A Florida woman threw a glass of wine on Rep. Matt Gaetz this past weekend wine festival in northwest Florida. She was subsequently arrested and charged with battery, which happens to be a felony in the state.
Matt Gaetz tweeted on this today and posted a video explaining what happened and why he’s pressing charges. If you want, skip to just before 1:20 where he begins describing the incident:
BREAKING: Tallahassee Woman Arrested and Charged with Assaulting Congressman Matt Gaetz on Saturday Evening, Gaetz Issues Statement in Response
“I will never allow the safety of Northwest Floridians to be compromised. I will be pressing charges against this individual in order… pic.twitter.com/lXccJypznU
— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) May 2, 2023
The tweet reads: “BREAKING: Tallahassee Woman Arrested and Charged with Assaulting Congressman Matt Gaetz on Saturday Evening, Gaetz Issues Statement in Response.
“I will never allow the safety of Northwest Floridians to be compromised. I will be pressing charges against this individual in order to uphold the civility our community deserves. Thank you to the Walton County Sheriff’s office for taking swift action.””
In the video, Gaetz says the woman threw the wine on both him and a man he was talking to at the festival. He said she was promptly arrested and explained why he’s choosing to press charges:
“I want folks to know why we press charges in circumstances like this. It’s quite already for folks to let their voice be heard with an opinion or a comment. Folks can shout and scream all they want. This is America and people out to be able to say what they believe, what they desire. Even offer criticisms or critiques of people in public life. But if we start allowing stuff to be thrown or hurled, if we allow people to be harmed, there is a severe risk of escalation and accident. We don’t want to see anyone in harm’s way whether it’s family members, supporters or even our detractors. We want them to be safe too. But when they really cross the rubicon beyond just words to throwing stuff, and striking me and striking a gentleman I was speaking with, with a drink, well that has really caused harm to our community and it’s something that we want to contain and extinguish and not see going forward.”
Gaetz goes on to say that the woman is named Selena Chambers, a leftist author, and that she was charged with two counts of battery.
You can watch the video for more…