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With political tensions as high as they are today, when a Black Lives Matter chapter showed up to a pro-Trump rally, it didn’t end as you might expect.

The pro-Trump “Mother of All Rallies” was held in Washington D.C. over the weekend, and BLM was out in full force to protest it. Initially there was some tension. As they chanted “Black Lives Matter,” a speaker advised everyone at the rally to simply ignore them. ‘Don’t give them the spotlight, walk away! This is America, if they don’t like that, that’s their problem.”

But the organizer of the rally saw things differently:

Tommy Gunn, the organizer, decided to give the man representing the BLM chapter two minutes of time to speak on stage. “We’re going to give you two minutes of our platform to put your message out. Now whether they disagree or agree with your message is irrelevant. It’s the fact you have the right to have the message.”

That decision was met with applause.

Black Lives Matter New York President Hank Newsome took the stage, beginning his speech by stating “I am an American.” He also addressed criticisms of BLM as “anti-cop,” stating that the group is really only “anti-bad cop.” Plenty of people in the audience expressed their disagreement, but at the end, joined together in chanting “USA, USA, USA.”

These Black Lives Matter activists were invited on stage at a pro-Trump rally – and every American needs to hear what they said pic.twitter.com/m69yvgiQtw

— NowThis (@nowthisnews) September 19, 2017

While Mr. Newsome may not be anti-police himself, it’s an unfortunate reality that he’s an exception to the rule within Black Lives Matter. We’ve all seen footage of BLM members chanting “what do we want? dead cops!” or “pigs in a blanket, fry em like bacon.” Even BLM New York’s closest geographical ally, BLM New York City, has made numerous anti-police comments, and even advocated for them to be removed from the city’s annual gay pride parade. The three woman who founded Black Lives Matter idolize convicted and escaped cop killer Assata Shakur, and ends every public event of theirs with a chant of hers.

Newsome also differs from your typical BLM member in that he actually acknowledges that black on black crime is a greater issue than police brutality. “I’m a black man. If black lives really mattered,” he said, “then they need to protest in Chicago. Let’s take it to Chicago. Let’s bring everybody. We need to have a M.O.A.R. rally in Chicago with BLM.”

Predictably, the left-wing NowThis left that bit out of its coverage of Newsome’s speech.

[Note: This post was written by Matt Palumbo. He is a co-author of the new book A Paradoxical Alliance: Islam and the Left, and can be found on Twitter @MattPalumbo12]