More On Ed Schultz’s Bar Fight
Earlier this evening I wrote a post about North Dakota and national radio personality (and Democrat mouthpiece) Ed Schultz getting into an altercation with Kevin Nagle. Upon first hearing of the story, something just didn’t seem right.
Ed Schultz, those of us in North Dakota know, has a somewhat legendary temper. He’s known to be belligerent and very, very defensive. Kevin Nagle, on the other hand, seems to be a prominent businessman (a quick Google search shows him to be a prominent health care professional routinely quoted in news articles about issues like Medicare). The idea that Schultz was sitting innocently in a bar when Nagle came up and picked a fight with him just didn’t pass my smell test.
So I took the liberty of contacting Nagle directly and learned a few things that are pretty shocking, and certainly didn’t make it into the Fargo Forum article about this incident (or Schultz’s accounting of it).
To wit:
- After the altercation, Schultz talked about it on both his local North Dakota talk radio show and his national show. Apparently Schultz has given out Mr. Nagle’s phone number to his listeners, and Nagle has been receiving hordes of phone calls to the point where it is threatening his ability to serve his clients.
- At one point Schultz asked Nagle why he and his family weren’t over fighting the war in Iraq, and Nagle responded by pointing out that some of his family was, in fact, in Iraq. Or had been in Iraq. Schultz responded to this by saying that he hates “f***ing right-wing Republicans” and threatening Nagle to the point where the restaurant security began to take notice
- Nagle responded to Schultz’s threat by saying he and his group were going to leave, at which point either someone from the hotel/bar or one of Schultz’s party (Nagle isn’t clear on this) grabbed his arms and pinned them behind him as Schultz approached with a fist cocked as though he was going to throw a punch.
- Before Schultz was able to throw a punch, Nagle’s fiancee stepped in and Ed’s fist grazed both her and Nagle.
- Nagle’s fiancee has bruises from this encounter.
- At this point things were broken up. Nagle spoke with the bar owner, named Rick, and was told that he and his party were free to stay and that Schultz had left. Nagle is unsure of Ed left because he was asked to or because he simply fled.
Rather shocking, is it not? Of course, this is just one side of the story, but according to Nagle there were plenty of witnesses in the bar able to back up his story. Nagle also says that there is more to tell, which may or may not be forthcoming in the following days.
I get the feeling that Nagle really just wanted this all to go away until Schultz himself directed his listeners to Nagle’s private phone number.
Personally, I find Nagle’s story to be entirely believable and feel that Schultz is probably guilty of assault. And although this altercation started over a political disagreement, there is no excuse for it coming to blows. I think Schultz needs to apologize, at the very least for the thuggish and childish personal attack he launched at Nagle by making public his private phone number, if not for throwing a punch at both Nagle and his fiancee.
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