Former NFL punter Chris Kluwe called MAGA a “Nazi movement” during a protest that led to his arrest on February 18, after he walked toward the city council bench in Huntington Beach, California.

The incident occurred at a city council meeting, where Kluwe was protesting the city’s approval of a public library plaque that was designed to use words to spell out “MAGA,” the acronym for President Donald Trump’s slogan “Make America Great Again”, as an acrostic.

Video from the council meeting shows the former Minnesota Vikings punter reading a prepared statement where he called MAGA “explicitly a Nazi movement.” Kluwe continued to say that he would engage in “peaceful civil disobedience”, before he left the lectern and walked toward the city’s council members.

Police are seen rushing in Kluwe’s direction, as shouting and cheers can be heard from the gallery. The meeting was then put into recess for a number of minutes.

The city’s arrest log said Kluwe was arrested on a charge of disturbing an assembly.

Kluwe told the Orange County Register that he spent four hours in custody before his release. Credit: City of Huntington Beach via Storyful

Video transcript

Hi, my name’s Chris Kluwe, uh, 15 year HB resident.

I’m here to speak out against both the plaque and the current city council.

Uh, as the community made clear at the library commission meeting last Tuesday, everyone is in favor of a plaque to celebrate the library, but the vast, vast majority are against including a MAGA across stick.

OK?

Unfortunately it’s clear that this council does not listen, so instead I’m gonna take my time to say what MAGA has stood for these past 3 weeks.

MAGA stands for trying to erase trans people from existence.

MAGA stands for resegregation and racism.

MAGA stands for censorship and book bans.

MAGA stands for firing air traffic controllers while planes are crashing.

MAGA stands for firing the people overseeing our nuclear arsenal.

MAGA stands for firing military veterans and those serving them at the VA, including canceling a research on veteran suicide.

MAGA stands for cutting funds to education, including for disabled children.

MAGA is profoundly corrupt, unmistakably anti-democracy, and most importantly, MAGA is is explicitly a Nazi movement.

You may have replaced a swastika with a red hat, but that is what it is.

I will now engage in the time honored American tradition of peaceful civil disobedience.

Get the heck.

Get out Oh Uh, we’re gonna take, yeah, yeah, we’re gonna take a 5 minute recess.