Video shows McCormick supporter being attacked by Gaza protestor at Pa. college

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dave McCormick said in a social media post on Tuesday that a campaign volunteer was shown in a TV news video being assaulted by an anti-Israel protestor on the University of Pittsburgh campus.

In a post on X/Twitter Tuesday afternoon, McCormick wrote, “One of my great volunteers was attacked by pro-Hamas supporters on Pitt’s campus. He’s a Jewish student who was wearing a McCormick hat & proudly waving the American flag. This antisemitism is disgusting.”

McCormick, who called on Democratic Sen. Bob Casey to defend his Jewish constituents, shared a video from WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh of a young man holding an American flag being grabbed from behind by a masked protestor leaning over the barricade they had constructed on the lawn of Pitt’s Cathedral of Learning.

The two-day encampment was cleared by protestors early Tuesday after meeting with Pittsburgh and Pitt police, Pitt leadership and officials from Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey’s administration.

Pitt student Reuben Rochkind told the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle that he went to the protest with some friends after hearing about it in a group chat. He told the outlet that he went to try and talk to protestors, but their leaders would not allow that.

Rochkind said he took the flag with him to support his country.

“I believe America has a lot of good values, like freedom of speech and the freedom to protest,” he said. “The protestors are out there and they’re, in my opinion, anti-Western and anti-American.”

Rochkind said he fell to the ground trying to break away from the assailant holding on to his backpack.

“It caught me off guard,” he told the Chronicle. “I was definitely not expecting that to happen.”