Dr. Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate for president, was escorted off Hofstra University’s campus Monday afternoon following an impromptu news conference with reporters, a Nassau County police spokesman told the Press.
Stein, who did not secure the requisite 15-percent polling threshold to get on the debate stage, had apparently gained access to the campus and was speaking with reporters when she was removed from the campus.
A police spokesman said Stein did not have proper credentials to be on Hofstra University’s campus. It was unclear how the long-shot presidential candidate entered Hofstra’s grounds, the police spokesman said.
On Twitter, Stein suggested she was authorized to be at Hofstra.
We were on our way to an interview with @MSNBC when we were stopped by Hofstra security and Nassau County police just now. #debatenight pic.twitter.com/Y0fQjih47Y
— Dr. Jill Stein (@DrJillStein) September 26, 2016
Two police SUVs just pulled up and @MSNBC was questioned even though they had credentials for us at Hofstra for #debatenight. pic.twitter.com/1pbcIyS80g
— Dr. Jill Stein (@DrJillStein) September 26, 2016
Waiting for clearance from Nassau County police and Hofstra security giving an impromptu press conference with @MSNBC for #debatenight. pic.twitter.com/91Kz24RqSu
— Dr. Jill Stein (@DrJillStein) September 26, 2016
We were immediately escorted off of the Hofstra campus after the press conference just now and told not to do any more press. #debatenight pic.twitter.com/ZFr49NPMuH
— Dr. Jill Stein (@DrJillStein) September 26, 2016
After being escorted from Hofstra campus for doing an interview, police put us in a van which was stopped not once, but twice. #debatenight pic.twitter.com/IgQJMoCNWZ
— Dr. Jill Stein (@DrJillStein) September 26, 2016
More than 1,000 police officers are providing security in and around Hofstra, and various checkpoints have been set up throughout the sprawling campus to avoid people without credentials from gaining access to secure areas.
According to her Twitter profile, Stein was escorted out and placed into a van, which was stopped twice by authorities.
Stein is expected to hold a demonstration outside the campus Monday evening along with several hundred of her supporters.
“The Commission on Presidential Debates is trying to exclude myself and Gary Johnson from the debate on Monday night on the campus of Hofstra University,” she wrote on a Facebook event page. “I’m going to be there anyway. The American public has a right to hear real debate about real issues affecting real people.”
Stein was famously arrested outside the gates of Hofstra during the 2012 presidential debate.
(Photo credit: Gage Skidmore)
