Cameraman victim of 'incredibly violent attack' at Trump rally
- by Kelli Lowe
- in Global Media
- — Feb 12, 2019
The BBC says that one of its photojournalists was attacked Monday while covering President Donald Trump's rally in El Paso, Texas.
The attacker, wearing a Make America Great Again hat, "shoved and swore" at news crews, according to the BBC, and gave a "very hard shove" to the BBC's Ron Skeans.
As the footage shows, Skeans was recording Trumps speech when the footage suddenly stumbles forwards as he is hit.
Ron Skeans was filming a rally in El Paso, Texas on Monday night when a man got onto the reporters' platform screaming "f*** the media" and shoved the camera into his colleague.
Mr Trump saw the attack and confirmed Mr Skeans was well with a thumbs up after it happened.
The man can then be heard shouting "USA" and "f*ck the media".
This isn't the first time Trump supporters have become violent towards news crew at a Trump rally.
The video, filmed by a cameraman for the BBC, shows the moment that the Trump supporter, later said by a campaign official to have been drunk, attacked the press corps during a frenetic rally.
He has often branded reporting he doesn't like as "fake news" and said that journalists are enemies of the people.
"Fortunately our cameraman is fine, he is made of stern stuff".
During Monday night's rally in El Paso, the President encouraged support for his proposed border wall with Mexico to protect the United States against a "tremendous onslaught" of migrant caravans, violent criminals and drugs.
"This is a constant feature of these rallies - a goading of the crowds against the media", Mr O'Donoghue said.
"I have been spat at before, they hurl abuse at American colleagues in particular".
"The crowd had been whipped up into a frenzy against the media by Trump and other speakers all night", Montague tweeted.
Washington Examiner reporter Gabby Morrongiello, who shot video of the incident, explained that members in the press pen were trying to record a group of African-American students who were protesting Trump by standing together with interlocked hands.
Mitt Romney, a senator from Utah and former Republican presidential nominee, argued past year that Trump's tactics are detrimental to democracy.