The son of former Obama national security adviser Susan Rice, a pro-Trump College Republicans leader, is pressing “full charges” against a fellow Stanford University student who he says assaulted him at an event supporting new Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
John David Rice-Cameron, Rice’s son and president of the Stanford College Republicans, alleges that fellow Stanford sophomore Melinda Hernandez physically assaulted him last Tuesday at the California school.
“She got in my face and proceeded to hit me in the chest area and push me back forcefully,” Rice-Cameron said, according to a report Wednesday in The Stanford Daily.
Campus police placed Hernandez under “private person” arrest and issued her a battery citation, Stanford Department of Public Safety spokesman Bill Larson told the student newspaper.
The District Attorney’s Office is looking into the incident, though there were no reported injuries to any party involved.
Hernandez said she touched Rice-Cameron on the chest when he would not stop filming their encounter without her consent.
“Those who know my character, from a distance or up close, know my fight in social justice lies in peace,” Hernandez wrote in a Facebook post, The Stanford Daily reported.
But a person requesting anonymity who allegedly witnessed the encounter said Hernandez was not peaceful toward Rice-Cameron.
“She kept getting in his face, louder and louder—she walked straight towards him and invaded his personal space and definitely put her hands on him,” the person told The Stanford Daily.
Rice-Cameron has been an outspoken supporter of President Donald Trump, according to Stanford Politics, despite his mother’s political affiliation with the Democratic Party.
His first event as College Republicans president was called “Make Stanford Great Again!” and featured Turning Point USA’s president, Charlie Kirk, and communications director, Candace Owens.
Stanford College Republicans issued a Facebook statement Wednesday about harassment they claimed to have faced at the group’s “Change My Mind” event, along with video footage showing students attempting to take signs off the organization’s table.
https://www.facebook.com/StanfordGOP/videos/331755994050595/
“Leftists vandalized and destroyed our signs, threw paint and water at our members, and hurled insults and profanities for hours,” the post said.
“Change My Mind” events are part of a series organized by political commentator Steven Crowder. A table displays a hot-button statement and those who disagree must attempt to change the mind of the host through dialogue.
The event was held in a free speech area of campus, according to The Stanford Daily.
Students could record video lawfully in the public space, Jim Wheaton, senior counsel at the First Amendment Project, said. Audio, however, has more restrictions under California law.
“Recording a conversation—even [one] in a public space—is a violation of law in California,” Wheaton told The Stanford Daily.
California’s policy requires all parties to provide consent to be recorded, according to the Digital Media Law Project.
Stanford and the College Republicans chapter did not respond before publication to The Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment. Rice-Cameron and Hernandez, contacted via Facebook messenger and email, did not respond by time of publication.
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