Interior Secretary Ken Salazar threatened to punch a reporter on a recent trip to Colorado, according to witnesses.
Dave Philipps, a reporter for the Colorado Springs Gazette, tried to
ask Salazar about his appointments to the Bureau of Land Management and
the wild horse population in the state.
Specifically, Philipps had
questions about the government's relationship with a wild horse buyer
who allegedly sold more than 1,700 horses to Mexican slaughterhouses.
Ginger Kathrens, executive director of the Cloud Foundation,
witnessed the exchange between Salazar and a reporter. Her organization
put out a release cataloging the exchange and blasting Salazar for his
treatment of the press. The group captured video of some of the exchange, but stopped recording before the threat itself.
According to Kathrens, Salazar took two questions from Philipps before disagreeing with his line of questioning.
"Don't you ever ... You know what, you do that again... I'll punch
you out," Salazar reportedly told Philipps before ending the interview
and walking off.
The alleged incident took place when Salazar was in Colorado on Election Day, on behalf of the Obama campaign.
"The secretary regrets the exchange," Interior spokesman Blake Androff told POLITICO. (Continues)
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