A cameraman from BBC was covering President Donald Trump’s Rally Monday in El Paso, Texas when he was attacked by a man wearing a MAGA hat.
The man, who hasn’t been identified, pushed BBC cameraman Ron Skeans while he was filming. The attacker was apprehended immediately, and while being grappled from behind he shouted “USA” and “F*** the media.”
After the man was taken away, Trump asked to the media pen “You all right? Everything OK?” BBC said that Skeans gave Trump a thumbs up to signal that he was fine.
Here’s another angle, after the @USAFrontline reporter had already grabbed the guy.
— Jacob Rascon (@KPRC2Jacob) February 12, 2019
The crowd chanted “Trump! Trump!” Then the president looked at the media pen and asked, “You all right? Everything OK?” pic.twitter.com/Xsn30MrNPD
According to BBC, they had “written to White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders asking for a review of security arrangements for the media attending the president's rallies following the attack.”
The president of the White House Correspondents’ Association Oliver Knox made an official statement on Twitter today condemning the actions of the attacker and demanding that Trump do the same.
“We are relieved that, this time, no one was seriously hurt,” wrote Knox. “The president of the United States should make clear to his supporters that violence against reporters is unacceptable.”
Statement on attack on journalist at president’s rally. pic.twitter.com/cdyMl9C2NO
— WHCA (@whca) February 12, 2019
BBC stated in their article that President Trump has a bad relationship with the press, then proceeded to reference another video taken by Jim Acosta from CNN on Twitter showing people at another Trump rally spewing slander at him.
“The president has had a fractious relationship with the media from the start of his time in office,” wrote BBC. “He has claimed journalists are ‘the enemy of the people’ and slammed the ‘fake news’ for reports he deems unfavourable.”
But Trump said in the past that the only groups he considers the “enemy of the people” are news groups that go out of their way to twist reporting and lie to readers.
“The dishonest media did not explain that I called the fake news media the enemy of the people. The fake news. They dropped off the word ‘fake,’” Trump said at CPAC 2017.
