L.A. County Sheriff Alex Villanueva is calling California governor hopeful Larry Elder a victim of a hate crime after a white woman in a gorilla mask was filmed throwing an egg at the conservative politician while he was on a campaign stop Wednesday.
The GOP candidate was touring a homeless encampment in Venice Beach when he was confronted by protesters and, Elder said, his security detail his security detail was 'physically assaulted, shot with a pellet gun and hit with projectiles.'
One of the protesters was the woman in the gorilla mask, who yelled 'Get the hell out of here,' before attempting to hit Elder with an egg, and was later seen punching a man who told her to calm down.
Sherriff Villanueva questioned in a tweet today how the attack on Elder was not a 'hate crime.
He added that 'woke privilege' is what enabled the woman to attack Edler and called out 'woke' politicians for not showing the same outrage that he said they would if Elder was a liberal.
A white woman in a gorilla mask was filmed throwing an egg at California governor hopeful Larry Elder while he was on a campaign stop in Venice Beach on Wednesday
He tweeted: 'Woke privilege” means a white woman can wear a gorilla mask and attack a black man without fear of being called a racist.'
Elder made it only 12 minutes at the encampment on 3rd Avenue before the attack, after which the event was quickly halted and Elder was escorted to a waiting SUV.
Elder, who is vying to be the state's first black governor, echoed Villanueva's sentiments in an interview with Fox News today and said that the attack would have the left 'screaming about systemic racism' if it happened to a Democrat.
He also said that some of the protesters shouted 'racial epithets,' but that he doesn't know for certain if the woman in the gorilla mask was acting out of racism or just 'mentally ill and might need treatment.'
Sherriff Alex Villanueva wrote in a tweet today that 'woke privilege' is what enabled the woman to attack Edler
He called out 'woke' politicians for not showing the same outrage that he said they would if Elder was a liberal
'One person said to the effect of, "Larry Elder doesn’t give a blank about Black people; Larry Elder only cares about White people," ' Elder said. '. . . I’m not somebody who pulls out the race card the way Barack Obama does, the way Al Sharpton does, the way CNN does, the way Black Lives Matter does. Maybe it was just an idiot. Maybe it was just a fool. Maybe it was just someone who doesn’t like Larry Elder.'
He continued, 'All I know is: if I were a liberal and somebody wearing a gorilla mask who was a White woman threw an egg at me, the left would be screaming about systemic racism.'
Shortly after the attack yesterday, Elder claimed that his security team was shot by a pellet gun - which can cause serious injury at close range.
He tweeted yesterday, 'Today I kicked off the Recall Express bus tour. Before we even left Los Angeles, my security detail was physically assaulted, shot with a pellet gun, and hit with projectiles. The intolerant left will not stop us. We will recall Gavin Newsom. We will save California.'
The LAPD is currently investigating the attack, and no arrests
