The 73-year-old Vietnam veteran who says he was assaulted for supporting President Trump is vowing to rally again, telling the Herald enraged far-left protesters won’t scare him away.
George Griffin said he was simply exercising his First Amendment right on Saturday, holding a Veterans for Trump sign in a busy Douglas intersection, when he was accosted by 34-year-old Kiara Dudley, a Joe Biden supporter.
Dudley is accused of stepping on Griffin’s sign and pushing the Navy vet, causing him to fall into the street.
“I wound up on my back in the street after being dumped there,” Griffin said at his Douglas home on Monday. “And that street is a very heavily trafficked area. I was fortunate I didn’t get run over.”
He added Monday, “you should be able to hold a sign for your candidate without getting thrown into the middle of the street.”
Griffin said he cut his hand when he fell — resulting in a bloody finger.
“I’m not a hero. I’m not anything. I’m just a guy who’s out here holding a sign, and just wanting to show support for my candidate,” he said. “We pray for this country, and for this woman.”
“We’ll be back,” he said about holding signs in intersections with his wife, Joann. “We won’t stop supporting our candidate, and the issues we believe in.”
Dudley was arraigned on Monday in Uxbridge District Court, and was released on $250 cash bail. She has been charged with assault and battery on an elderly person causing injury, and has been ordered to stay away from Griffin.
Police responded to the intersection of Main and Webster streets after Dudley apparently became aggressive toward the Griffins holding Trump signs. Dudley, who lives nearby, had heard cars honking in support of Trump and decided to bring her Biden sign to the intersection, according to the police report.
“Dudley stated that he (Griffin) fell to the ground on his own and he was the aggressor of the incident,” the police report states.
Police received multiple calls from witnesses, stating that Dudley was the aggressor.
When asked about what Dudley claims, Griffin responded, “I don’t care what she says. She can say whatever she wants. There were eyewitnesses to what happened, and they corroborate everything.”
Griffin enlisted in 1965 when he was 19. He spent a tour in Vietnam.
“These hearing aids belong to Vietnam,” he said. “The audiologist asked me if I was ever exposed to loud noises and I responded, ‘Does artillery count?'”
Griffin, who was later a journalist at the Worcester Telegram & Gazette for more than two decades, comes from a military family — with descendants who fought in the Revolutionary War.
“I come from a long line of men who’ve stepped up to the plate,” he said. “I love this country, and the reason someone can come up and espouse whatever they want is because people have fought to preserve their liberty and freedom.”
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