GOP candidate: I won't answer questions from reporters, but I will have them handcuffed and detained

Written by Eric Boehlert

Published

Adding a bizarre new chapter to the conservative movement's desire to wall itself off from legitimate inquiries from journalists, security guards for Republican senatorial candidate, and Tea Party favorite, Joe Miller in Alaska handcuffed and detained a local journalist after he tried to ask Miller questions following a campaign appearance on Sunday.

From the Alaska Daily News:

The editor of the Alaska Dispatch website was arrested by U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller's private security guards Sunday as the editor attempted to interview Miller at the end of a public event in an Anchorage school.

Tony Hopfinger was handcuffed by the guards and detained in a hallway at Central Middle School until Anchorage police came and told the guards to release Hopfinger.

Hopfinger has not been charged but the owner of the Drop Zone, the private security firm that's been providing Miller's security, accused Hopfinger of trespassing at the public event, a town hall sponsored by the Miller campaign. The owner, William Fulton, also said Hopfinger assaulted a man by shoving him.

The unsettling incident came just days after Miller announced he'd drawn a “line in the sand” and would no longer answer questions about his past, including his previous employment.

Question: Is this where constant attacks on the “lamestream media” lead?

UPDATED: In a statement, the Miller campaign suggests that it didn't know Hopfinger was a blogger when guards handcuffed him. Instead, he was simply an “irrational” individual who had to be detained:

It is also important to note that the security personnel did not know that the individual they detained was a blogger who reporting on the campaign. To them, the blogger appeared irrational, angry and potentially violent.

But note this passage from the Alaska Daily News:

While Hopfinger was still in handcuffs, the guards attempted to prevent other reporters from talking to him and threatened them too with arrest for trespass.

It appears Miller's guards were ready to arrest lots and lots of journalists at Sunday's event.