"I should have killed her when I had the chance!"
That's what a University of Michigan student shouted Saturday as police dragged her away. A few minutes earlier, she had shoved Jewish conservative activist Liz Benichou to the ground in the middle of campus.
Benichou was on campus in Ann Arbor talking with students about Islam and whether it fits with Western values. One student, a young woman, argued with her. Benichou asked her a question: "If you walked around in Iran like this, what would happen to you?"
The student answered by shoving her to the ground.
University police said officers saw the student assaulting a woman, took her into custody, and processed her. And she didn't get any calmer once she was in custody.
"I should have killed her when I had the chance!" she yelled. When people around her said she was sick and needed a mental hospital, she said she would "go again if it means killing her."
Independent journalist Cam Higby filmed the whole thing. He identified the attacker as a supporter of Abdul El-Sayed, the Democrats' Senate nominee in Michigan. Police haven't released her name.
Benichou says she was hurt. Her manager says she has a lower-back injury and plans to press charges. Police said no injuries were reported.
"Today, I was physically assaulted simply for showing up and exercising my First Amendment rights," Benichou said. "If the intention was to intimidate me or silence me, it will not work."
Look at what happened. A Jewish woman asked a question about Iran. The answer was to put her on the ground. Then, with police holding her and cameras rolling, the attacker announced she wished she'd killed her.
She did it in daylight, on one of the most closely watched campuses in the country, with police nearby and cameras recording. She didn't seem to care who saw.
The student was released pending a decision on charges.
El-Sayed's campaign hasn't said a word. That's the same El-Sayed who campaigned with Hasan Piker, the streamer who called a Jewish Michigan suburb a "KKK neighborhood" last week. El-Sayed called that "inappropriate." He hasn't found even that much to say about this.
Michigan votes tomorrow. A Jewish woman got shoved to the ground on a college campus for asking a question, and the candidate her attacker reportedly backs hasn't said anything about it.