Florida State Rep. Anthony Sabatini responded to a tweet about an Orlando Sentinel journalist allegedly being struck by a Trump supporter at a rally by simply saying: “MAGA.” Sentinel reporter Michael Williams was covering Trump’s 2020 election rally in Orlando on Tuesday when a pro-Trump attendee allegedly knocked Williams’ phone out of his hands, the Orlando Sentinel reports. The man was subsequently arrested and charged with battery. In a Twitter exchange with Williams, Sabatini defended his initial response, saying he was reacting to the Sentinel’s “deliberately biased and distorted” coverage by ignoring the content and invoking the “peaceful phrase they hate.” Sabatini told the Sentinel in an interview that the initial tweet sharing the incident was an example of editorial bias, telling the newspaper: “You’re searching for incidents that were very rare at the event in order to cast a dark, negative light on the event.”
