Tuesday night at an appearance at a brew pub in Florence, SC, a Donald Trump supporter asked Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke how he knew Trump is a racist, "without any evidence..."
And so was born #RedShirtGuy, now trending on Twitter.
The Trumper, rather haltingly, asked O'Rourke what evidence he actually had that Trump is a racist, sending #RedShirtGuy -- Brandon Counts -- into a fit of laughter. As the Trumper continued to ask his question, spouting Trump's claims about how great he's made it for African Americans and Hispanics, Counts wearing a bright red shirt, simply threw his head back and guffawed.
Counts is vice chair of the Young Democrats of Horry County (SC) (YDHC), and a Black man. "I couldn't help but laugh at how absurd his statement was," he said. "I just refused to give him the satisfaction of making me angry. He merely wanted to stir people up, and I wasn't going to give him that."
Here's how Stacie Pearman, YDHC chair, explained it:
As the crowd heckled and booed the delusional young man, an amazing laughter rose from the crowd...and a Twitter star was born! The Twitterverse retweeted and shared pictures of #redshirtguy all night, proclaiming that "in that moment, we were all #redshitguy".
Brandon showed us, that a good 'ol laugh is sometimes, the best way to quiet a troll. We are proud of our #redshirtguy !
The O'Rourke campaign tweeted out a video of the exchange, and no wonder. The Trumper's question was like tossing a hanging slider to Mike Trout.
Here's how O'Rourke framed it on Twitter:
It was clear the guy did the candidate a favor by asking the question. And with his answer, he knocked it out of the park.