Clemson professor claims he was forced out of Trump campaign eve - FOX Carolina 21

An assistant professor at Clemson University claims he and a Ph.D. student were asked to leave the Donald Trump rally at Clemson’s T. Ed Garrison Arena Wednesday night.

Chenjerai Kumanyika posted a video on Facebook Thursday that appears to show him at the Trump campaign event wearing a Middle Eastern headdress standing in the front row of the seating area.

The edited video also includes clips of law enforcement officers asking the person holding the camera to leave.

The Anderson County deputy seen in the video addressing the cameraman said the organizers of the private event requested that deputies ask the man to leave because they felt he was being a hindrance to other guests.

“The Trump campaign said that he was no longer welcome at the private event because he was blocking other people’s view of the stage,” Capt. Garland Major said.

Major said the men left without incident.

“We thanked him for his cooperation,” Major said.

Kumanyika said he did not attend the event to protest, but said he wanted a firsthand look at a campaign that was a part of history. The associate professor said he was hoping to gain a different perspective on Trump and "not a view of hate."

Kumanyika gave the following statement to a FOX Carolina photojournalist Thursday.

"I think that there is an atmosphere of fear. In a lot of responses to the video people are saying the people at this rally are terrible and racist, I don't feel that. I feel that we need to stop looking at the people who are scared and look at the people who are making them scared. There are people benefiting from the atmosphere of fear that has become a part of this campaign, a part of America right now. I think we need to look at the people who are benefiting from that fear and not the people who were at the rally. I will say no one at the rally stopped me from being thrown out and that is significant after having 1,000 people there but I think there is an atmosphere of fear created."

The associate professor said there were hundreds of people who stood at times during the rally and he feels that if he hadn't been thrown out, it would've helped both Trump's campaign and the nation's image of South Carolina.

Click here to view the Facebook video.

The video was posted early Thursday morning, and by 9 a.m. had already garnered more than 480 shared and more than 120,000 views.

Copyright 2016 FOX Carolina (Meredith Corporation). All rights reserved.