Law & Crime reports:
U.S. Senator David Perdue (R-GA) ripped a phone out of a constituent’s hand late Saturday morning as the constituent was recording their encounter. The Republican senator was being asked a question about Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp‘s widely-reported attempts to purge the voter registrations of thousands of black voters in the Peach State.
As the video begins, the student says, “How can you endorse a candidate that–” but before he finishes his question, Perdue says, “No, I’m not doing that. I’m not doing that.” The senator then appears to make contact with the student and apparently snatches his phone away from him as the phone’s camera films the entire encounter.
The student calmly notes, “You stole my property. You stole my property. Give me my phone back, senator.” Perdue replies, “Alright, you wanted a picture? You wanted a picture? I’m gonna give it to you. You wanted a picture?”
Politico reports:
“That’s U.S. Senator David Perdue. U.S. Senator David Perdue just snatched my phone because he won’t answer a question from one of his constituents,” the student then says. “He’s trying to leave. He’s trying to leave because he won’t answer why he’s endorsing a candidate who’s trying to purge people from voting on the basis of their race.“ Perdue’s office said the senator thought he was being asked to take a photo with the student. When he realized that wasn’t the case he gave the phone back.
“Senator Perdue spent several hours meeting with hundreds of people at the Georgia Tech game this weekend,” the spokesperson said. “The senator spoke with many students and answered questions on a variety of topics. In this instance, the senator clearly thought he was being asked to take a picture, and he went to take a selfie as he often does. When he realized they didn’t actually want to take a picture, he gave the phone back.”
Today @sendavidperdue visited Tech to campaign for Kemp. A student tried asking a simple question about @BrianKempGA ‘s racist scheme to threaten voter registrations from black people, but before he could even finish the question, Perdue stole his phone. pic.twitter.com/K0iffU57Di
— YDSA Georgia Tech (@YDSAGT) October 13, 2018