Lou Correa: Democratic lawmaker surrounded and harassed by MAGA fans in airport
Lawmaker confronted by about 20 people says ‘They picked me out, and boy, they came at me’
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Your support makes all the difference.Democratic Representative Lou Correa stood up to Trump supporters who came up and screamed in his face as he was about to fly out of Washington Dulles Airport.
Mr Correa told CNN that he was looking forward to a long flight home to his California district and to finally get to rest after Congress stayed up late into the night to ratify the election results after the storming of the Capitol.
Instead, Mr Correa said he was met by a group of around 20 people who confronted him. Mr Correa retweeted a two-minute video showing parts of what happened.
"They picked me out, and boy, they came at me," he said.
"It was going to be turning violent. It wasn't a fear. It was just a matter of waiting for the first punch to happen."
Mr Correa told Spectrum News of one of the group: "I thought he was going to punch me and I was getting ready to do what I had to do to protect myself."
The apparent Trump supporters who were flying home after the violent riot on Wednesday reportedly told Mr Correa "Nobody here voted for you".
"That's okay, I don't work for you," Mr Correa said in response.
When CNN asked him what he was thinking, Mr Correa said: "Stand my ground, not let them run me over and get ready for a major fight."
Mr Correa said they were "spewing hate" and misinformation that he was working for a voting machine company or that he was a Chinese spy.
Mr Correa said he didn't blame those who confronted him, but that he blamed President Trump because "the President is the most powerful man in the world".
"He's the one that's been inciting all of this stuff," Mr Correa told CNN.
Airport security eventually broke up the scene. "It shocked me that in an airport with all that security, this kind of an altercation took place," Mr Correa said. "I've always thought of airports as being the most secure place in America to be in."
No arrests have been reported. Mr Correa said it was a "big shocker" that security took down his name but “didn't seem” to get the names of any of the people who had been harassing him.
The 62-year-old Mr Correa served in the California state assembly, on the Orange County Board of Supervisors and in the California state senate before joining the House after winning an election in 2016.
Republican senators Mitt Romney and Lindsey Graham were recently accosted by Trump supporters as they were catching flights to and from DC.
Mr Graham was escorted by police from a terminal inside Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport after a group of Trump supporters chanted “traitor” and screamed “you work for us” after he condemned Donald Trump’s response to the violent mob at the US Capitol and baseless allegations of election fraud, The Independent reported.
A day before a violent mob attacked the US Capitol, Mitt Romney was hounded on his way from Salt Lake City to Washington DC by supporters of Donald Trump who accused the Utah Senator of not supporting the outgoing president over his unfounded claims of voter fraud, The Independent reported earlier.
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