Donald Trump was the headliner Tuesday at the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse, but around the corner from crowds of reporters and protesters, getting married was the main event for New Yorkers Peter Don and Monique Beckford Khalia.
They were at the front of the line to tie the knot at the New York City Marriage Bureau and were so smitten they didn’t realize they were getting married on the same day the former president was making history by being charged with arranging to pay off a porn star.
“I didn’t realize it was happening right here,” Don, 30, said. “It’s funny, but it’s not going to ruin our day.”
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“This is our day,” Khalia, 25, quickly added.
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But just a block or so away, the decidedly anti-Trump crowd was showing Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., no love when she arrived at the courthouse to show her support for the ex-president — and made a hasty retreat back to the safety of her SUV as angry demonstrators gave her an earful.
Earlier, embattled Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., made a brief appearance at a small pro-Trump protest outside the courthouse. He stayed about 30 minutes before departing, calling the unfolding drama “media chaos.”
On Monday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams specifically warned Trump supporters that police would not hesitate to arrest anyone who broke the law while protesting the former president’s arraignment.
“New York City is our home, not a playground for your misplaced anger,” Adams said.
Adams backed up his warning by dispatching a small army of police officers to keep the peace outside the courthouse, and to keep the pro-Trump and anti-Trump demonstrators apart as they yelled at each other.
Back in the marriage line, love reigned supreme and Jason Mcfarland and Dominic Lamarco were beaming.
They, too, had picked out Tuesday as their wedding day months ago and were a bit panicked at first when they realized their nuptials were coinciding with Trump’s indictment.
The nervous grooms said they relaxed a bit once they realized they would be saying “I do” hours before Trump was scheduled to arrive at the courthouse in Lower Manhattan.
“It’s something we’ll never forget, that’s for sure,” Macfarland, 38, said.
In fact, said 30-year-old Lamarco, the fact that Trump was being formally arrested on the same day they were getting married made their day “more joyful.”
The sentiment was echoed by another set of grooms waiting in line to get hitched, Martin Sefranek, 43, and Jared Kronenberg, 42.
“It’ll be a nice little anecdote to add to our story,” Sefranek said.
Kronenberg said they had been bracing for the possibility that Trump’s indictment would spoil their big day by making it impossible to get to the courthouse.
“We thought it was bad enough, we could blame him for messing up our wedding day,” a smiling Kronenberg said. “So either way we had a story.”
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
