Donning a black-eye, the young man who was sucker punched at UC Berkeley on Tuesday by an as-of-yet identified aggressor appeared on Fox News on Thursday to speak about the incident.
Hayden Williams had been tabling for Turning Point USA on Tuesday with posters stating “Hate crime hoaxes hurt real victims” and “This is MAGA Country.” Williams told Sean Hannity that some students took offense to the signs, prompting the attack.
“I feared for my own safety so I started to record,” Williams said.
As of Friday, police continue to search for the man who punched Williams. UC Berkeley leaders have also condemned the incident.
Roughly 60 seconds of video obtained Thursday by The College Fix shows the perpetrator telling Williams he would “shoot his ass.” They tussled for a bit, with Williams appearing to try to defend himself as the man comes at him, batting at his face and phone. He then punched Williams in the face with a haymaker and calls him “fucking cunt” as he walks away.
This situation is drawing comparisons to the Jussie Smollett situation.
Both of these men were attacked:
– One was viciously targeted & beaten for his political opinions by those who disagreed with him.
– The other paid his attackers to beat him up & lied to the world about being a political victim for his own gain.
Which one gets media attention? pic.twitter.com/B60Kl30ga2
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) February 21, 2019
Meanwhile, at least one Berkeley employee has publicly celebrated the incident, tweeting “OH MY GOD THE MAGA PEOPLE ON UC BERKELEY CAMPUS YESTERDAY GOT PUNCHED IN THE FACE BY SOMEONE THIS MAKES ME FEEL EMOTIONALLY SO MUCH BETTER. Thank you random stranger for not letting it go unchallenged. Hope you aren’t in too much trouble. Fuck you, Turning Point USA,” reports Campus Reform.
Berkeley Antifa is also getting in on the action, mocking the incident on its own Twitter page.
https://twitter.com/berkeleyantifa/status/1098992689645797377
Others weighed in as well, prompting Williams to note on his personal Twitter profile that “it’s unfortunate that some members of the @UCBerkeley campus community would hail such a violent offender as a ‘hero.'”
https://twitter.com/RHaydenWilliams/status/1098901055675392000
But Brad Devlin, former president of the Berkeley College Republicans and a friend of the victim, posted on Twitter that Williams is “in ‘good spirits’ following the attack and that he would continue to ‘fight for conservative values on campus once his black eye is gone,'” reports PJ Media.
The Berkeley student who filmed the attack also spoke to Fox News on Friday. Alexander Szarka, who filmed the now-viral sucker punch at Sproul Plaza, told Fox & Friends he wants the individual responsible found and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Both Hannity and the Fox & Friends hosts asked their guests if there was anything that went down before the video that would have shown some sort of provocation or give other context to the assault. Williams and Szarka said no.
Szarka said at Berkeley, a sign such as “hate crime hoaxes hurt real victims” would likely trigger the notoriously liberal community because it appears to be making fun of the Smollett situation, to which host Brian Kilmeade replied that it is ridiculous that a reasonable statement of fact should be categorized as offensive.
Williams is not a UC Berkeley student. He is a field representative for the Virginia-based Leadership Institute, which trains young conservatives and publishes Campus Reform. But Williams was at Berkeley that day at the behest of Turning Point USA, another conservative campus activism group, to help recruit new members.
MORE: Conservative punched in face over ‘This is MAGA Country’ poster at UC Berkeley
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