A 70-year-old New Hampshire man was arrested after video captured him slapping an 18-year-old Turning Point Action volunteer during an argument outside a polling place on Election Day, according to reports of the incident.
Stephen Redic, of Laconia, faces misdemeanor simple assault and a violation-level disorderly conduct charge following Tuesday’s confrontation outside Woodland Heights School.
He is scheduled to be arraigned December 10. Both the Republican and Democratic committees in Belknap County condemned the encounter.
The teenager was working at a table for Turning Point Action, the conservative advocacy organization founded by the late Charlie Kirk.
Footage showed Redic challenging the volunteer, who wore a Freedom hat and sweatshirt, over what the older man believed was an insult to his knowledge.
“You have no idea who I am, so how dare you say I don’t know much,” Redic told him.
The volunteer responded that Redic had not “presented a single statistic.” Redic became angrier, accused the teenager of making the same mistake and raised his middle finger toward the young man’s face.
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“Neither have you,” he shouted before protesting that the volunteer would question what he knew. The volunteer did not appear to strike Redic in the footage described in the reports.
“That’s what I know,” Redic declared before slapping him and walking away, according to the video.
Turning Point Action praised the volunteer for remaining calm during the exchange. The group posted, “He stayed calm. The left got violent,” It also encouraged supporters to continue appearing at polling places and voting.
The group urged supporters not to retreat from election activity, telling them, “Don’t cede the ground, show up to the polls.” Redic’s alleged conduct is under investigation, and the charges do not amount to a conviction.
A separate confrontation over political speech at the University of Utah resulted in a student being cited for simple assault and property damage after a College Republican was knocked to the ground near the Marriott Library.
Members of the campus Republican organization had set up a whiteboard asking whether there are only two genders. A recording shared October 28 by College Republicans officer Rylie Barnes captured a student identified by Fox 13 as Grace arguing with a participant about free speech.
Transgender man says: “I think Republicans should be shot in the street” moments prior to brutally assaulting a College Republican student.
Republican students aren’t safe around unstable men pretending they’re woman.
Follow @UtahCollegeReps pic.twitter.com/ivu9G2igfE
— Rylie (@Rylieparis05) October 28, 2026
The College Republican asked, “Do you believe we should have the right to freedom of speech?” Grace answered, “No, I think Republicans should be shot in the street, personally,”
The person filming challenged the statement as advocacy of violence. Following a cut in the recording, footage showed a College Republican falling to the ground and telling the other student to stop. The gap leaves unclear how much time passed or exactly what happened immediately before the physical confrontation.
Grace disputed the Republicans’ version. She told Fox 13 that the encounter was a “set up” and alleged they followed her after she left the table, repeatedly challenging her beliefs. She also alleged that she was punched in the face during the fight.
In a separate interview, she described herself as a victim of “transphobic aggression” and called the citations “bogus charges.” The university acknowledged the incident, but neither the clip nor the citations alone resolves the competing accounts of how the fight started.
At the University of Michigan, prosecutors have authorized charges against a student accused of attacking Jewish conservative commentator Liz Benichou during a campus free-speech event Sunday.
Temulun Togochog was recorded lunging at Benichou after the commentator questioned whether the student’s clothing would be acceptable in Iran. Footage also captured Togochog shouting a death threat as officers took her into custody.
“I should have fucking killed you while I had the fucking chance!” she yelled, according to the video cited by JNS.
Alyssa Fountain, an administrative assistant at the Washtenaw County Prosecutor’s Office, told JNS that the office reviewed evidence submitted Monday.
The authorized charges include one count of assaulting, resisting or obstructing an officer and two counts of assault or assault and battery.
The prosecutor’s announcement represents a development from the initial police response, when the student was taken into custody after the campus confrontation.
“There is no court date at this time, but a felony warrant for these charges will be issued by the court and a court date set once she has been arraigned on the charges,” Fountain explained. The authorization does not establish a conviction, and the reported procedural steps had not yet been completed.
In Washington, D.C., a man arrested after allegedly pointing a finger like a gun at a National Guard member near the White House was released from custody Wednesday.
An arrest affidavit stated that William Clark, 28, made “a shooting gesture with a finger gun” toward a van driven by a uniformed Guard member along the Ellipse. The service member and nearby troops detained him until Metropolitan Police officers arrived.
Police initially arrested Clark on allegations involving menacing threats and assault on an officer. A Tuesday court filing, however, listed a misdemeanor charge of assault or threatened assault in a menacing manner and did not identify a separate charge for assaulting a law enforcement officer.
