A woman was taken into custody after she threw a shoe at former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during a speech on Thursday.
The incident, seen here in this video from TMZ, occurred during a keynote speech Clinton was giving at a convention for the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries at the Mandalay Bay resort in Las Vegas, Nevada
According to an Associated Press report on ABC, Clinton used a little bit of humor to cut the tension afterwards:
Clinton ducked, and she did not appear to be hit by the object. She then joked about it. "Is that somebody throwing something at me? Is that part of Cirque de Soleil?" Clinton quipped.
Many in the audience of more than 1,000 people in a large ballroom laughed and applauded as Clinton resumed her speech.
"My goodness, I didn't know that solid waste management was so controversial," Clinton said. "Thank goodness she didn't play softball like I did."
Here's another look at what happened, via ABC News:
ABC US News | ABC Business News
According to the Secret Service and representatives for the convention, the woman who threw the shoe was not credentialed and was not supposed to have been in the room where Clinton was giving her speech. The Secret Service declined to identify the woman, but said she was detained and would face charges:
Ilene Rosen, the wife of a conventioneer from Denver who was seated in the second row, said she saw an orange object fly toward the stage from a side aisle and papers fluttering in the air. Rosen said the woman had walked down the aisle to within six rows of the front of the seating area, threw the items, turned around, put her hands in the air and walked toward the back of the room. Security officers quickly caught up with her.
In the hotel hallway, the middle-aged blonde woman sat calmly on a sofa, wearing a blue dress and thong sandals. She said she threw a shoe and dropped some papers, but didn't identify herself to reporters or explain the action. Security officials then ushered reporters and photographers away.
[....]
An attendee later handed a reporter a piece of paper that was apparently thrown by the woman. It appeared to be a copy of a Department of Defense document labeled confidential and dated August 1967; it referred to an operation "Cynthia" in Bolivia.
Of course, this incident is reminiscent of the time a journalist threw a shoe at then President George Bush. No word yet on what specific charges the woman would face.