Earlier this week, a campaign canvasser by the name of Christopher Monzon became a victim of a violent altercation. Monzon claims the fight began because he was distributing fliers for Sen. Marco Rubio (R) and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), thus attacked for his political affiliations. He suffers a broken jaw, internal bleeding, and will require reconstructive surgery due to the severity of his injuries.
Despite this, local media, most notably the Miami Herald, have downplayed the political nature of the attack. Diana Rosa Lopez, the mother of attacker Javier Lopez, claims the attack was not politically motivated at all.
"My son doesn’t know anything about politics. He likes fishing," Lopez is quoted saying in the Herald's piece. Mrs. Lopez also says her son regrets attacking Monzon and has no idea why people are saying the attack was politically motivated. In addition to this, the Herald's article emphasizes Monzon's admittedly murky political past.
Monzon is apparently a former Neo-Confederate who attended the infamous Charlottesville "Unite the Right" rally and, in another instance, was arrested for charging at protesters seeking to rename streets named after Confederate generals.
He has since, however, recanted these views according to the Herald.
As such, Rubio published a tweet condemning the article, saying that "when a republican [sic] volunteer is savagely beaten the traditional media treats the victim as the criminal and the criminal as a nice young man who likes fishing & just made a mistake."
When a republican volunteer is savagely beaten the traditional media treats the victim as the criminal and the criminal as a nice young man who likes fishing & just made a mistake
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) October 25, 2022
Some time after this tweet, the second (Rubio mistakenly said there were four when the story initially broke) attacker, Jonathan Casanova, was arrested by authorities, having fled the scene. Additionally, the affidavit tweeted by Rubio notes that Monzon provided police with a video of the attack and a sworn statement after identifying Casanova. Monzon says that as he was attempting to enter the neighborhood,
Casanova told him he could not enter "because he was a Republican," and if he tried to continue further, Casanova would shoot him. Casanova also attempted to sick his dogs on Monzon during the scuffle, which he also warned Monzon about. Furthermore, Monzon said he was not on Lopez's property and remained on the street, which the surveillance video lends credit to, according to the affidavit.
"Local media spent 2 days treating the GOP canvasser who was attacked as a criminal & denying the attack was politically motivated Now a second arrest, a police report & surveillance video shows how biased & irresponsible the narrative they were pushing was," Rubio tweeted with the affidavit.
Local media spent 2 days treating the GOP canvasser who was attacked as a criminal & denying the attack was politically motivated
Now a second arrest,a police report & surveillance video shows how biased & irresponsible the narrative they were pushing was pic.twitter.com/VdpyXQhrgV
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) October 26, 2022
