On Tuesday, the Miami Herald reported that Diana Rosa Lopez, the mother of the young man accused of brutally assaulting a Republican canvasser and former white supremacist activist in Hialeah, was motivated by politics. That attack was initially publicized as a political hit on Twitter by Republican Sen. Marco Rubio.
"Lopez, a registered Republican, says it wasn’t about politics — despite a viral tweet from Rubio claiming that his canvasser was attacked because he worked for the GOP," reported Sarah Blaskey and Nicholas Nehamas. "'My son doesn’t know anything about politics. He likes fishing,' Lopez told the Miami Herald in a Tuesday interview at her house. 'My son has never voted.' Lopez said she is a private person scared of losing her job for speaking publicly. She said she votes only in presidential elections. Rubio’s reelection campaign meant little to her until the Republican called her son an 'animal' on Twitter."
"Her son, Javier Jesus Lopez, 25, was arrested Sunday on charges of aggravated battery after a fight with Christopher Monzon, 27, a former candidate for the Hialeah City Council with his own history of violent arrest," said the report. "Photos show Monzon being taken to the hospital wearing a bloody Rubio for Senate campaign t-shirt. The photos, shared by the senator on Twitter, show Monzon on a stretcher with cuts on his face and swelling around his eyes. Another person involved has not been identified, police say."
Rubio had also previously claimed that the attack had been carried out by four people. But only Lopez has been arrested, and police confirm they currently have no evidence the attack was politically motivated.
Monzon has been known by activists as the "Cuban Confederate" for his former affiliation with the white supremacist League of the South. He previously participated in the 2017 "Unite the Right" neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virginia that ended with a counterprotester being murdered in a vehicle-ramming attack. He was also arrested later that year after charging into a crowd of protesters demanding the city of Hollywood, Florida rename streets bearing the names of Confederate generals, shouting, "You are a cancer on the face of the earth! All Jews are."
"Diana Lopez said she refuses to bail her son out of jail, and wants him to take responsibility for what he did wrong, which to her was getting involved in a needless fight between two hot-headed young men," said the report. "'He deserves whatever he deserves for getting in a fight,' Diana Lopez said. But she was clear: 'This has nothing to do with politics.'"
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