Temple University students marching to join Occupy Philly today (
Bisola/Lockerz)
Eric Cantor was scheduled to give a speech about the Republican approach to income inequality at the Wharton School of Business in Philadelphia today. Earlier in the week,
Cantor's staff said the speech would discuss "how we make sure the people at the top stay there."
However, he cancelled the appearance amid reports that the event would be open to the public, and thus flooded with Occupy Philly protesters:
The University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business just announced that U.S. Rep. Eric Cantor, the U.S. House majority leader, has canceled his scheduled speech on campus this afternoon. Occupy Philadelphia has organized a march from City Hall to University City to protest Cantor's speech, which was supposed to be about income disparity in the country and what Washington D.C. can do to address it.
CNN is reporting that Cantor had agreed to the speech on the grounds of a "select attendee" policy. Instead, the speech would be open to the first 300 people who showed up:
U.S. Rep. Eric Cantor, the Republican majority leader in the U.S. House, canceled his scheduled speech at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business because it was going to be open to the first 300 people who showed up.
Given that hundreds of Occupy Philadelphia protesters were planning to march from City Hall to the campus to protest the speech, that could have been lively audience.
The numbers of marchers in the Occupy Philly action were set to be bolstered by a city-wide university student walkout which began at noon local time.
Occupy Philly 1, Eric Cantor 0.