Man in Trump gear faces simple assault charge after breathing on women outside a Trump golf club
(CNN) — A man wearing a Trump shirt and an inflatable Trump innertube around his belly who was seen on video deliberately exhaling on two women outside of President Donald Trump’s golf course in Virginia has been charged with simple assault.
Raymond Deskins, 61, of Sterling, Virginia, was charged with misdemeanor simple assault, the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.
One of the women shot cellphone video of Saturday’s incident outside Trump’s club in Sterling and posted it on social media.
Michele Bowman, public information officer for the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office, confirmed to CNN that Raymond Deskins, the man charged, is the man seen in the video.
CNN has been unable to reach Deskins despite multiple attempts.
In the 24-second video, Deskins — who was not wearing a mask — can be seen in a verbal confrontation with the women who were there protesting Trump. It is not apparent what happened before the video began.
The women can be heard telling him to get away from them and back up. One of the women yelled at him, “Get away from me! Get away from me!”
The other woman told him, “You don’t get up in somebody’s face,” to which he responded, “I’m not in anybody’s face.”
She replied, “You are in my face — and you don’t have a mask, so you need to back up.”
That’s when the man can be seen exhaling forcefully, apparently in the direction of one of the women. The women gasped in shock as the man turned around with a smirk on his face.
One of the women yelled, “That’s assault!”
The man yelled back, “I breathed on you!” He then exhaled on the woman taking the video.
“Two separate parties reported they were assaulted during a verbal argument outside of Trump National Golf Club,” the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. “As the incident was not witnessed by law enforcement and the video did not capture the entire interaction, an investigation was conducted on scene and both parties were advised they could go to a Loudoun County Magistrate and seek a citizen obtained warrant.”
LCSO later updated their statement to say, “This afternoon our deputies served a warrant obtained by a citizen through a Loudoun County Magistrate. Raymond Deskins, age 61, of Sterling, VA, was charged with simple assault (misdemeanor) and released on a summons.”