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By Jackie Homan
Let me start by saying: YES, I am the person who filmed the viral video of Governor Ned Lamont on Saturday. The media identified me and kindly tipped me off last night that my name was about to become public.
So I figured it was time to set the record straight, in my own words.
I knew about Lamont’s rally because I am signed up for nearly every progressive activist newsletter in the state. That was not by choice. When I started Greenwich Patriots with an amazing group of friends during COVID, a number of trolls thought it would be funny to flood my inbox with their content by signing me up for dozens of activist newsletters.
Instead of just deleting the emails and unsubscribing, I decided to pay attention and learn how these networks function. I used to do strategy consulting for a living, so studying the competitive landscape of local activist groups was right up my alley. I began writing articles for the Greenwich Patriots newsletter detailing activist events, protests, and more. I developed a wide following, with readers across the state and country. Now I receive tips and requests from many people asking me to look into issues the mainstream media has ignored or not covered truthfully. My articles get picked up by The Connecticut Centinal, which I greatly appreciate, since local media—Hearst publications in particular—showed no interest in publishing my submissions during COVID.
On Friday I received a tip about Rob Blanchard, a former Lamont staffer who left the Lamont administration to join the governor’s re-election campaign. Blanchard’s name appeared in a local paper 11 days after he reportedly ignored police instructions and drove into a pothole in a construction zone. He also had potential issues involving his car tax and inconsistencies on his campaign filings with the state. I thought Blanchard might attend Lamont’s get-out-the-vote rally in Scalzi Park, so I headed over to see if I could ask a question. The Connecticut Centinal was interested in the story.
I arrived at the park at about 10 a.m. I looked for Blanchard for a few minutes, but instead spotted the governor walking in my direction. It seemed like a good opportunity to ask Lamont the question instead. I moved closer and stood at the edge of the sidewalk. You can see from the video what happens next. I attempted to ask Lamont a question. He took a couple of steps closer to me, decided he didn’t like my question, and tried to intimidate and scare me by smacking the phone nearly out of my hand.
“What is this about? This doesn’t look like it’s a fair deal to me,” Lamont said as his hand made contact with my phone.
I was in shock. I could not believe what had just happened. I honestly thought the sitting governor of Connecticut was going to strike me or break my phone. I had to grip the phone tightly to keep it from flying out of my hand. I was absolutely stunned. I’m pretty sure that if I had done the exact same thing to Lamont, I would have been tackled to the ground and immediately arrested.
I decided to stay and record the whole 22-minute rally. (You can watch it here.)
After the last speaker, Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz asked everyone to gather for a group photo. That's when I felt an arm reach around my back and a hand on my waist. It was the governor. He asked if I would join the photo and positioned me right next to him. Dick Blumenthal, who steals valor from REAL Vietnam Veterans like my father, stood on the other side of me. It all happened so quickly that I was honestly confused: Why would a man who had just smacked my phone to intimidate me half an hour earlier ask me to stand right next to him in the group photo? Why did he put his arm around me? What right did he have to touch me (again)? Had he already forgotten who I was?
But the story didn't end there.
I shared my video with friends, including Reese Hopkins of the Reese on the Radio show. He was equally flabbergasted by what had happened to me. I gave him and The Connecticut Centinal permission to share the video. It quickly went viral, and by Saturday afternoon my phone was flooded with calls, emails, and media requests.
WFSB told me they would be asking Lamont about the video at Trick-or-Treat at the Governor’s Mansion.
Governor Lamont told WFSB's reporter, “I think Ryan [Fazio]’s getting desperate. Maybe somebody came to an event and tried to stir up some trouble. I’m here trying to celebrate Halloween, I wish he was doing the same thing.”
For the record, I am not in any way, shape, or form connected to Ryan’s campaign. I’m not working for any political campaign, and I had no political messaging on my clothing. The Greenwich Patriots Substack is provided free of charge. It is a labor of love, after all.
A later statement from the Lamont campaign said:
“For the last several months, political provocateurs have shown up to disrupt the Governor’s events, both official and campaign. While presenting themselves as journalists, these individuals have been seen supporting Republicans, wearing their campaign apparel, and marching in parades alongside them. It’s no surprise that Ryan Fazio, whose campaign has failed to gain traction with voters, is now desperately trying to manufacture any sign of life by deploying these faux journalists to harass the Governor, get uncomfortably close to him, and shove cameras in his face. Taking a page out of Trump’s playbook, Fazio is trying to turn nothing into something in a last-ditch effort to generate attention for his struggling campaign. Connecticut voters haven’t bought the act for the past year, and they aren’t buying it now.”
Additionally, WFSB reported that a bystander in my video named Lauren Meyer said, “The woman got too close to the Governor and he was caught off guard, and he flicked his hand in the direction of the camera. He did not slap her phone, and he never made physical contact with her, so this narrative that is being pushed is absurd.”
Meyer saw me walk toward Lamont to ask him a question. Then she walked away from the governor with a smile on her face before the incident happened. In that moment she clearly did not view me as a threat, or she would have stepped between us. Yet after the incident, Meyer claimed I got “too close to the Governor” and that “he did not slap” my phone. That is an obvious lie based on the video I took, which clearly shows Lamont made contact with my phone. But why would Meyer lie? Does it have to do with the fact that she is the vice-chair of the Stamford Democratic Town Committee and a special assistant to Stamford Mayor Caroline Simmons?
I issued a media inquiry to Lamont’s communications director, Cathryn Vaulman, this morning. I think I deserve real answers to my questions, not just media spin.
I asked Vaulman to explain why the governor’s office is trying to turn this rather frightening encounter into something other than what it was: a citizen journalist tried to ask the governor a question in a public park on a lovely October morning. The governor snapped, hit the reporter’s camera, and then thirty minutes later seemingly forgot about the encounter and invited the reporter to join the group photo.
I told Vaulman how shocked and shaken I was by the encounter. I have never experienced anything like that before. I asked for answers to some questions, including:
The last question that still lingers in my mind is whether Lamont was having a Joe Biden-style “senior moment”—the kind where you lash out at someone one minute and are friendly the next. Could it be the early stages of dementia? I’m not a doctor. But he’s getting up there in years, and he’s had plenty of COVID shots, so it seems reasonable to wonder whether the governor is physically fit to serve another term.
Lastly, I have been pressured from the left, right, and center to file charges against Lamont. I will tell you that I asked the only Stamford police officer I saw at Scalzi Park about the incident. I showed him the video. He told me he didn’t think it amounted to anything, but that if I wanted to research the law around “breach of peace” and file a report, I could. He didn’t think anything would come of filing a report because it was the governor, after all.
And unfortunately, he has a valid point.
King Ned is the same man who took away our rights for the sake of “COVID.” He mandated dangerous COVID vaccines and unscientific interventions like masks and social distancing. He put sick COVID patients into nursing homes with healthy patients, resulting in numerous deaths. He signed the law that eliminated religious exemptions to the childhood vaccination schedule in Connecticut. And when my friend filed a lawsuit over that travesty, the Democrat supermajority had the audacity to change the law to render the lawsuit moot.
Does anyone honestly think a police investigation of Lamont will result in anything other than harassment of me (and my family) for daring to challenge the governor?
We already live in a state that openly defies federal laws and tells police they aren’t allowed to notify ICE about criminal illegal aliens. That policy has led to tragic and avoidable deaths, including most recently Ryan O’Shea, the hockey captain from the University of New Haven, who was killed by an illegal alien wrong-way driver in October.
So what are the chances that anyone would take my complaint seriously? If you’re an attorney and want to weigh in, by all means do so. It seems everyone in the whole damn state has my personal cell phone number by now, so it should be easy enough to reach me.
P.S. I wanted to give a shout-out to the memers out there, cause you all know how much I like a good meme. Thanks for having my back.
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