Jack Posobiec, a correspondent for the conservative-leaning One America News Network, was run out of a park and then escorted by police after an altercation with protesters Friday.
Mr. Posobiec, who has caught President Trump’s attention several times, was at the scene of a protest taking place on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., when the incident unfolded.
Protesters were rallying near the Emancipation Monument, a controversial statue depicting Abraham Lincoln standing over a former slave, prior to confronting the OAN correspondent.
Mr. Posobiec had been broadcasting the protest on Periscope, a Twitter-owned streaming platform, for roughly 40 minutes before tensions quickly flared.
Video of the encounter caught Mr. Posobiec being shoved and soaked with the contents of a water bottle prior to being essentially run out of the park. A plainclothes security guard escorted him while several people followed them to a nearby street where the confrontation continued.
Individuals can be heard jeering Mr. Posobiec throughout, calling him as a “neo-Nazi” and mentioning his ties to white nationalists including “alt-right” leader Richard Spencer, as he asks to be let alone so he can speak with the police.
The incident ended roughly 13 minutes after escalating with Mr. Posobiec being escorted away from the protesters in a police vehicle.
Mr. Posobiec, 34, blamed the incident on Antifa, or anti-fascist activists, and alleged that he was assaulted and would accordingly be filing reports with the police.
“I peacefully attended the protest to cover the event, and a mob of violent Antifa tried to push me down the Lincoln Park stairs onto the concrete,” he told Mediaite.
Video of the incident shared on social media had been viewed a million times as of Saturday morning as a number of prominent conservatives offered their support to Mr. Posobiec.
“Antifa militia punks need to be rounded up and imprisoned,” radio host Mark Levin said on Twitter where he shared a link about the incident.
“Time for law enforcement to escalate force and shut this all down,” opined fellow conservative radio personality John Cardillo.
The Metropolitan Police Department in D.C. did not immediately return a message requesting comment.
Mr. Trump has shared, or retweeted, Mr. Posobiec’s posts on Twitter several times in the past. The president accordingly faced criticism in response, particularly given Mr. Posobiec’s reputation for propagating the baseless “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory and other unsubstantiated claims.
