If there's one thing more frustrating than being a second-tier Republican presidential candidate right now, it's probably working for a second-tier Republican presidential candidate. You're working for guys being crushed by Donald Trump in the polls, toiling long hours away from your family, and you're not even sure if you'll have the gig in a few months. It's maybe not a surprise that some of these guys' tensions are running high.
But apparently Marco Rubio's deputy campaign manager really needs to chill out. Rich Beeson is accused of landing a sucker punch on a Rand Paul staffer last night at a bar in Michigan.
Several Republican candidates have assembled in the mitten-shaped state for the Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference run by the state's GOP. It's supposed to kick off this afternoon. Paul is scheduled to speak over the weekend, but Rubio is not. Though, according to a local political blogger, Beeson was there
Before the event started, Beeson was at Horn's Bar last night. So was John Yob, who works on the state level as Ron Paul's Michigan national political director and chief strategist. The two men got into some sort of physical confrontation, and Yob took to Facebook today to accuse Beeson of hitting him.
"Last night I went to a bar on Mackinac Island for the GOP Mackinac Conference," wrote Yob. "I ran into a guy named Rich Beeson, who frankly I didn't even know who it was at first because he isn't relevant in our political world. Anyway, he is Marco Rubio's national campaign manager. He literally physically assaulted me by punching me in the face. The state police are looking for him. I have it on video, from multiple angles. This will play out in the national media in the next few hours."
For someone who is apparently irrelevant in the political world, Yob gives Beeson more credit than he deserves. He's Rubio's deputy national campaign manager.
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Yob sent security footage of the alleged punch to Time reporter Zeke Miller, who promptly tweeted it out.
Via Yob, here's the video of the alleged punch pic.twitter.com/jsZIVqhstO
— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) September 18, 2015
The Mackinac Island police Chief Brett Riccinto confirms to Politico that they did receive a complaint about the incident but are waiting to investigate further before commenting.
Yob followed up in a later Facebook post that he doesn't want to place blame on the entire Rubio campaign for the incident but does want Beeson fired. Senator Rubio so far hasn't addressed the issue.
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