Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Handout
Gabrielle Hanson, the MAGA-loving mayoral candidate whose string of recent controversies include everything from a prostitution-related conviction to her husband’s Speedo-heavy appearance at a Pride parade, has found herself at the center of controversy again—this time after she was recorded ordering a local TV journalist out of a campaign forum.
Jared Sullivan, an observer at Wednesday’s event in Franklin, Tennessee, reportedly recorded Hanson telling a staffer, “No Channel 5. They have to leave.” Meanwhile, just outside the forum, video showed a group of apparent Hanson supporters standing shoulder-to-shoulder to block reporters from entering the event—with one woman even taking a swipe at a journalist as he tried to squeeze by.
While Hanson hasn’t revealed why she wanted Channel 5 out of the room, it’s possibly related to the station’s reporting this week that revealed Hanson’s husband once rocked American flag Speedos—and nothing else, save for a gold chain, glasses, and shoes—to a Pride event in Chicago.