Two men have been accused of accosting Nevada governor Steve Sisolak and his wife Kathy Sisolak with racist and anti-government taunts.
The duo were videoed at a Las Vegas restaurant at the weekend when a person filming walked towards the Democrat and issued a long tirade.
A video of the encounter shows Mr Sisolak and his wife eventually leaving the restaurant following the abuse, which featured both racism and threats of violence.
Nevada state police are now investigating.
According to The Las Vegas Review-Journal, Justin Andersch was the man who filmed himself issuing abuse.
His tirade featured anti-government comments and taunts aimed at Mr Sisolak, who was dining with his family at the Lindo Michoacan restaurant in Summerlin, Las Vegas.
“Where’s your security at, punk, huh?”, Andersch allegedly asked Mr Sisolak, who did not have a security detail with him.
“You working for China piece of s****”, the man filming the attack continued, in an apparent reference to the governor’s wife and claims she profited from reinstating a mask mandate in the state because of her ties to PPE manufactures in China.
“We should string you up by a lamp post right now”, Andersch also told Mr Sisolak, according to a video widely circulated on Instagram and Twitter after the incident.
Mr Sisolak and his wife, who is of Chinese heritage but was born in Nevada were called “pieces of s****” by Andersch. who took credit for the attack and claimed that “Instagram deleted” the video.
He was seen wearing a t-shirt with the name of Andersch’s blog, ‘Cannabis and Combat’. A second man also appeared in the footage, who was called a “patriot”.
Addressing the encounter on Monday, Mr Sisolak’s campaign for re-election in November called the abuse “racist threats” whole his press aide, Meghin Delaney, said the governor was “deeply disappointed in how this incident unfolded, particularly with the language used to talk about First Lady Kathy Sisolak’s heritage.”
“We can disagree about the issues, but the personal attacks and threats are unwarranted, unwelcome and unbecoming behavior for Nevadans,” Mr Sisolak added in the statement.
Additional reporting by The Associated Press.
