An odd story has circulated on social media the past couple of days about an incident involving CNN contributor and White House correspondent April Ryan and a member of the press. She gave the nod and her bodyguard tossed the reporter out of an event in New Jersey.

The incident happened on August 3 but it is only now gaining traction in social media, thanks to the push the reporter involved in the kerfuffle is making to publicize it. The 4th annual New Jersey Parent Summit held at the Heldrich Hotel in New Brunswick featured a speech delivered by April Ryan. Charlie Kratovil started NewBrunswickToday.com and PatersonPress.com and is currently editor of New Brunswick Today. To read his resume, he is not a conservative but a liberal Bernie-Bro. His run for Mayor of New Brunswick, as a matter of fact, was endorsed by the New Jersey Chapter of Our Revolution, the PAC launched after Bernie Sanders’ first presidential run. The organization touted Kratovil’s “progressive vision”.

So, it is not like some far-right reporter was caught recording the Trump-bashing, liberal April Ryan as she began to deliver her speech to the summit attendees. This guy is in with the in crowd, so to speak. Kratovil claims he went through the proper process to cover the event and received confirmation that he was accepted. Fox News obtained the email exchanges between Kratovil and the summit organization which show he RSVP’d and was confirmed.

Kratovil chronicled his ouster from the summit venue in a thread on Twitter. In the series of tweets, Kratovil explains that he arrived at the site and after asking where to set up his tripod and camera for recording the event, he set up next to another tripod and camera. He recorded three hours of speeches and award presentations. The speakers included politicians. The evening was going along without incident. Then, as Rep. Payne began to introduce April Ryan, a man approached him and as he motioned to Kratovil’s equipment, he asked: “Who are you with?”. Kratovil handed the man his business card and said he had permission to be there.

The man, as it turned out, was Ryan’s bodyguard. The man walked away and then returned. He threatened to take down the equipment, Kratovil says, if the reporter didn’t do it himself. Kratovil noted the irony that at this same time, Rep. Payne was praising Ryan for her Freedom of the Press Award from the Reporter’s Committee. You can click on the Tweet here and read the whole thread.

THREAD: It’s been 36 hours since @AprilDRyan’s security guard assaulted me in a hotel lobby after stealing our camera.

Because there has been some misinformation going around, I want to lay out exactly what happened before, during, & after this video.
https://t.co/nDT3FSWkTY

— Charlie Kratovil (@Charlie4Change) August 5, 2019

The Executive Director of “Project Ready” told Kratovil that Ryan wouldn’t come on stage and deliver her speech until he stopped filming. She tried to negotiate with him about audio recording and pulling quotes from the speech. One thing led to another – read the thread to get the full explanation from the reporter – and the bodyguard physically took down the
equipment after given the go-ahead from Ryan herself. Her reason? “When I speak, I don’t have news covering my speech.” She wants “unfettered discussions”, you see. Oh. Kratovil claims the other camera continued to record her, though.

The question now is, what is April Ryan hiding when she delivers these speeches to special interest groups? For someone who likes to trash President Trump and his administration for a lack of transparency, she sure looks hypocritical.

Attn: @AprilDRyan pic.twitter.com/3bsbmhMJpv

— Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) August 14, 2019

I haven’t seen any explanation as to why this reporter was manhandled, his equipment shut down, and then escorted out of the building, other than April Ryan employs a bodyguard and she doesn’t want the press to cover her speeches. Maybe she is afraid something she says to a group might come back to bite her and sabotage her anticipated sweet new gig at CNN. She and three other African-American regular political commenters are being tested for their own show – a show centered around an all-black panel. Andrew Gillum, Angela Rye and Bakari Sellers are the others. I watched a full thirteen minutes of them earlier this week during the New Day show and I’m sure they will be a hit for CNN’s audience. I thought they were a hot mess but I’m not CNN’s targeted audience. Ryan mentioned more than once during that segment that she has received threats and employs a bodyguard now. She’s all about victimhood for herself, not so much for conservatives with whom she disagrees. Throughout the segment there was not one good word mentioned by any of the panelists for Republicans or conservatives in general.

We can chalk this up to yet another bad story from the liberals working on-air for CNN. April Ryan’s bad behavior is in line with that of Chris Cuomo and Don Lemon. April Ryan will fit right in as a headache for the public relations department.

Here is the surveillance video from the hotel, provided to me by Charlie. It shows @AprilDRyan's bodyguard trying to snatch his camera and assaulting the local reporter. The video ends with the bodyguard dragging him out of the building. pic.twitter.com/rnAM0iVNEc

— Marcus J. DiPaola (@marcusdipaola) August 14, 2019