WASHINGTON – White nationalist and leader of the alt-right movement Richard Spencer was sucker-punched in the face twice in downtown Washington D.C. following President Trump’s inauguration Friday.
Spencer said he was walking to a restaurant with people from Stateless Media who were working on an interview with him when people recognized him and a circle formed near 14th and K Street.
Suddenly, a man wearing a black hoodie attacked him, striking Spencer under the left eye.
“Someone ran up behind him and clocked him in the face. Somebody in a mask. Spencer kept talking,” a witness told Jezebel.
“It didn’t really land and it didn’t hurt much,” Spencer said in a video posted to Twitter. “But it was pretty remarkable, I mean a guy came out and punched me.”
Minutes later, Spencer said he was talking to an Australian public television station when the guy came back and punched him in the right side of the face “basically with all his might.” That incident was caught on video:
Spencer said that after he was punched another man walked up and spat on him.
“I think I probably did suffer a mild concussion or something because my brain feels a little bit scrambled, but I’m going to be fine,” Spencer said. After the third incident he hopped into a taxi and left the protest area.
Spencer is the same man who stood at a Texas A&M podium shortly after Donald Trump’s election and, in a video that went viral, shouted “Hail Trump, hail our people, hail victory!” while several in the crowd celebrated the victory with a Nazi salute.
