One of the most prominent American white nationalists was punched in the face during a live TV interview with the ABC on Friday, shortly after Donald Trump's inauguration in Washington DC.
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Far-right activist Richard Spencer is punched on camera while being interviewed by ABC correspondent Zoe Daniel on Donald Trump's inauguration day. Video courtesy ABC.
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Far-right activist assaulted on camera
Far-right activist Richard Spencer is punched on camera while being interviewed by ABC correspondent Zoe Daniel on Donald Trump's inauguration day. Video courtesy ABC.
Richard Spencer gained an international profile when he led an alt-right conference in calls of "Hail Trump, hail victory" while members of the crowd made Nazi salutes, in footage that made waves in November.
The Southern Poverty Law Centre, which monitors hate groups in the US, has referred to Mr Spencer as "a suit-and-tie version of the white supremacists of old".
Mr Spencer was attacked twice just before 3pm on Friday at the site of a volatile protest in downtown Washington DC, the same spot where a limousine was set on fire and activists clashed with police.
He was hit once off camera, then shortly after he was attacked again, while doing the interview with the ABC's Washington correspondent Zoe Daniel.
This was during our interview today. Pretty nasty moment. https://t.co/7wZ8oFpb2R
— Zoe Daniel (@zdaniel) January 20, 2017
Footage shows a person clad in black and wearing a scarf or cloth pulled up over their face punch Mr Spencer in the ear, just as he was talking about his "Pepe" badge.
The attacker turns around and heads off to the right of camera, while Mr Spencer immediately walks the other way down the street, holding his head.
Shortly after the incident, Mr Spencer tweeted: "I was just physically assaulted twice by antifas [anti-fascists]. No serious damage. I can take a punch."
Later, on Periscope, Mr Spencer said both attacks were by the same person.
"I was talking to an Australian public television station and the guy came back and basically punched me with all his might. He came out of nowhere and sucker punched me on my ear," he said.
A protester then spat on him, Mr Spencer said.
"I moved over to the side. I didn't know what to do. I was with the two journalists and I was saying 'we need to get out of here'.
"While I was there a guy came and spat on me," he said.
Mr Spencer then jumped in a taxi and was driven off. He said he was recording to Periscope from a "safe space".
Mr Spencer said he was afraid "this was going to become the meme to end all memes and I'm going to hate watching this". Nevertheless, he has shared the footage three times on Twitter.
Pepe is a cartoon frog which became a symbol of the alt-right, which the Anti-Defamation League denounced last year for often having white supremacist connotations.
At the conference in November when he gained notoriety, Mr Spencer was quoted in The New York Times exalting the white race. "America was, until this last generation, a white country designed for ourselves and our posterity ... It is our creation, it is our inheritance, and it belongs to us."