A BBC cameraman was attacked by a man wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat after President Trump took aim at the media during his rally in El Paso, Texas.
Ron Skeans said he was standing with the press Monday night on the media platform when he felt a “very hard shove” from behind.
“I didn’t know what was going on,” he told BBC, adding that his attacker attempted to knock his equipment over twice before being escorted out of the event.
Footage from Skeans’ camera, tweeted out by BBC’s Washington correspondent Gary O’Donoghue, sees the focus quickly jerk away from the President and down toward the ground. But the cameraman recovers on time to pan up and record a man in a MAGA hat, cursing as he’s restrained.
“F— the media” and “CNN sucks!” he can be heard shouting as he’s dragged away from the press area. Some of the crowd, meanwhile, erupts into chants of “Let him go!”
The tussle was enough to get the attention of the President, who offered a thumbs up to make sure no one was hurt in the confrontation.
O’Donoghue, who was also reporting on the rally, described the attack as “incredibly violent” during an interview on BBC Radio 4’s Today program.
“Fortunately our cameraman is fine, he is made of stern stuff.”
BBC’s Washington News editor, Eleanor Montague, tweeted that the President had whipped the crowd “into a frenzy against the media” just ahead of the attack.
Several minutes into his address, Trump held up his accomplishments and popularity “despite the fact that the media refuses to acknowledge what we’ve done and how well we’re doing.”
“I guess 93% of the stories are negative. No matter what we do, they figure out a way to make it that,” he added.
The President, who has referred to members of the press as the “enemy of the people” and has dubbed stories he does not like as “fake news,” often takes digs at the media during his rallies and events.
In a statement to the Guardian, BBC said Skeans was “violently pushed and shoved by a member of the crowd” while he attempted to cover the rally.
“The man was removed by security and Ron is fine,” the statement said. “The President could see the incident and checked with us that all was okay. It is clearly unacceptable for any of our staff to be attacked for doing their job.”
