Conservative talker Larry Elder has been egged on by ambition and egged off by a protester.
Elder was out campaigning in his push to remove Governor Gavin Newsom in the California recall election at a homeless encampment in Venice when someone threw an egg at him.
The group wasn’t happy he was there.
It wasn’t woke. It was yolk.
After that Elder’s staff scrambled to end the event.
Larry Elder had to cut his campaign event short in Venice after he encountered an angry crowd and had an egg thrown at him.
Elder was in Southern California Wednesday as he continued his campaign ahead of next week’s recall election. He is currently leading in the polls among the 46 candidates running to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Elder spent the morning in the Fairfax District voting before boarding his new campaign bus to take him to Venice.
“I am by far the leading candidate on the replacement side. I think I bring energy … enthusiasm. I’m not sure how far this recall election would have gone had Larry Elder not entered into it,” he said.
But when Elder arrived in Venice to tour a homeless encampment, we were there when those who live at the encampment at Sunset and 3rd weren’t pleased to see the Republican candidate for governor. An egg was thrown at Elder as the crowd grew, shouting at the conservative radio talk show host. The egg did not strike him.
The tour was cut short, and Elder was escorted to a waiting vehicle, taken away by his security to another location in Venice.
Later, Elder tweeted that in the morning someone also fired a pellet gun at his security detail. LAPD confirms it is looking into a report that a driver and security team member for Elder were struck but not seriously injured around 10:45 a.m. on Melrose Avenue.
Afterwards, Elder told us he wasn’t concerned for his safety.
“People are angry. People are furious. People are mentally ill. This problem needs to be fixed, and Gavin Newsom has made it worse,” he said.
If Elder visits another homess encamplment he should take some preventative measures: he should walk on eggshells.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.