The Virginia lawmaker who interrupted President Trump's speech in Jamestown has been identified as the individual who dumped water on Geraldo Rivera at the 2016 Democratic National Convention.
A reporter for the Daily Beast filmed Rivera interviewing a group of protestors outside the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. As Rivera speaks with one of the protestors, a man in hat with the Palestinian flag approaches him from behind and dumps water over his head, dousing the news anchor.
Demonstrators shout at Fox News' @GeraldoRivera. One pours water on him. #DemsInPhilly pic.twitter.com/SXYbMITezZ
— Andrew Desiderio (@AndrewDesiderio) July 26, 2016
Ibraheem Samirah, who was more than two years away from joining Virginia House of Delegates, identified himself as the perpetrator in two Facebook posts.
"I swear it wasn't on purpose, Geraldo!" Samirah posted on his personal Facebook page linking to a story about the interaction.
"FOX News' Geraldo Rivera wanted to dance with the stars, so I gave him a little taste of it," he said in a another post featuring the raw video.
Samirah did not respond to requests for comment about the incident.
This appears to be the first time Samirah has been publicly linked to the interaction with Rivera.
Responding to the news that Samirah had been identified as the perpetrator, Rivera called Samirah "an intolerant, back-stabbing punk," in an email to Washington Free Beacon.
"[Y]ou can add 'chicken s—t Mother f—ker,'" Rivera said.
After the incident occurred Samirah's smiling face can be briefly seen from the reporter's video. He pushes a man who knocked the bottle of water from his hand before ducking into the crowd.
"Dude! Well f—king done," one Facebook friend of Samirah's commented on the post. He also received other commendatory remarks for dousing Rivera.
The Washington Free Beacon was the first to report on Samirah's longstanding connections to anti-Semitic groups and his vocal support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against the state of Israel. While in dental school, Samirah was an active member of the Boston Students for Justice in Palestine chapter and participated in a protest against an Israeli film festival.
Samirah became the second Muslim American elected to the Virginia legislature after he won a special election for a northern Virginia House of Delegates district in 2019.
He garnered national headlines for protesting President Trump's speech commemorating the 400th anniversary of the first meeting of representative government in America in July. During the president's speech, Samirah stood up in front of the podium holding up a sign and loudly shouted until he was removed by security.
The next day he published an essay in the Atlantic explaining why he chose to protest the president's speech, comparing himself to the civil rights protestors who participated in the Selma civil rights march.
"[T]o the critics of incivility," Samirah wrote, "I say it's time to think critically about whom such decorum has traditionally served: the white, wealthy, and comfortable."