Republicans seem determined to paint Democrats as violent, as Tucker Carlson of Fox News recently did and then was embarrassed when police reports proved that he was overexaggerating claims of violence from a liberal mob that protested outside his home.
Now, another GOP politician in Utah has now been exposed as exaggerating claims of violence against him by a Democrat; in this case, his “attacker” is a Democratic lawmaker and the confrontation occurred inside the state’s Senate Building.
Utah House leadership and police are looking into Sen. Daniel Thatcher's claim that House Minority Leader Brian King assaulted him last month. https://t.co/yIMXDo8dxO
— KSL (@KSLcom) November 21, 2018
According to The Salt Lake Tribune:
‘Sen. Daniel Thatcher, R-West Valley City, lodged a criminal complaint against Rep. Brian King after the altercation, which happened in a hallway in the Senate Building at the Utah Capitol last month. Both have argued the footage would prove their version of events was correct.’
“It was vicious, it was violent… it needs to be addressed,” says Republican Utah Sen. Daniel Thatcher, who accused Democratic House Minority Leader Brian King of assaulting him in Octoberhttps://t.co/bQmtTOGbAV
— The Salt Lake Tribune (@sltrib) November 19, 2018
However, only King’s version was shown in the video. King has not denied that he put his hands on Thatcher, but says that he was in no way violent. In fact, the video shows Thatcher first touching King and shoving him when King backed him up.
‘Thatcher described the incident to The Salt Lake Tribune earlier this month, saying King “grabbed me with both hands and shoved me toward the wall and repeatedly hit my sternum with his finger while shouting that I had no idea what it’s like to be in a superminority and how dare I criticize him for partisanship.”’
Watch: Video of the confrontation between Utah State Senator Daniel Thatcher(R) and Representative Brian King (D) has just been released.https://t.co/GAf2w96zeK pic.twitter.com/ZlV29tAUJ8
— 105.9 KNRS (@1059KNRS) November 21, 2018
The video does show King pointing into Thatcher’s chest, but not hard enough to move his body or even raise an alarm for several other people standing close to the confrontation. In fact, none of them even seemed to notice that the situation Thatcher described as “vicious” was even happening.
‘King, who was bidding for re-election to his minority leader post Tuesday night, has disputed characterizations that he is violent and aggressive and said he hopes the video is published “far and wide.”
‘“I think there was as much physical contact he did to me as vice versa,” he said.’
For video of the incident, see below:
Featured image screenshot via video
