A Colorado man attacked a TV news reporter while asking if he was a citizen and taunting him that this was life now in the US with Donald Trump’s second presidency looming, criminal court documents allege.
The man, Patrick Thomas Egan, was arrested on 18 December in Grand Junction on suspicion of bias-motivated crimes, second-degree assault and harassment.
Egan is supposed to appear in court on 2 January to see if formal charges have been filed.
According to police, Egan, 39, followed the car of the KKCO/KJCT reporter Ja’Ronn Alex, who later told police he believed he was targeted because he is Pacific Islander.
An arrest affidavit in the case said Egan arrived by taxi, pulled up next to Alex – who was on an assignment at the time – at a stoplight and asked: “Are you even a US citizen? This is Trump’s America now! I’m a marine and I took an oath to protect this country from people like you!”
The affidavit described Egan as tackling Alex and putting him in a headlock before Egan “began to strangle him”, causing co-workers to run out and help.
According to the documents, witnesses said Alex looked like he was struggling to breathe during the attack, which was caught on surveillance footage, the Associated Press reported.
While the alleged assault appears isolated, a hostile political environment to news media has seen Trump calling the news media “the enemy of the people”, a “threat to democracy”, “fake” and “crooked bastards”. He deployed such rhetoric during his first presidency from 2017 to 2021 and as he successfully sought a return to the White House in November’s election.
The Freedom of the Press Foundation in November said it had recorded 75 assaults on journalists since 1 January this year – a 70% increase over 2023.
A recent survey of journalists undertaking safety training provided by the International Women’s Media Foundation found that 36% of respondents reported being threatened or experiencing physical violence – and 28% reported legal threats or action against them.
Yet nearly a quarter (23%) of Americans surveyed did not regard political attacks on journalists or news organizations as a threat to press freedom. Among them, 38% identified as Republicans compared to just 9% as Democrats, the City University of London reported.
Those findings coincide with a separate Associated Press-NORC center for public affairs research poll which found most American adults are tired over the news industry’s coverage of politics.
The Associated Press contributed reporting
