PORTLAND, Ore. — Left-wing activists apparently punched Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler while he was dining downtown on Wednesday, according to reports.
A group started heckling Wheeler as he sat in Café Nell’s outdoor dining area with a dinner companion on Wednesday, The Oregonian reported, citing mayoral spokesman Jim Middaugh.
The mayor tried to ignore the invading agitators, but they eventually “pushed their way past restaurant employees” and confronted him, Middaugh said.
When Wheeler asked the people to leave, “one member of the group started swatting at the mayor and made physical contact with him,” the spokesman added.
“You assaulted me. You just assaulted me,” Wheeler can be heard saying in one video posted to Twitter as activists yelled at him, according to The Oregonian.
Tracy Molina, a prominent Portland activist, confronted Mayor Ted Wheeler while he dined at a Nob Hill restaurant Wednesday night. (Office of Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler)
A different clip captured him asking the person behind the camera how old they are — and tells them to grow up.
“You are going to be made to feel like the scum you are,” the person later yelled at the mayor before café staff persuaded the group to leave, The Oregonian reported.
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Wheeler snapped a photograph of his alleged attacker, Tracy Molina, a social justice activist and regular participant in his city’s protests, the mayor’s office reported.
No one has been arrested, police said. Moreover, according to the mayor’s spokesman, Wheeler does not plan to seek criminal charges in the incident, according to the New York Post.
“Given the tenor of political discourse nationally and locally, it’s not unusual for people to confront the mayor and other elected officials in public. It’s part of the job,” Middaugh said.
“The mayor will continue to support local restaurants and businesses as often as he can. He urges others to do the same,” he added.
Wheeler won a second term last month, narrowly beating an openly pro-Antifa candidate, Sarah Iannarone.
