia. Biden also referenced reports of another caravan of Trump supporters shutting down a major roadway in New Jersey.
The Biden campaign told CNN and The Guardian that a bus travelling from San Antonio to Austin, Texas, was followed by a caravan of vehicles trying to slow the bus in the middle of the highway.
Several reports indicated that neither Biden nor running-mate Kamala Harris were on the bus at the time.
A source familiar with the incident told CNN that the vehicles surrounding the bus were known as the “Trump Train group,” and are known to organize events to drive around and show support for U.S. President Donald Trump. CNN reported that the group, which consisted of around 100 vehicles at one point, had yelled profanities before blockading the bus.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is now investigating the confrontation, a law enforcement official confirmed to both The Texas Tribune and CNN Sunday.
Neither the Biden or Trump campaign have responded to Global News request for comment.
Videos posted on social media showed several vehicles surrounding the campaign bus on the road.
In a tweet, the president appeared to condone his supporters’ actions, commenting “I LOVE TEXAS,” while sharing a video of the bus being surrounded by trucks flying pro-Trump flags on the highway.
At a campaign rally Sunday, Trump claimed that his supporters were “protecting” the bus.
“But it is something, did you see the way our people they … you know they were protecting his bus yesterday, because they’re nice,” said Trump.
In a tweet responding to reports that San Antonio FBI were investigating the incident, Trump said that the “patriots did nothing wrong” in his opinion.
“Instead, the FBI and Justice should be investigating the terrorists, anarchists and agitators of Antifa, who run around burning down our Democrat run cities and hurting our people!”
Another video of the Texas highway caravan was posted to Twitter by Democratic supporter and historian Dr. Eric Cervini, who was travelling with the Biden campaign.
The video shows a truck with Trump flags colliding with another vehicle behind the Biden campaign bus. The Guardian reported on Saturday that the decision to cancel one of the campaign events in Texas was a result of a collision between a pro-Trump vehicle and another vehicle on the I-35.
According to CBS, the Biden campaign has had to cancel several events across the state over “safety concerns.” A group of Trump supporters have been following the bus from city to city, trying to “escort it” out of Texas.
At least three scheduled campaign events have since been cancelled, according to the Texas Democrats.
“Rather than engage in productive conversation about the drastically different visions that Joe Biden and Donald Trump have for our country, Trump supporters in Texas [Friday] instead decided to put our staff, surrogates, supporters, and others in harm’s way,” Tariq Thowfeek, a Biden campaign communications director, told the Tribune.
— With files from The Associated Press
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