Former White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has called on law enforcement to act after a confrontation outside a New Hampshire polling station on the day of the US midterm elections was captured on video.
Leavitt, who left the Trump administration in August, shared the footage on X on Tuesday. It appears to show an 18-year-old man and an older man exchanging words before the older man gives the younger man the middle finger, slaps him in the face, and walks off.
Video posted by Turning Point Action
The video was originally posted by Turning Point Action, a conservative political group founded by Charlie Kirk. The organisation alleged in the post: “An 18-year-old stood his ground at the polls in New Hampshire today and was assaulted for it.”
Leavitt, who is from New Hampshire, added in her own post: “More despicable behavior from the Left. I trust New Hampshire law enforcement will take care of this ASAP. This young man with @TPAction calmly made his points, and this left-wing nut job assaulted him.”
Details of the confrontation
It remains unclear who the two men are or exactly where the confrontation took place. The video begins with the older man speaking to the younger man beneath a tent next to a parking lot.
“You have no idea who I am, so how dare you say I don’t know much?” the older man says. “You haven’t presented a single statistic,” the 18-year-old retorts. “Neither have you,” the older man interrupts. “God damn, I cannot believe that bull****. You sit there and dare to look me in the face and say I don't know anything?”
“That’s what I know,” he says, flashing a middle finger in the other man’s face. He then slaps him across the face and says, “f*** you,” before walking away. A person who cannot be seen in the footage can be heard saying, “Call the cops.”
Midterm election context
Polls were closing for the midterm elections in Connecticut, Alabama, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Texas, Washington DC, Mississippi, Kansas and Tennessee.
Donald Trump has expressed confidence about the midterm results in public, spending the day backing Republican candidates in a series of Truth Social posts and sharing links directing voters to polling information. However, US outlets have cited sources in Trump's camp as saying he has "privately conceded" that his party may be facing the "worst case scenario".
Democrats need to flip four seats in the Senate and three seats in the House to gain control of the chambers from Republicans. The key Senate battlegrounds are in Alaska, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Michigan, Ohio and Texas.
