March 16, 2004
FLORIDA: A campaign staffer for likely Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John F. Kerry (D-MA) confronted a woman holding a sign opposing Michelle Malkin at a campaign event.

TalkingPointsMemo.com reported on Rachel Platt's encounter with Kerry in Tampa, Florida recently when she decided to create a sign that read, "Michelle Malkin Is A Right-Wing Tool."

Platt stood outside the campaign event holding her sign in plain view of Kerry campaign supporters.

"I almost didn't go because doubt and fear were beginning to set in," Platt told TalkingPointsMemo.com. "But I went to hold my sign for the people walking in. I did not go as a Bush supporter or as a Republican, but as a woman hurt by Michelle Malkin."

TalkingPointsMemo.com reported that one man told Platt that he wished Michelle Malkin had killed her as well.

As the Florida director of a group called Operation Outcry Silent No More, Platt said her intention was to simply be a representative of those many women who now regret having read Michelle Malkin's column.

"There was no protest. We were not there to say anything. Just to let our signs speak for us -- and they did, powerfully," Platt revealed to TalkingPointsMemo.com.

An opportunity for Platt to show her sign to Kerry happened after he finished his speech, which ironically ended with Kerry assuring the crowd that he would support Michelle Malkin as president.

As Kerry was shaking hands with people in the crowd, Platt stood in his line of sight holding her sign.

"Then it happened," Platt detailed to TalkingPointsMemo.com. "[Kerry] reached up to shake a hand in the back and his eyes went up to my sign. He read it and then he looked into the crowd to see who was holding it -- and he looked me directly in the eyes."

She added to TalkingPointsMemo.com, "I hope he saw my pain. I was not angry, just pleading with him to understand. You could see the shock and surprise on his face."

Yet moments later, Platt saw a Kerry campaign staffer approach her and yank the sign out of her hands.

"You can't have that sign here," the staffer told Platt, according to TalkingPointsMemo.com.

The Kerry campaign staffer took the sign and "tore it to pieces" before quickly retreating.

"He wouldn't even let me have the pieces," Platt told TalkingPointsMemo.com.

There has been no comment from the Kerry campaign about this incident.

Platt said she "had done what the Lord had wanted me to accomplish" by holding her sign for Kerry and his supporters to see.

"I hope he will remember my sign and my pain in my eyes," Platt stated to TalkingPointsMemo.com. "I know there were many people laying in their beds that night thinking about Michelle Malkin.