A canvasser for Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., was reportedly assaulted Sunday night while supporting the re-election campaigns of the incumbent senator and the state’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.
“Last night one of our canvassers wearing my T-shirt and a DeSantis hat was brutally attacked by 4 animals who told him Republicans weren’t allowed in their neighborhood,” Rubio wrote on Twitter with photos of the victim, Christopher Monzon, who was canvassing in a Hialeah neighborhood of Miami-Dade County. “He suffered internal bleeding, a broken jaw & will need facial reconstructive surgery.”
Left-wing outlets such as the Daily Dot began to justify the attack over Monzon’s reported ties to political extremists.
“Marco Rubio shares tale of canvasser being attacked, omits that he’s a notorious local racist,” the outlet reported, burying a quote from Monzon in The New York Times this summer that he was on the “path to de-radicalization.”
Monzon had previously been called the “Cuban Confederate” and attended the 2017 Unite the Right rally. In 2018, however, Monzon said he quit the League of the South before the group embraced white supremacy and ran for the Hialeah City Council last year. During the campaign, Monzon told the Daily Dot he regretted using racial slurs to describe black and Jewish people.
“I do not condone the usage of such language,” Monzon said. “While I might have used the language in the past, I no longer believe that using those slurs is acceptable.”
Monzon lost the race but has remained a local activist working on behalf of Florida Republicans.
According to the Miami Herald on Monday, police arrested 25-year-old Javier Jesus Lopez over the attack. Lopez was charged with aggravated battery and causing great bodily harm, a second-degree felony.
“An arrest report, however, does not reference politics or suggest that the victim was attacked because of his political beliefs,” the local paper reported.
According to Lopez’s arrest affidavit, the victim was walking near 140 East 60th St. around 6:50 p.m. Sunday in a neighborhood just south of Amelia Earhart Park when Lopez — a Hialeah resident — stood in front of him to block access to the sidewalk. The canvasser crossed the street to avoid him, but police say Lopez responded, ‘You can’t pass by here, this is my neighborhood.’
An argument ensued and Lopez grabbed the victim and slammed him against the floor, the victim told police. A second man, who is not in custody, apparently kicked the victim’s face, as Lopez punched him repeatedly.
