On Thursday, the Republican candidate for governor of New York was attacked by a man with a knife, but the congressman escaped unharmed.
A video of the Perinton event posted on the social networking site Twitter shows a man walking onto the stage and grabbing Lee Zeldin’s hand before both of them fall to the ground, with several campaigners interfering.
Here’s a video of the assault involving Rep. Zeldin from witness Cody Crippen. pic.twitter.com/Ur1CfpkdsS
The attacker was detained, and the congressman continued his speech.
On Twitter, Lee Zeldin said he was “grateful” for being able to grab the attacker’s wrist in time to prevent him from hitting him in the neck, and thanked those who “quickly jumped from the scene” to the stage and stopped him. .
He added that “political results must be achieved at the polling stations, not on the stage of campaign events that try to hard-hit candidates they disagree with.”
Political scores should be settled at the ballot box, not on stage at campaign events trying to viciously attack candidates you don’t agree with. This not normal. This is the United States of America. This is the greatest country in the history of the world.
Zeldin is running for office in November along with the current governor, Democrat Cathy Hochul.
New York Republican Party President Nick Langworthy told the Associated Press news agency that he had no details about the attacker or his weapon, but he later exchanged text messages with Zeldin as the congressman spoke to police. Langworthy said that Zeldin had “only a small scratch”.
Katie Hochul, in a statement, condemned the attack and said she was “relieved to know that Congressman Zeldin was unharmed and the suspect is in custody.”
Zeldin, a retired lieutenant colonel who has represented East Long Island in Congress since 2015, is a supporter of former President Donald Trump and was among the Congressional Republicans who voted against confirming the 2020 election results.
