Rubio says Florida canvasser was assaulted for being Republican — but there's a lot more to the story

On Monday, Sen. Marco Rubio took to Twitter to condemn what he described as an act of political violence targeted against a Republican volunteer for his campaign. "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 in #Hialeah#Florida He suffered internal bleeding, a broken jaw & will need facial reconstructive surgery," he wrote.

But according to The Daily Beast, the police report of the incident doesn't quite line up with Rubio's version of events.

For starters, there is currently no evidence that the attack in Hialeah — a predominantly Cuban-American city in Miami-Dade County that is overwhelmingly Republican — was actually politically motivated.

"Javier Jesus Lopez, a 22-year-old warehouse worker who lives down the street from where the altercation took place, now faces a felony charge of aggravated battery. A phone number listed for Lopez in the incident report — which The Daily Beast has redacted from the document — went straight to voicemail Monday evening," reported Justin Rohrlich. "In an email on Monday, Sgt. Jose Torres of the Hialeah PD told The Daily Beast that the case is 'open and active,' and that investigators 'soon' expect to determine a motive. When Local 10 News asked Torres if the violence was political, he also said the investigation was ongoing, but as of Monday afternoon there was 'no indication that is the case.'"

Furthermore, the victim in question, Christopher Monzon, is not an ordinary Republican canvasser. He is a notorious neo-Nazi activist, known by counterprotesters as the "Cuban Confederate," who has marched with the white supremacist League of the South and with neo-Nazi Richard Spencer at the 2017 Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. "That same year, Monzon was arrested for attempting to assault protesters in Hollywood, Florida with a Confederate flag," said the report. "He was the lone counterprotester at a gathering organized to push for streets named after Confederate generals to be renamed."

"Monzon was unable to be reached for comment by The Daily Beast," noted the report. "Journalists from the Miami New Times attempted to interview Monzon on Monday in his room at HCA Florida Kendall Hospital, with permission from the facility’s communications department, but said they were blocked from entering by members of the Vice City Proud Boys, the militant right-wing group’s Miami-Dade chapter."

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