A reporter for Politico was lucky enough to get video footage of two GOP candidates got in each other’s face and almost got physical, but then someone came up to them and got in the middle.
The reporter, Natalie Allison, posted: “This is not an episode of Jerry Springer. It’s tonight’s Ohio Republican Senate debate. “You’re dealing with the wrong guy,” Mandel says to Gibbons before calling him a “p-ssy.” She followed that up with another post, saying: “Both Gibbons and Mandel campaigns say it wasn’t their guy who called the other “p-ssy” over the mic. Here’s a clearer video, where it looks like it could be Gibbons. A couple people in the room last night said it was Mandel. A real whodunit of the 2022 midterms.” (source)
WATCH the video:
Who are they? Natalie Allison said “Reminder that these are the two frontrunners in Ohio’s GOP Senate primary.”
Politico stated: “An onstage standoff erupted between Ohio Republican Senate candidates Josh Mandel and Mike Gibbons at a primary debate Friday evening. In video from the Gahanna debate, former state treasurer Mandel stood up to challenge investment banker Gibbons during a heated discussion over a stock trade as the crowd jeered the confrontation and a debate official sought to separate the two men.
“You don’t know squat,” Gibbons is heard jabbing at the former state treasurer’s experience in the private sector, after which Mandel, a veteran, responds, “Two tours in Iraq, don’t tell me I haven’t worked.” The men repeatedly told each other to back off before standing eye-to-eye for several seconds, while fellow GOP debate participants Matt Dolan, Jane Timken and JD Vance looked on awkwardly. Mandel eventually took his seat.“