A person was arrested early Saturday morning after punching Florida Rep. Maxwell Frost within the face at a Sundance Film Festival occasion, native police in Utah stated.
The suspect, Christian Young, entered the non-public social gathering after beforehand being turned away and assaulted the congressman and a lady attending the occasion, in response to the Park City Police Department. The division stated Young was arrested and booked into jail on fees of aggravated housebreaking and easy assault.
“Last night, I was assaulted by a man at Sundance Festival who told me that Trump was going to deport me before he punched me in the face. He was heard screaming racist remarks as he drunkenly ran off. The individual was arrested and I am okay,” Frost, a 29-year-old Democrat, posted on X on Saturday night, replying to a Variety article describing the incident.
Frost expressed gratitude towards venue safety and native regulation enforcement in Park City for his or her help.
NCS has reached out to the US Capitol Police and Frost’s workplace for remark.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries condemned the incident and known as for the suspect to be “aggressively prosecuted.”
“Hate and political violence has no place in our country, and the entire House Democratic Caucus family stands with Maxwell,” Jeffries posted Saturday on X.
Frost made historical past because the first member of Generation Z elected to Congress in 2022. He has since been outspoken on quite a lot of points, together with voting rights and gun violence prevention.
Recent acts of political violence have reignited the long-standing question of tips on how to greatest hold members of Congress and their households secure. Last June, Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, have been shot and killed in their home. In September, conservative activist Charlie Kirk was assassinated at an event at Utah Valley University.
The House Sergeant at Arms introduced in a December letter that every member could be given $20,000 a month for private safety and safety, following the profitable implementation of a pilot program launched final summer season.
Sundance, the favored unbiased film-centric pageant, has been held in Utah for greater than 40 years. It will move next year to Boulder, Colorado.