A University of Michigan student was arrested after video appeared to show her confronting and assaulting conservative activists on campus ahead of a closely watched U.S. Senate race in Michigan.
The unidentified student approached two men seated at a table beneath a sign that asked, “Is Islam Compatible with the West?” on Sunday. Footage showed her clapping close to one man’s face, prompting him to recoil and raise a hand toward his face.
“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 as he attempted to end the exchange.
The man turned toward a campus police officer who was off-camera and said the student had struck him. She immediately denied the allegation, even as people nearby told her the entire confrontation had been recorded.
“But I have several f***ing eyewitnesses, I didn’t do f***ing s**t,” the student responded. She accused the activist of “victimizing himself as a fully-grown man.”
The confrontation then shifted toward what she described as “anti-Muslim people here who want to say I put a f***ing hand on him, bro.”
“You can see me put a hand on you,” she said before approaching a nearby woman later identified as Lizzy Benichou, a conservative influencer who uses the Instagram handle @basedinmalibu.
The student called Benichou a “b***h” as people around them commented on Benichou’s clothing, suggesting she would have 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 continued making hostile remarks, telling Benichou she should have killed her. Source: X/@CamHigby
Benichou then joined the exchange, asking another bystander whether they believed she would be permitted to wear her short-sleeved black shirt in Iran.
The remark appeared to anger the student, who then pushed Benichou to the ground, according to the video.
A police officer quickly moved in, forced the student to the ground and handcuffed her. He instructed her not to resist and repeatedly told her to “stop fighting back.”
The student appeared surprised by the arrest and asked the 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 comment, someone off-camera told her: “You can’t attack somebody because you don’t like their politics.”
A police van soon arrived, and a second officer helped escort the handcuffed student to the vehicle.
Even as she was led away, however, the student continued to defend the confrontation.
“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 bystander 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 the Daily Mail, 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.