RICHMOND, Virginia -- Nearly 20 protesters disrupted a rally Wednesday night, where nearly 5,000 Donald Trump supporters turned out to see the Republican front-runner.
After more than 10 minutes shouting "Dump Trump" -- as Trump pressed on with his speech -- the protesters were escorted out by a combination of Trump campaign staff and event staff, as well as several police officers. At least one female protester was physically forced out of the event hall by a police officer after she got into a physical altercation with another woman at the event. An African-American woman shouted, "Black power" as she was forced out of the rally.
The protesters started shouting and heckling Trump just as he began talking about his plan to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico, which at first drew massive applause from the crowd of supporters.
"No human life is illegal," read one sign carried by protesters.
When the protesters began chanting, which was heard throughout the entire hall, Trump supporters began cheering to drown them out.
"That's OK. That's OK. That's why we have freedom of speech, folks," Trump said as the protesters continued.
Several Trump supporters shouted "Go back to Mexico" as some of the protesters were escorted out. Another Trump supporter began hurling obscenities at two of the protesters, Ronald Sanchez and Maria Sanchez.
Several protesters told CNN they are students at Virginia Commonwealth University and said they obtained tickets through the Trump campaign's public Eventbrite link to get into the event.
Trump said he's not worried about how protestors might affect his campaign over the long-term.
"It's a very, very small group. You look at the thousands of people -- we had 7,000 people -- you had 10 protesters," he told CNN as he was leaving the rally. "So you look at the thousands of people we had tonight -- not at all."
