Police in Tempe, Arizona, arrested a man at a campaign event for Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) on Thursday after a scuffle with members of a pro-Trump group protesting the 2020 candidate’s stump speech.
According to the Washington Post, the man was taken into police custody after refusing to leave the Marquee Theater at the request of the venue’s security. A member of the AZ Patriots told the Post that the man attempted to rip a cellphone from the hands of one of the group’s members who was filming the event. Some of the group’s members wore red pro-Trump “Make America Great Again” baseball caps and unfurled a pro-Trump banner while protesting “the socialism that [Warren’s] peddling,” members said.
The AZ Patriots describe themselves as a group of activists and citizen reporters standing “boldly for American values and Conservative principals.”
Tempe Police Sgt. Kevin Renwick told reporters that the man will face charges, saying the matter is “pretty cut and dried.”
In a statement, Tempe Police Department spokesperson said the man will be charged with “assault and disorderly conduct for confronting another subject at the event.”
AZ Patriots member Jennifer Harrison told the Post that Warren’s campaign staffers were “rude” to the group and held up signs to block their view.
“[W]e left peacefully, no problem,” she recounted about being asked to leave the event. “We respect the law.”
As the group was walking toward the exit, the man became enraged, tried to take a group members’ cellphone and “came after me and tried to take a swing at me,” said Harrison.
“Liberals cannot keep their hands to themselves at these events,” she stated. “They see a Make America Great Again hat and they become unglued.”
This is far from the first instance in which Trump supporters have been subjected to threats and violence.
Breitbart News editor-at-large John Nolte has documented 639 acts of violence against Trump supporters, many of which corporate media has downplayed, ignored entirely, or approved and encouraged.