Rubio rips press coverage of canvasser attack, says victim ‘rejected’ extremist past
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio deflected questions on Friday about the extremist past of a GOP canvasser who days earlier was beaten in Hialeah and sent to the hospital, as questions remain about whether the attack was politically motivated.
“I think it’s shameful that you’re focused on the victim and not the aggressor,” Rubio, speaking to the press after voting at West Miami City Hall, said after a reporter asked how he felt that a person once involved with white supremacist groups was representing his campaign. “Do you know anything about the attacker? Do you have any questions about the attackers who are career criminals?”
Rubio’s comments marked the first time he has addressed the press since he used his social media to publicize the beating of Christopher Monzon, a canvasser with the Republican Party of Florida who was attacked on Sunday evening. Police say two men confronted him as he passed out fliers south of Amelia Earhart Park. Monzon told police that both alleged attackers — Javier Jesus Lopez and Jonathan Alexander Casanova — punched, kicked and slammed him on the pavement, as one of them directed his German shepherds to attack him.
WATCH CBS4: Sen. Rubio stands by statement that attack on GOP canvasser was politically motivated
Monzon told investigators that Casanova told him he “could not pass through because he was a Republican and his dogs were ready to attack,” according to Casanova’s arrest affidavit. Monzon told investigators he then walked onto the street, and that Casanova told him, “He was not allowed to walk around his neighborhood and if he continued to do so he would shoot him,” the affidavit claims.
The episode received widespread media attention after Rubio, who is running for reelection, claimed Monday morning that the attack was politically motivated. Police say Monzon didn’t mention politics during an initial interview following the attack, but told them Monday following Rubio’s tweet about the incident that his aggressors had told him they didn’t like Republicans.
A spokeswoman for Rubio has said that Monzon’s father told the senator Monday morning that the attack was politically motivated.
READ MORE: GOP canvasser didn’t tell cops brutal beating was political until after Rubio tweeted
It has since surfaced that the victim, Monzon, was once a member of the Florida chapter of the League of the South, a white supremacist organization labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. He is also the vice president of the Miami Springs Republican Club.
Monzon, who once ran for Hialeah City Council, has been quoted in several media reports in the years since, saying he renounced his extremist lifestyle.
The mother of Lopez, who is accused of aggravated assault, rejected the idea that the attack was incited by political differences, telling the Miami Herald this week that her son has no strong political opinions and has never even voted.
On Friday, Rubio railed on the media coverage of the incident, saying Monzon was receiving unfair treatment because he’s a conservative. The Miami Herald was not invited to the press conference — the campaign said only TV media was invited to attend.
“He was the victim of a crime,” Rubio said during a heated exchange about Monzon’s past. “By the way, I think he’s rejected all those things and that’s what we want people that have those views to do, to change their minds and reject them and walk away from them. But he was the victim of a felony so how many stories have you done on the criminals that attacked him?”
Rubio added that he didn’t “know what this young man did in his past,” but called press coverage of Monzon’s personal history “grotesque.”
“It’s shameful what’s happened in media and how it’s OK to shame and attack a victim when the victim is a conservative,” he added.
He also alluded to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul Pelosi, who was attacked early Friday morning in a home invasion with a hammer by an attacker who authorities said was shouting, “Where is Nancy?” While he condemned the attack, Rubio appeared to say focusing attention on Monzon’s past would be like drawing attention to Paul Pelosi’s DUI arrest back in August.
“We don’t know the motive, but he was attacked in his home. If it was politically motivated, it’s a crime and I condemn it. If it wasn’t politically motivated, it’s a crime and I condemn it,” he said of the attack on Pelosi. “He just recently was arrested. I’m not bringing that up. Does he deserve to be beaten in his home because he has a previous arrest a few months ago? No, he doesn’t.”
This story was originally published October 28, 2022 at 7:58 PM.
