Watch CBS News

Trump Mocks Flint Pastor Who Interrupted His Speech, Says She Was A 'Nervous Mess'

FLINT (WWJ) - Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was stopped mid-speech when he started giving a fiery political speech in a church.

Saying it wasn't part of the agreed-upon script, the Flint pastor stopped Trump, interrupted his talk and redirected him.

US-VOTE-REPUBLICANS-TRUMP
Rev Faith Green Timmons speaks before Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump at the Bethel United Methedoist Church on September 14, 2016 in Flint, Michigan. (Mandel Ngan//AFP/Getty Images)

Speaking only to WWJ Newsradio 950, Pastor Faith Green-Timmons of Flint's Bethel United Methodist Church says Trump was only supposed to speak on the Flint water crisis and not get political.

"He said he's going to do one thing, he's doing another," said Green-Timmons. "I could see he had three more pages of words to say, and I in no way wished to disrespect him, however, I needed him to stick to what he agreed upon. That was my only intent."

Pastor Green-Timmons says the goal was to keep everyone respectful.

On the other side, Trump later reacted in usual fashion to the pastor's interruption. He made fun of her on television.

"Something was up,' he said later on the 'Fox & Friends' program "She was a nervous mess, and so I figured something -- I figured something was up, really.

He added: "So she had that in mind. There's no question about it."

Green-Timmons said nothing of the sort was planned, though she had earlier deleted a Facebook post saying she was spoiling for a fight.

"I am a person of integrity, and when you come to me and say what your desire is -- I honor that desire," says Green-Timmons. "When he went beyond that it was not easy to do by I felt it had to be done.

"I made sure that they understood - this is my church and God's church and I'm the pastor - we will all do what we came here to do -- I'll listen to one another respectfully."

She said she addressed protesters in the same spirit of discourse.

"I told the hecklers the same thing, 'no, you will respect him, he will be respected and I will be respected' so I shut them down as well."

Green-Timmons says aside from that, Trump's visit was smooth with the candidate handing out water and talking with a family affected by the crisis.

He's visited Detroit and Flint in recent weeks on a reported outreach effort to garner African American votes an reassure suburban voters that he's not racist or bigoted.

 

 

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.