Published On: October 28th, 2022Categories: Florida News

Violence should never play a part when campaign canvassers are out doing their job, but Florida Democrats say a Republican canvasser — with a violent arrest in his past — should not have had that job.

The political press has been awash with stories since Christopher Monzon was attacked while canvassing for U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio in Hialeah Sunday night. The Senator went viral with a tweet showing pictures of Monzon battered and bloodied in a campaign T-shirt. Rubio said that the attack was politically motivated.

Now, though, Democrats have questions for Rubio about why Monzon was hired to canvas for the GOP in the first place. Monzon pleaded no contest in 2017 to assault with a deadly weapon and inciting to riot as protesters asked for Confederate street names in Hollywood, and was photographed at the fatal 2017 Charlottesville protest reciting an antisemitic sentiment. 

At a virtual press conference Friday, Democrats called for Republicans to fire Monzon from the job for which he earned $10,000 between June and August, which the Huffington Post first reported.

“Marco Rubio, Senator, please fire Christopher Monzon,” said Rabbi Mark Winer, president of the Florida Democratic Party Jewish Caucus. “Our society can’t afford to play footsie with racist, antisemites, White supremacists. We can’t give them any room to work their poison, to inject it into the system.”

Rachelle Litt, vice president of the Florida Democratic Party Jewish Caucus, said that it’s disturbing that Republicans have hired someone with a past as well-known as Monzon’s.

“Rubio and the Republican Party are fostering the spread of antisemitism and hate by allowing and including right-wing extremists and supremacists in their political sphere and activities,” Litt said, noting that Thursday was the fourth anniversary when a gunman burst into a Pittsburgh synagogue and killed 11 Jews.

Rubio, however, scolded reporters Friday for asking him about it and sidestepped questions about Monzon’s history, except to say he doesn’t know about it.

“We should be focused on these two thugs who attacked him in a felonious attack and that’s what you should be asking me about,” Rubio said, in a tweet that showed him responding to reporters’ questions Friday. “That’s what the press should be focused on and not shaming the victim of a crime.”

Democratic state Sen. Lori Berman of Delray Beach and state Rep. Tracie Davis of Jacksonville were also at the news conference raising the alarm that Monzon is among the Republicans’ foot soldiers getting their message out.

“Every Floridian should be deeply concerned that Marco Rubio’s message is attracting and defending dangerous extremists like Christopher Monzon,” said Davis, who is running for state Senate.

Berman urged Florida Republicans to be like Adidas, which cut ties with the controversial rapper Ye — formerly Kanye West — after he tweeted antisemitic sentiments.

“It is not appropriate in Florida to engage and to allow these people to have our support by hiring them and putting them out on the street,” Berman said.


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