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Ryan Lochte Protesters Tackled During Dancing With The Stars Premiere
Anti-Lochte protesters were removed from the DWTS audience after rushing the stage during the season premiere.
Many were skeptical about this season's cast of DWTS featuring homophobic Republican Rick Perry and shunned Olympian Ryan Lochte.
But no one seemed to be more upset last night than the two men who ran on stage during Lochte and dance partner Cheryl Burke's critique.
Videos show the men wearing anti-Lochte shirts walk onto the stage before being tackled by security.
The men apparently had valid tickets to the show and wore the shirts under their clothes. After the incident, four to five other women were removed from the audience after chanting against Lochte, ABC7 reports.
"We thought it was a joke, something prior to the show, you know," Lochte said. "Then, when we realized it wasn't, that hurt. It broke my heart that people are still on that subject and no one is moving forward."
The controversy all started after Lochte and a few teammates "over-exaggerated" a story where they were robbed and held at gunpoint during this year's Olympics in Rio (neither of which happened).
Check out some videos posted online of the show stopping incident below:
\u201cVIDEO: Anti-Ryan Lochte protester tackled during #DWTS https://t.co/B6XcAFGzYQ\u201d— ABC7 Eyewitness News (@ABC7 Eyewitness News) 1473742140
\u201cAnti-Lochte protestor tackled to the ground at #DWTS\u201d— Patrick Gomez (@Patrick Gomez) 1473734133
\u201cAIR7 HD captures anti-Ryan Lochte protesters being placed into cruiser after crashing #DWTS https://t.co/B6XcAFGzYQ\u201d— ABC7 Eyewitness News (@ABC7 Eyewitness News) 1473738650
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