Video of a confrontation over presidential politics at a café in Northern Virginia demonstrates how this election has many Americans on edge.
Annetta Catchings — the Alexandria Republican Committee chair and a former mayoral candidate — said it started when she was having lunch at a café in Old Town with three fellow supporters of former President Donald Trump on Friday. She said she commented that she could not understand how Liz Cheney could support Vice President Kamala Harris for president.
“And I said, you know, as a conservative woman, I could never vote for Kamala, and before I could even go into the specifics of why, Patricia leans over and, so much so, she was just, like, inches away from my face,” Catchings said.
Patti Morrissey, who worked for three decades in national security including a stint at the Pentagon, said the comment about Liz Cheney was a trigger.
“I shouldn’t have, but I said, ‘Maybe because he’s a criminal,’” Morrissey said. “So, it was a little wiseass comment, but I shouldn’t have said that. But it was very strange how quickly, boom, it turned on me. Annetta turned on me and said, ‘Are you a white liberal?’”
Morrissey said she’d also just heard about Trump’s statement that Cheney was a war hawk and should have to face nine guns trained on her face.
“People are really on edge with this election, and so, I acknowledge I’m really on edge with this election,” Morrissey said.
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Catchings said her friend started recording. Then Morrissey asked how intelligent women could possibly support Trump.
“It means that you understand when someone is a convicted felon and sex offender and accused of espionage, indicted for espionage,” Morrissey said in the video.
“The only people who every challenge me are white, Democrat women,” Catchings replied.
Eventually, a manager intervened, and Morrissey moved to a different part of the café.
Catchings said she posted the video online to expose the kind of treatment she gets frequently as a Trump supporter.
“I’m just sick and tired of these women feeling like they can get in your face like that, and it needs to be exposed,” she said. “And so, yeah, I’ve shared the video to expose it.”
University of Mary Washington professor Stephen Farnsworth said the confrontation isn’t surprising in this fraught political atmosphere.
“What’s clear is that America is not in a happy place,” he said. “Half of the country is going to be furious once this election is resolved, and many people are already very, very upset in advance of Election Day.”
Morrissey said she’s now receiving phone threats and her daughters are being harassed on social media. She said she should have handled things differently.
“I would apologize to Annetta for interjecting myself into their conversation,” she said.
Farnsworth said he fears political confrontations like that are just a preview of what’s to come after Election Day.
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