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Jared Polis Staffer Gets In Face of Conservative Activist, Grabs Phone

Jared Polis
Jared Polis / Getty Images
October 25, 2018

A female staffer for Jared Polis, the Democratic nominee for governor in Colorado, angrily confronted a conservative activist at a public political event and grabbed the activist's phone out of his hand.

Mara Sheldon, Polis's communications director, confronted activist Jovanni Valle at the event, which was headlined by Bernie Sanders. Valle was asking female members of the crowd about whether Polis can be considered a "feminist" after he admitted to police in the late 1990s that he pushed his female employee.

"I thought assaulting a woman is not something a feminist would really do," Valle said to a woman wearing a "Feminist" t-shirt.

"At that point, Mara Sheldon, Polis' campaign communications manager, steps in to say his accusations about Polis aren't true," the Denver Post reported. "The video picture goes dark briefly but a Denver Post photographer caught the moment as Sheldon grabbed for Valle's phone."

"Sheldon told the Denver Post late Wednesday that she put up her hand to stop the man after he ignored her request to stop recording her," the paper continued. "However, the video shows that she goes for the phone before telling him to stop."

Post reporter Anna Staver tweeted a video of the incident.

Democrats have recently been involved in other physical confrontations, as two Republican candidates in Minnesota were recently assaulted, and a Democratic operative was arrested for assaulting a female Republican staffer in Nevada.