Democratic Convention attendees scoff baked beans to deliver ‘fart protest’ to Hillary Clinton
Gassy demo underlines presidential hopeful's struggle to win over party members
AS delegates at the Democratic National Convention filed into Philadelphia’s cavernous Wells Fargo Centre, an unpleasant stench hung in the air.
A band of attendees had scoffed plates of baked beans to deliver a cheeky “fart protest” to Hillary Clinton.
Anti-poverty campaigner Cheri Honkala, 53, said: “Hillary’s campaign slogan is ‘I’m With Her’. But a lot of people just aren’t.
“The process stinks, so what better way to protest?”
The gassy demo underlines Hillary’s struggle to win over fellow Democrats.
She faced intense scrutiny over using a private email server for official business while Secretary of State — a potential security breach the FBI slammed as “extremely careless” while opting not to press charges.
Further criticism came over an attack on the US embassy in Benghazi, Libya, when Islamic militants killed four Americans, including the ambassador.
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As then-Secretary of State, Hillary took repsonsbility for security lapses before the attack on September 11, 2012.
Now a new book calls Hillary, 68, a “gun-loving domestic abuser” and makes lurid claims about the Clintons’ marriage, resulting in more troublesome headlines.
The celeb-packed convention ended on Thursday night with Hillary officially accepting the Democrats’ nomination.
She is the first female presidential candidate for a major party.
Yet Hillary is arguably as divisive among Democrats as the Republican candidate Donald Trump, 70.
Kentucky delegate Amy Iddings, 34, said: “I don’t trust Hillary. But I am a ‘never Trump’ person, so I expect I will vote for her.
“But it makes me sad because it is the first time I have voted for a candidate who I believe is a liar.”
In a recent poll, 68 per cent called her “dishonest” and in her convention speech, Hillary admitted: “I get it that some people just don’t know what to make of me.”
Daughter Chelsea, 36, painted Hillary as a doting grandma who would drop everything to blow kisses to her two grandchildren over FaceTime.
And Bill called his wife “magnetic”, telling how he proposed marriage three times before she accepted. Unsurprisingly, he didn’t mention the sex scandal that engulfed his presidency.
The new book, by a former White House Secret Service agent, paints an unflattering portrait of Bill’s eight years in charge.
Gary L. Byrne calls Hillary a “gun-loving domestic abuser prone to violent fits of jealousy . . . brought on by her husband’s insatiable appetite for sex”.
He claims she threw a Bible at an agent’s head and alleges that Bill had multiple affairs, writing: “We wondered how he got any work done and joked that he would have been better at running a brothel in a red-light district.”
Byrne also claims that White House stewards had the seedy task of cleaning semen and lipstick from towels bearing the presidential seal. The book hasn’t helped Hillary’s grim “favourability” ratings.
And she faces continued opposition from supporters of firebrand senator Bernie Sanders, who she beat in the primaries.
On the convention’s opening day, the mere mention of her name was met with boos. President Barack Obama and wife Michelle spoke on her behalf, while Katy Perry, Alicia Keys and Paul Simon all performed.
So it is no surprise the Democrats won the TV ratings battle, averaging 24million viewers a night compared to the Republicans’ 19million.
But can Hillary turn those viewers into votes?
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