Clinton, Trump protesters clash peacefully before debate

With all eyes on Las Vegas on Wednesday night, hundreds of people gathered outside the Thomas & Mack Center to support their candidate for president, stage a protest or simply to get their faces on TV.

Hours before the debate started, the crowd surrounding CNN’s stage was divided evenly between people cheering for Republican nominee Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, the Democrats’ nominee.

Donny Stevens, a representative from a local strip club about a half-mile from campus, held two signs: one for each candidate.

Stevens, who works in administration for Centerfolds Cabaret, said he brought signs for both presidential candidates, each beginning with the words “Centerfolds Cabaret for,” to show “we can get along no matter who we’re rooting for.”

Stevens had been in the mass of protesters near the stage, on a patch of grass just north of UNLV’s Lied Library, for about four hours Wednesday. With an hour to go before the debate, he walked away from the crowd and took a break.

“They’re all very hateful and ridiculous up there,” he said. “The younger people were a little more observant and tolerant, whereas the older people were fighting to get to the front row, bumping each other, trying to be loud.

“I’m like, ‘Really, all this for Anderson Cooper?’”

The most vocal protesters were those closest to the stage, while others stood several feet back, watching and taking cellphone photos and videos.

One group of people repeatedly shouted, “Trump for president! Trump for president!” In the background, another group chanted, “Hill-a- ry! Hill-a- ry!”

UGLINESS AND ODDITIES

Like the campaign itself, Some of the rallying cries from both sides took on a nasty tone.

One man, holding a Clinton-Kaine sign, walked up to the Trump supporters and shouted, as loud as he could, “Trump is a pedophile!”

A group of about 15 Las Vegas police officers stood nearby, just in case the confrontations turned violent. Metro later said there was no major trouble.

Elsewhere, a man in a polar bear costume worked the crowd, urging discussion about climate change and mass extinctions.

During the early afternoon, members of the local artist collective INDECLINE paraded up and down Paradise Road with one of their Naked Trump statutes that gained international fame after they first mysteriously appeared in August in Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Cleveland and New York.

“The message here is this election has become a circus, and we’re here to mirror that,” said an anonymous INDECLINE member, decked head-to-toe in black clothing. “Trump’s obviously the worst candidate, but Hillary’s not far behind him.”

With less than an hour left until the debate, a group of about 20 Gary Johnson supporters made their presence known at the MSNBC broadcast stage near UNLV’s student union. Because Johnson is the only third-party candidate on the ballot in all 50 states, the supporters repeatedly yelled, “All 50 states! All 50 states!”

One man shouted the chant through a megaphone, depite repeated warnings from police not to use it because it could disrupt the broadcast on stage and any nearby classes.

As an officer read the Johnson supporter with a megaphone his third and final trespass warning, he and his fellow Johnson supporters began screaming, “Freedom of speech, freedom of speech!”

When the cop walked away after warning the man, the Johnson supporters cheered in victory, turned around and focused their protesting toward the stage.

MADE FOR MEDIA

Meanwhile at the media filing center outside the debate hall, reporters were gearing up for the evening’s action. Some journalists filmed live shots around the room, while others sought insight from UNLV political experts.

Outspoken Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, a guest of Clinton’s at the debate, had harsh words for Trump when he spoke to reporters inside the Thomas & Mack Center. Cuban criticized Trump for his lewd comments about women in a recently released, 11-year- old recording and for trying to explain away those words as “locker room talk.”

“I’ve heard a lot of guys talk about conquests and things but not sexual assault,” the NBA owner said. “I think he’d be a horrible president.”

He wasn’t the only high-profile guest at the Thomas & Mack Center in the final hours before the debate. Former New York City mayor turned Trump surrogate Rudy Giuliani and former Texas governor and presidential candidate Rick Perry each gave on-camera interviews, and the Rev. Jesse Jackson was trailed by media as he entered the complex.

Appearing on CNN, Giuliani said Trump handled the situation with the recently disclosed recording appropriately.

“He admitted it was terrible language and he said he shouldn’t have used it in that tape with Billy Bush,” Giuliani said.

He added that as long as “I’ve known him … I’ve never seen him do anything remotely close to that” and called him a “gentlemen” with women, including his daughters.

The debate day political posturing began Wednesday morning with a long row of food trucks lined along a street outside the Trump International Hotel as part of a union-led demonstration against the Republican presidential nominee.

The food trucks were there in reference to comments made early last month by Marco Gutierrez, founder of the group Latinos for Trump, who said that unless someone does something about the “very dominant” Hispanic culture, “you’re going to have taco trucks on every corner.”

One popular response to his warning was “Mmm … tacos.”

SPOTLIGHT ON VEGAS, UNLV

This was Las Vegas’ first crack at hosting a presidential debate between the two major-party candidates, and both the city and UNLV basked in the spotlight.

Throughout the entire debate, Fox News Channel showed the words “Univ Nevada Las Vegas” at the bottom of the TV screen.

Inside a packed ballroom in UNLV’s student union, where people filled hundreds of seats and stood lined up against walls, all eyes were on two huge screens that projected debate from the nearby Thomas & Mack Center. The loudest cheers at the watch party came at the end, when the “University of Nevada, Las Vegas” was mentioned.

After the debate concluded, political pundits of all stripes offered their instant analysis of the event. Even ABC’s late-night show “Jimmy Kimmel Live” got into the act with special correspondent and internet sensation Ken Bone reporting from Las Vegas.

Bone, who was thrust to fame during the second televised debate, said he still hasn’t decided on a candidate. “I just want everybody to get to the polls,” he said.

Review-Journal writers Michael Scott Davidson, Jamie Munks and photographer Erik Verduzco contributed to this report. Contact Henry Brean at hbrean@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0350. Follow @RefriedBrean on Twitter. Contact Rachel Crosby at rcrosby@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5290. Follow @rachelacrosby on Twitter.