A 20-year-old man has been arrested after footage emerged appearing to show him punching a black President Trump supporter at an America First rally in Laguna Beach, California.
Republican activist R.C. Maxwell, who refers to himself as the ‘black Sean Hannity’ and is the national coordinator for the Republican PAC American Voice, claims he sought to open a dialogue with counter-protesters, then was punched by 20-year-old Richard Losey.
Footage of the incident appears to show Maxwell trying to talk to an aggressive group of supporters before being hit square in the face by Losey:
The video was later uploaded to social media and shown to police. Reportedly, Losey then identified himself to authorities by boasting about the attack on Twitter.
“I did what I had to do. He ran and left us alone when his input wasn’t wanted. We all told him to leave, and he didn’t. He had it coming,” he wrote. “I did it because he wouldn’t stop talking about Trump when all of us told him thousands of times we didn’t want to hear it. I am not racist.”
Losey was later arrested while attempting to buy a bus ticket to return to his native Ohio on Tuesday. He was charged with battery and terroristic threats.
Maxwell claimed the incident would have received much more media attention if he were on the left, as well as a hate crime enhancement with bond set at $50,000.
“If the optics were completely different and I was a black lives matter supporter and I was attacked on the Trump side of a protest I would be in the spotlight on CNN right now,” Maxwell told Fox News. “I went over to the left side to see if I could engage them in dialogue and I was instantly encircled by the so called anti fascists.”
“I think the fact that I’m a black conservative causes a lot of problems for the left side because there’s no way they can really resolve that according to their narrative of what they think [T]rump supporters are, so I think that was a bit triggering to the other side,” Maxwell added.
You can follow Ben Kew on Facebook, on Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at bkew@breitbart.com.
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