Earlier today the celebrity news site TMZ reported that two men had been kicked off a JetBlue flight after “berating” Ivanka Trump, who was on the flight with her husband and kids:

Ivanka was on a JetBlue flight leaving JFK Thursday morning with her family when a passenger started screaming, “Your father is ruining the country.” The guy went on, “Why is she on our flight? She should be flying private.” The guy had his kid in his arms as he went on the tirade.

It turned out the person harassing Trump was Dan Goldstein, a lawyer, who was on the flight with his husband Matthew Lasner. Just before the incident took place during boarding, Lasner tweeted this:

That sounds a lot like harassment was the intent all along. Lasner apparently deleted his Twitter account a short time later. He and Goldstein were taken off the plane and put on a subsequent flight. JetBlue released a statement saying:

The decision to remove a customer from a flight is not taken lightly. If the crew determines that a customer is causing conflict on the aircraft, the customer will be asked to deplane, especially if the crew feels the situation runs the risk of escalation during flight. In this instance, our team worked to re-accommodate the party on the next available flight.

Obviously, Goldstein was worked up enough that the flight crew became concerned he might escalate the situation if he remained on the flight. That said, TMZ’s report may have overstated what Goldstein actually did. According to another passenger who was seated directly in front of Ivanka, Goldstein never screamed but was visibly agitated and shaking. Marc Scheff described what he saw and heard on his Facebook page:

That’s us in the photo. I am sitting in the next row up from Ivanka and surrounded by her family. The whole incident happened literally 15 inches from me. The [TMZ] article is sensationalizing this a little. Here is what happened.

He didn’t accost her directly. When he got on and saw her, sitting behind me, he said “oh my god. This is a nightmare” and was visibly shaking. He said “they ruin the country now they ruin our flight!” (Context: Boarding and therefore the flight was delayed because they needed to get on first through some other way)

He did not yell. He was also not what I would describe as calm. Agitated maybe. His husband behind him was very calm. His son is adorable and sharply dressed.

When the JetBlue staff went back to speak to the man I overheard Ivanka say to them “I don’t want to make this a thing.” My assessment is that she was happy to let the man take his seat. She handled the situation calmly and with class. Security made the call to remove the man.

Do I believe this account? I do and here’s why. Scheff is clearly not a Trump fan. He says so at the end of his Facebook post. Yet despite this, Scheff agrees the flight staff were right to remove Goldstein and Lasner and credits Ivanka with being “a class act.”

Donald Trump has stoked fear, anger, hate, and violence. Seeing Ivanka and Jared evokes all of that. They look to play major roles in our new administration and so they have to be prepared to answer for the actions of Donald even if their views differ.

But no, you don’t get to stay on the plane if you choose to take a stand and harass them for it. Fwiw she was a class act today.

That’s the kind of admission against interest that suggests to me Scheff is telling the truth. Perhaps someone on the flight shot video and we’ll eventually be able to see and hear exactly what happened but so far it doesn’t seem so.

Meanwhile, progressives are eager to defend telling off Ivanka Trump in front of her children:

https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/812047649297797120

https://twitter.com/jbouie/status/812046949666820096

https://twitter.com/JessicaValenti/status/812012918023798784

https://twitter.com/JessicaValenti/status/812013687846346754

Yahoo News seems to think Goldstein and Lasner are the real victims here:

Man kicked off JetBlue flight for questioning why Ivanka Trump was on it https://t.co/mXIL1KfgR2 pic.twitter.com/vWeeQvHjj8

— Yahoo News (@YahooNews) December 22, 2016

The bottom line here is that Goldstein made a fool of himself. From Lasner’s tweet it’s pretty clear that was intentional. Ivanka Trump handled it graciously and with class. Kudos to her and to the flight crew who appear to have handled the incident professionally.