Sen. Rubio slams media coverage of canvasser attack: ‘Focused on the victim and not the aggressor’

U.S. Senator Marco Rubio has lashed out at the media coverage of his canvasser being attacked and maintains that the assault on a Republican canvasser in Hialeah was politically motivated.

“I think it’s shameful that you’re focused on the victim and not the aggressor,” Rubio said after a reporter asked how he felt that a person once involved with white supremacist groups was representing his campaign.

Rubio added, “Do you know anything about the attacker? Do you have any questions about the attackers who are career criminals?”

This is the first time that Rubio has publicly discussed the attack on his canvasser, Christopher Monzon.

Monson was attacked on Sunday while handing out fliers and he told police that his alleged attackers, Javier Jesus Lopez and Jonathan Alexander Casanova, punched, kicked and slammed him on the pavement and also ordered a German shepherd to attack him too.

Monzon told authorities that Casanova told him he “could not pass through because he was a Republican and his dogs were ready to attack,” according to Casanova’s arrest affidavit.

Monzon said he then crossed the street, and that Casanova told him, “He was not allowed to walk around his neighborhood and if he continued to do so he would shoot him.”

Monzon didn’t initially tell police he believed that attack was politically motivated, however after Rubio’s tweet one day after the attack, Monzon told police that his attackers said they didn’t like Republicans.

A spokeswoman for Rubio has said that Monzon’s father told him on Monday morning that the assault was politically motivated.

Allegations have been made about Monzon having an unsavory past and he has been accused of being involved with white supremacy movements.

Rachelle Litt, who is vice president of the Florida Democratic Party Jewish Caucus, said that it’s worrying 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.

“Marco Rubio, Senator, please fire Christopher Monzon,” said Rabbi Mark Winer, president of the Florida Democratic Party Jewish Caucus said during a virtual press conference. “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.”