Video shows McCormick supporter attacked by Gaza protester at Pa. College

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dave McCormick said in a social media post on Tuesday that a television news video showed a volunteer for his campaign being attacked by an anti-Israel protester on the University of Pittsburgh campus.

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

McCormick, who called on Democratic Senator Bob Casey to defend his Jewish constituents, shared a video from Pittsburgh television station WTAE showing a young man holding an American flag being grabbed from behind by a masked protester leaning over the barricade they had erected on the lawn in front of Pittsburgh’s Cathedral of Learning.

The two-day encampment was cleared by protesters early Tuesday after they met with Pittsburgh and Pitt police, Pitt city leaders 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 newspaper that he went to talk to the protesters, but their leaders wouldn’t let him.

Rochkind said he took the flag to support his country.

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

Rochkind said he fell to the ground as he tried to break free from the attacker who was holding his backpack.

“I was completely taken aback,” he told the Chronicle. “I definitely didn’t expect something like this to happen.”