At “Occupy Wall Street” on Monday, two men in military colors who claimed to be Marines spoke to a cameraman with “The Other 99 Percent” and explained why they joined the protest.
Along the way, both men gave arch-conservative Fox News opinion host Sean Hannity a piece of their minds.
“These wars that are going on, I don’t believe in them,” one man said. “I want my brothers and sisters to come back home. The bailout was a farce. It robbed American people.”
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“Like the other 99 percent, I got forced into student loan debt that I’m never going to get out of,” the other man said. “Because with two degrees and a full time job, I still don’t make enough to pay all my bills. I had to fight for my G.I. Bill by writing my Senator a couple of times. No, it gave me just enough money to buy books this semester.”
The cameraman then asked what their feelings were about Hannity hosting a protester on his show, only to call her “un-American.”
“You know, that’s pretty funny,” the first man responded. “When they have these protests, violent protests overseas, we call ‘em democratic. The people are trying to get theirs. But as soon as we start doing ‘em here, they call us unpatriotic. So that’s, uh, very ironic that he would say something like that.”
“Is there anything that you would specifically tell him if he was here standing in front of you?” the cameraman asked.
“I’d tell him to fuck off,” the veteran replied. “That’s what I would tell him.”
The other man added: “I think that’s the biggest load of shit I’ve ever heard. Everyone here loves this country and wants to see it grow and wants to see it better. They love the people, they love their community, their neighbors. There hasn’t been racism here or bigotry. We get along as one big family, and that’s what we want for the rest of the country. All the people who are suffering in debt, who can’t speak for themselves, who are too afraid to voice their opinion, we’re here fighting for their rights.”
The Marines’ sentiments toward Hannity aren’t so uncommon among the “Occupy” protesters. Fox News host Geraldo Rivera was basically booed out of the protest camp earlier in the week by throngs of activists chanting “Fox News lies,” effectively shutting down his attempt at coverage.
The video below was published to YouTube on Oct. 10, 2011.
