A University of Michigan student was arrested after video appeared to show her confronting and allegedly striking right-wing activists ahead of a contentious U.S. Senate race in the state.
The unidentified student was filmed approaching two men seated at a table displaying a sign that asked, “Is Islam Compatible with the West?” on Sunday. At one point, she clapped directly in front of one man’s face, prompting him to recoil and cover it with his hand.
“This is f***ing stupid, bro,” she said in the video. She then repeatedly questioned the man about whether he had a permit to be on campus, even as he attempted to end the exchange.
The man eventually turned toward a campus police officer who was off-camera and claimed that the student had struck him. She immediately denied the accusation, despite people nearby telling her that the entire confrontation had been recorded.
“But I have several f***ing eyewitnesses. I didn’t do f***ing s**t,” the student responded, accusing the activist of “victimizing himself as a fully grown man.”
She then launched into a tirade about “anti-Muslim people here” who, she claimed, were accusing her of putting “a f***ing hand on him, bro.”
“You can see me put a hand on you,” she said before approaching a woman nearby who was later identified as Lizzy Benichou, a conservative influencer known on Instagram as @basedinmalibu.
The student called Benichou a “b***h” as people around them criticized the influencer’s clothing, telling her that she would be required to cover up if she were in Iran.
A University of Michigan student was caught on camera shoving conservative influencer Lizzy Benichou to the ground on Sunday. Source: X/@CamHigby
The student was taken into custody, but doubled down on the attack, telling Benichou she should have killed her. Source: X/@CamHigby
At that point, Benichou got involved, asking another bystander if they thought she would be allowed to wear her short-sleeved black shirt in Iran.
The comment apparently left the woman irate, prompting her to push Benichou to the ground.
A police officer could soon be seen running up to the student and forcing her to the ground as he handcuffs her, telling her not to resist and to ‘stop fighting back.’
But the student seemed incredulous that she was being arrested, as she asked the police officer: ‘What the f**k are you going to do to me? Because I hit a dumb a** b***h in the face?’
After hearing the snide remark, somebody off screen could be heard telling the student: ‘You can’t attack somebody because you don’t like their politics.’
Soon, a police van could be seen pulling up to the scene, and another police officer started to assist the first cop in leading the student to the van.
Yet even as she was being escorted to the police vehicle, the woman doubled down on her attack.
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‘I’d do it again every f***ing time, you stupid f***ing c**t,’ she told Benichou. ‘I should’ve f***ing killed you when I had the chance.’
Michiganders are choosing between leftist Abdul El-Sayed and Republican Representative Mike Rogers in the US Senate election on Tuesday
‘Are you kidding me?’ one of the bystanders then asked.
‘No I’m not kidding you,’ she replied, prompting one woman to say: ‘You’re sick, you’re sick. Go to a mental hospital b***h.
‘I’ve already been to a mental hospital,’ the student hit back. ‘And I’ll go again if it means killing you.’
In a statement to Our News Outlet, University of Michigan police said officers were responding to an unpermitted event on campus just before 5pm when the chaotic scene unfolded.
‘As the group was packing up to leave, officers witnessed a University of Michigan student assault a woman not affiliated with the university,’ campus police said.
‘The student was taken into custody, processed and released pending warrant authorization. No injuries were reported.’
Benichou has since also released a statement on social media, saying she was ‘physically assaulted simply for showing up and exercising my First Amendment rights.
‘Political violence has NO place in the United States of America,’ she said.
‘I am incredibly grateful to the law enforcement officers who acted immediately to protect me. I am now in a safe location receiving care and I am going to be OK.
‘If the intention was to intimidate or silence me, it will not work,’ Benichou said.
Democratic Congresswoman Haley Stevens announced on Sunday that she was supporting Rogers over her party’s candidate
In a video posted shortly before the attack, Benichou said she and another conservative influencer, Emily Saves America, were on campus asking students who they were voting for.
Michiganders are choosing between leftist Abdul El-Sayed and Republican Representative Mike Rogers in the US Senate election on Tuesday.
In an unusual move on Sunday, Democratic Congresswoman Haley Stevens announced that she was supporting Rogers over her party’s candidate.
Michigan Democratic Party Chair Curtis Hertel has since made it clear that Stevens is no longer welcome in the party as he compared her endorsement of Rogers to a high school clique fight and said she ‘abandoned’ her constituents at the worst possible moment.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump said he would welcome Stevens to the GOP.
