A popular video journalist was attacked and threatened by a crew member allegedly working for CBS outside Donald Trump's arraignment in New York City.
The man, described as a sound man for CBS by the Post Millennial, is seen on video grabbing the independent journalist, Oren Levy, by the collar and saying "Don't ever f*** with me!"
As the two men are separated, the man yells at Levy, "I will kill you," followed by relatively inaudible expletives.
\u201cThis guy who attacked me is named David Forde. He's a sound guy for CBS News. Looks Like CBS News Sent him 2 lawyers to tell him what to say . He's now claiming his injured \ud83e\udd21\u201d— Viral News NY (@Viral News NY) 1680646592
"I was filming George Santos in a media scrum and got caught in the middle," Levy told Blaze Media.
"After the guy told Santos he would be his 'judge and jury,' he said to me 'coffee in the middle of a sprint?' and then tried to start intentionally spilling my coffee," Levy explained.
Right before the attack, Levy says he asked the man, "Can you please chill?"
The day following the events, Levy posted a video that seems to corroborate his story. Santos asks, "Is anybody accusing me of something?" A man who appears to be right next to Levy responds to Santos, "Not yet."
"Are you judge and jury?" Santos replies, with the man again responding, "Yeah, as a [inaudible] in New York, I will be."
At the end of the video the same man can be heard saying "Dude, really? Coffee in the middle of a sprint?"
\u201cSeconds before, the guy attacked me yesterday. He was yelling at @RepSantosNY03 and then started complaining about my coffee and tries to make me spill it. \nYou can hear him say to Santos he will be the judge and jury. And him saying something about my coffee. \nFor licensing\u2026\u201d— Viral News NY (@Viral News NY) 1680706140
Jay Dow, a correspondent for New York outlet WPIX-TV, claimed in a Twitter post that the incident was spawned by Levy calling the man the N-word.
"What that cell phone did not record was that the guy put his elbow in Dave’s chest and called him the N-word - with a hard GGER," Dow claimed.
"That's a bold claim Jay," Levy replied.
"I see you work for pix 11 . You probably should look me up and see I would never say that. But have him release that since his mic was on," Levy added, while responding in another post saying "that's something I would never do."
\u201c@JayDowTV @CBSNewYork That's a bold claim Jay, I see you work for pix 11 . You probably should look me up and see I would never say that. But have him release that since his mic was on.\u201d— Viral News NY (@Viral News NY) 1680661544
A spokesperson for CBS-2/CBS News New York stated that "we do not have any reporters by that name," when asked if the attacker in question, who has been identified on Twitter, worked for CBS-2/CBS News New York.
When asked if it was a sound engineer or crew member, the spokesperson repeated that there are no reporters with that name at the outlet.
\u201cBREAKING: Member of the press assaults independent photographer @ViralNewsNYC while screaming \u201cI will KILL YOU\u201d outside NY courthouse today \n\nFootage by @MeechMemez\nhttps://t.co/BcsyxO68c4\u201d— Jack Posobiec \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 (@Jack Posobiec \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8) 1680642213
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