A top adviser for Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg appeared to celebrate former Democratic Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley harassing Acting Deputy Homeland Security Secretary Ken Cuccinelli at a bar on Thanksgiving eve to the point where Cuccinelli was forced to be the bigger person and leave.
Siobhan Arnold, who claims to work in media relations at Villanova University, wrote on Twitter, “Martin O’Malley just drove Ken Cuccinelli out of the Dubliner in DC w/ a passion-laced and shame-invoking tirade on behalf of immigrant refugee children!!!”
Senior Buttigieg Communications Advisor Lis Smith responded to the news by writing on Twitter: “Thanks giving came early this year —>”
Radio Host Jason Rantz noticed Smith’s comments on Twitter, writing: “This doesn’t sound like she’s living up to the standards that [Pete Buttigieg] claims to hold. But: he’s a phony. He’s no moderate. If either were to be bullied and run out of a campaign event in a red state, they’d condemn it. But Republicans? Harass away.”
This doesn’t sound like she’s living up to the standards that @PeteButtigieg claims to hold. But: he’s a phony. He’s no moderate.
If either were to be bullied and run out of a campaign event in a red state, they’d condemn it. But Republicans? Harass away. https://t.co/vnBukAxooO pic.twitter.com/mdOv4lS0e5
— (((Jason Rantz))) on KTTH Radio (@jasonrantz) November 29, 2019
“The alleged incident took place at the Dubliner, an Irish pub on Capitol Hill where the two men were attending an event with graduates of Gonzaga College High School, where they both graduated from in the 1980s,” The Daily Wire reported.
In an interview with The Washington Post, Arnold said that “O’Malley was shouting,” adding, “I don’t think Cuccinelli was responding. I think he’s like, ‘Time to go. Just got here and I’m leaving.’”
In a statement to Fox News, Cuccinelli said that O’Malley was cursing loudly “to the point of veins bulging on his neck,” a claim that O’Malley did not exactly dispute in his interview with The Washington Post.
Cuccinelli told Fox News: “As I walked up to one of the bars among several in The Dubliner to order my Guinness, I heard screaming and cussing behind me to my left, which I did not immediately take notice of other than the fact that it was louder than everything else in the pub. When I turned to look I saw O’Malley and he was obviously screaming at me. For a moment I thought he was trying to be funny, as we’ve met before, which I thought was strange. It was immediately clear that he was cursing and screaming for real, to the point of veins bulging on his neck.”
“O’Malley pushed his way through the small group to confront me face to face, still cursing me, the President, and my Italian ancestry and he got right up in my face, bumped up against me and invited me to take a swing at him,” Cuccinelli continued, adding that after he realized how out of control O’Malley appeared to be, he told him, “Martin, one of us has to rise above this, and it’s obviously not going to be you.”
Cuccinelli noted that O’Malley’s comments about the Trump administration’s immigration policies were “odd” because his comments “applied to President Obama’s policies, a fact he clearly did not appreciate me pointing out (without screaming it, [by the way]).”
“Martin’s behavior was as sad as it was shocking,” Cuccinelli said. “I learned on the other side of the pub that Martin’s screaming was so loud that people on the other side of the pub heard him. I also learned from others who have known Martin for years that while his behavior was shocking, it was not new to them.”