Republicans Cry Foul After Brick Man Shoved During Murphy Town Hall (Video)

BRICK, NJ — Kevin Tober says he's used to tense situations at political events. But after the 23-year-old from Brick got shoved at a town hall held by Phil Murphy, the Democratic candidate for governor of New Jersey, he and fellow Republicans are looking for an apology from the candidate.

The event was held at the Hibernian Club in the Hamilton Square section on Wednesday evening, and apparently broadcast as a Facebook Live event on Murphy's campaign Facebook page. Tober, a 23-year-old from Brick who works for the Senate Republicans said he attended to gather information for the GOP on what Murphy was saying.

A 23-second video clip being circulated by the self-described conservative blog Save Jersey shows Tober trying to get Murphy's attention and staffers trying to block him and force him out of the event. One person comes into the frame and gives Tober a shove twice to get him out of the area. The blog says the clip was taken from the Facebook Live video before it was taken down.

An email sent to the Murphy campaign requesting comment had not been answered as of 5:30 p.m. Friday.

Tober was dressed up like a gas pump, referencing talks state Republicans say would raise the state's gas tax to the tune of a $1.3 billion impact on residents. His appearance sparks laughter as he tries to draw Murphy's attention. Murphy, whose back is to him, says, "Is there something going on I'm missing?" Someone in the audience can be heard to say "Someone thinks it's Halloween," an apparent reference to Tober's outfit. Tober shouts a question, but Murphy ignores him, continuing with the topic he was discussing. When Tober shouts a second time, a man in a white shirt can be seen shoving Tober twice. At that point Murphy can be heard to say, "Careful everybody, careful," and a second staffer appears to intervene and put his hands out to prevent additional shoving.

Tober said he was at the event as a tracker, someone who attends campaign appearances by opposing candidates to document what they do or say. "Every serious campaign has a tracker," he said. It's not uncommon for the staff of the candidate to try to disrupt what a tracker is doing, which typically involves filming the appearance.

"They will try to block you, but it's never anything physical," he said. "I've never had something like this happen."

Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, tweeted a photo of Tober at the event and mentioned him in a couple of tweets that imply Murray was expecting something to happen. But whether Murray was still at the event at the time of the confrontation was unclear, and a phone call requesting comment was not immediately returned.

The Save Jersey blog labeled the incident as violent, and criticized Murphy, saying it followed heated rhetoric where the Democrat has compared President Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler. It also prompted calls from some New Jersey Republicans for Murphy to denounce the incident.

Carlos Rendo, Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno's running mate in the gubernatorial campaign, lashed out at the Murphy campaign, likening the incident to Fidel Castro's regime in Cuba and its stifling of dissent, according to Save Jersey.

Frank Luna, the Third District chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Tom MacArthur, criticized Murphy and also ripped the news media for not reporting the incident, which had only been posted by the Save Jersey blog on Friday morning.

Chris Russell, head of a campaign consulting firm that works with Republicans from the municipal level to congressional races, also criticized the Murphy campaign staff, and suggested Tober should file charges in a hashtag.

Tober, a 2012 graduate of Brick Township High School and a graduate of Brookdale Community College, said he became intrigued by politics following the 2008 presidential campaign. After he graduated from high school, he said he joined Gov. Chris Christie's re-election campaign as an intern, and worked on MacArthur's campaign in 2014.

"I did some stuff in Monmouth County in 2015," he said, then worked to get Ohio Gov. John Kasich on the presidential ballot on New Jersey last year. He also volunteered for Marco Rubio's presidential campaign, he said.

Confrontations are nothing new at town hall events, both in New Jersey and across the country, particularly in the last year. There were several instances of physical altercations at Trump campaign rallies, including one where Trump's former campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, punched a reporter. Lewandowski later was charged with battery, but Trump blamed the reporter for the incident. In Montana in May, Rep. Greg Gianforte made headlines after he body-slammed a reporter from the Guardian. Gianforte later pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and apologized to Ben Jacobs, the reporter but only after Fox News reported on the incident.

"The guy ran right over and pushed me," Tober said of the Murphy town hall incident. "That’s when I backed off. I didn’t want any confrontation."

See the video below:

Photos: Phil Murphy participates in a Democratic gubernatorial primary debate, Thursday, May 11, 2017, in Newark. — by Julio Cortez/Associated Press; Kevin Tober photo courtesy of Kevin Tober