Written by by Katie Daviscourt at thepostmillennial.com
Tariq Yusuf, a progressive Seattle City Council candidate, has been identified as one of the militants involved in the assault on journalist Jonathan Choe and his security team at the University of Washington on Tuesday.
Yusuf is now claiming to be a victim after he was pushed to the ground by one of Choe’s security guards to thwart the attack.
Video footage shows that the candidate for the citywide council position was walking among a mob of black bloc Antifa militants while wearing a black mask and a keffiyeh when he began to physically charge towards the journalist before being intercepted by the security officer, video footage shows.
The incident occurred near the UW Gaza encampment on the Quad ahead of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk’s TPUSA speaking event, which garnered a flood of far-left militant activists opposing his appearance on campus. Choe is a journalist for TPUSA’s Frontlines.
Yusuf, who had his identity concealed behind a mask during the time of the incident, confirmed his identity after video footage of the encounter had been posted to X by a writer with a local progressive publication, The Stranger.
“Position 8 Seattle City Council candidate @tariqajyusuf got pushed down by someone appearing to be affiliated with Jonathan Choe. Yusuf said he was trying to stop Choe from filming Muslims at the Gaza solidarity encampment at UW yesterday,” wrote Hannah Krieg of the Stranger.
In response to Krieg’s post, Yusuf issued a post from his X campaign account and confirmed that he was the individual who had been pushed to the ground in the clip.
He then played the victim.
“As someone who grew up Muslim, I know how scary it is to stand for what you believe in. For a lot of our families, our parents aren’t citizens and often are refugees from awful circumstances,” said Yusuf.
“We’ve been spied on, attacked, and abused by exercising our basic rights. The sheer disrespect of these people who are expressing their right to speech is oxymoronic, cruel, and offensive to the principles this country was founded on,” he continued.
Yusuf concluded his post by saying, “I’m grateful for those who checked in on me after the incident and made sure I had the help I needed. Our Seattle deserves to be for everyone without fear, intimidation, nor greed.”