An armed man lunged at Dr. Amy Acton, the Democratic gubernatorial nominee in Ohio, at a campaign event Sunday at the Canfield Fair near Youngstown, Ohio.
Acton wasn’t harmed, but the man injured several old people in the crowd as he knocked them over trying to get at Acton. State police providing security for the event grabbed the attacker and removed him, and found he was carrying two pistols, a taser, and brass knuckles, as one does when attending a fair in Ohio, where they love that shit.
The alleged attacker was identified as Patrick Havas, 38, who so far has been charged with disorderly conduct, “inducing panic,” and two counts of assault and has had his bail set at what seems like a quite low $5000. He has pleaded not guilty. Investigators from the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office say that Havas didn’t brandish any of his several weapons or remove them from their holsters during the attack, so there’s that.
Right after the attack, Dr. Acton, a physician and former Ohio health director, quickly went to help the people who’d been hurt, according to witnesses. Former US Rep. John Boccieri (D), who was standing near Acton, told NBC News that he saw an older man get knocked face-down in the mud “right in front of Dr. Acton,” and that “she immediately began rendering aid and care to the man.”
Another witness, Lindsay Yaggi, posted on Facebook that “Amy immediately went into action and gave care” while paramedics were on the way to the tent where Acton had been speaking. “She apologized that this happened to them and made sure they were ok before they had her leave.”
NBC News misspelled the candidate’s name as “Dr. Action” elsewhere in its report, and as typos go, it’s a fair cop.
It’s a definite contrast to the stereotypical image of a political figure being hustled off the stage by security after an assassination attempt. I know I watch too much TV, but I just keep thinking of that episode of The West Wing where Jed Bartlett praises the college swimmers who “ran into the fire” following an explosion at a fictional university, rescuing people instead of thinking first of their own safety.
Remember how Donald Trump’s first reaction after that crazy person shot at him in 2024 was to turn around and check on the audience member who’d been killed? Oh wait: He put his fist in the air and told his followers to fight, and now that great humanitarian moment is memorialized in a painting hanging in the foyer of the White House.
In a separate incident, Dr. Acton went on to render aid to another Ohioan Monday, the day after the attack on her. Acton was near the starting point of a Labor Day parade in Cleveland when she helped out an elderly woman who collapsed at the side of the parade route. The woman declined to be transported to a hospital, TV station WKYC reported.
Here’s video of that Monday event; it doesn’t appear to have any sound.
Dr. Acton is running neck and neck in the polls with Republican nominee and failed GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who is no doubt asking staffers to arrange for someone to fall down near him so he can be a hero too.
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It turns out that Acton’s accused attacker, Patrick Havas, is the brother of Andrew Havas, a Republican operative and lobbyist who formerly volunteered as the Franklin County campaign chair for Sen. Jon Husted, who was appointed to fill the Senate seat of that couchfucking hillbilly who became vice president.
In July, Andrew Havas resigned from the campaign after NBC News asked the Husted campaign uncomfortable questions about Havas’s 2009 guilty plea in a sexual assault case involving a 15-year-old girl, when Havas was 22 years old. (That NBC News story, unfortunately, is now paywalled for fuckssake.) Andrew Havas was originally charged with sexual misconduct with a minor, but pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of misdemeanor assault and served jail time.
Husted’s campaign said in July that it had no knowledge of the charges because Andrew Havas hadn’t disclosed his criminal history and accepted his resignation from the volunteer position. Federal Elections Commission filings show Andrew Havas donated over $4,000 to Husted’s campaign and a related PAC.
Husted is being challenged by former Sen. Sherrod Brown, who has been whooping Husted in fundraising and apparently vets his campaign volunteers better.
In the fallout following the Husted scandal, Ohio campaign finance records showed that Andrew Havas also donated more than $10,000 to Ramaswamy’s gubernatorial campaign.
Dr. Acton has made an issue of the tainted donations, which appear to have been legal but incredibly gross, saying, “Ohioans deserve leaders who exercise good judgment and who put integrity first. I find it appalling that Vivek Ramaswamy accepted over $10,000 from Andrew Havas.”
As for the actual alleged assailant, Patrick Havas, there’s not yet a lot of information out apart from the fact that he’s trained as a licensed practical nurse, that he voted in a Republican primary in 2016 but is currently not registered with any party affiliation, and that he has a record of minor criming including a 2008 arrest for stealing three DVDs (The Untouchables, Full Metal Jacket, and Casino Royale) from a Giant Eagle supermarket.
He previously shared an address with his brother, but it’s not yet known whether the two have been in contact, what DVDs they may have watched together, or what kind of weirdass mission Patrick may have thought he was on, we’re just speculating.
John Boccieri, the former member of Congress who witnessed the attack, told NBC News that the assailant came “within feet” of Acton after he bulled his way into the tent, and that he appeared to be trying to yell questions at Acton while recording the confrontation on his cell phone.
“He was yelling, ‘Dr. Acton! Dr. Acton!’ And when the State Highway Patrol and the security detail grabbed him, he said, ‘I was just trying to ask a question,’” said Boccieri. […]
Boccieri added: “He was not coming in the tent to give Dr. Acton a hug. He was coming in more aggressively, and that’s what I saw.”
Should be interesting to see what footage, if any, is recovered from that cell phone.
Politicians from both parties, including the Ramaswamy campaign, were quick to condemn the attack and say there’s no place for violence in American politics, yadda yadda. But let’s not get too kumbayah here, because within hours of the attempted assault on Acton, rightwing troll and beloved Trump confidante Laura Loomer was insisting the attack was staged by Acton’s campaign to “distract” from Loomer’s own slurs of Acton earlier in the weekend.
On Saturday, Loomer claimed without evidence that an unnamed “Democrat strategist” told her Acton was slurring her words and reeked of alcohol at a campaign appearance with Pete Buttigieg. Somehow, nobody else anywhere witnessed this, and Loomer offered no evidence. The official Ohio Republican Party Twitter account amplified the accusation Saturday, saying “Legitimate questions persist” because nobody’s more credible than Laura Loomer.
On Sunday, Loomer accelerated the lies in multiple posts, saying Acton “should change her name to Amy Smollett,” calling Acton “drunk Amy” several times, and arguing that even though Havas was carrying two guns, a taser, and brass knuckles, that didn’t mean he intended to harm Acton. What a nice person she is. We bet you could really make her angry with a donation to Acton’s campaign.
Democratic strategist Mike Nellis told political blog TiffinOhio,
“Vivek Ramaswamy and other MAGA hacks like Donald Trump Jr and Laura Loomer have been lying about Amy Acton for months — calling her a ‘leftwing psychopath,’ an alcoholic, a socialist and other hateful slurs. I imagine that’s more than likely responsible for this attack. Every Republican must condemn this now.”
As of yet, we haven’t seen any comment from Donald Trump, who we suspect will release an AI slop video showing Loomer beating Acton to a pulp or some goddamned thing the end.
[NBC News / Columbus Dispatch / TiffinOhio / Newsweek / Cleveland.com / TiffinOhio / Amy Acton for Governor]
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"Dr Action" tee shirts could rival "Talafreako" tee shirts sales.
"The alleged attacker was identified as Patrick Havas, 38, who so far has been charged with disorderly conduct and two counts of assault and has had his bail set at what seems like a quite low $5000."
He must be white.