A silent protest during a Mitt Romney speech at a conservative conference in Washington Friday turned into a confrontation, observers said.
Romney, one of three Republican presidential contenders attending the event, was speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference when Occupy protesters began their protest in an overflow room next to a main ballroom, CBS News reported.
About two dozen protesters stood in front of monitors trying to block the view, two conference attendees told CBS.
The attendees, two college students from New Jersey, Matt Bowe and Kevin Spiley, said the protesters were not successful.
"They weren't tall enough to block the screen, but it was still annoying," Spiley told CBS.
The report said the conservative crowd started to yell at the protesters, who had covered their mouths with tape and wore shirts that read, "If money is speech, poverty is silence." People started to shout at the protesters, saying, "'You smell, get a job' -- you know, the usual stuff," Bowe told CBS.
Security escorted the protesters outside.
