ORLANDO, Fla. — A former congressional candidate was caught on camera shoving a rival supporter and taking his campaign sign (watch it). The incident happened at a rally on Saturday for District 8 candidate, Daniel Webster, who is in a heated race against Democrat Alan Grayson.
YOUTUBE VIDEO: Watch Confrontation
A film crew making a documentary about the closely watched race for the congressional seat, posted the video on YouTube.
"He shoved me, yanked the sign out of my hand, and told me to get the....out," said Lance Parker, the man seen being attacked on the video.
The attack started when one of Grayson's supporters, Lance Parker, went to a Daniel Webster rally in Orlando and held a Grayson campaign sign up behind the stage where Webster was speaking.
While Parker was holding the sign, Bruce O'Donoghue, a former candidate and Webster supporter, snatched the sign out of Parker's hand and tried crumple it up. In the video, O'Donoghue can be heard cursing at Parker who repeatedly asked for his sign back.
Someone with the Webster campaign eventually stepped in and gave Parker his sign back. WFTV was told, that person also had to step in when two other people tried to confront Parker.
"Do you feel like you feel like you provoked this confrontation?" WFTV reporter Daralene Jones asked Parker.
"I guess if you consider someone trying to exercise their right under the constitution," Parker said.
While talking to media on Sunday, Congressman Grayson compared the attack on one of his supporters to the same kind of violence that killed President Kennedy and civil rights activist Dr. Martin Luther King.
"This is the same impulse to violence that killed Robert Kennedy, it's the same impulse to violence that killed Martin Luther King," said Grayson.
O'Donohue released a statement to WFTV late Sunday night, apologizing for the incident. He said it was an overreaction on his part.