Christian conservative radio host and author Eric Metexas has been caught in the middle of a social media storm after footage appeared of him allegedly punching a protester in the face.

Metexas was at the National Republic Convention when a protester on a bicycle voiced his opinion. The video below appears to show Metexas punch the man, before back-tracking quickly to the safety of security and police. We warn that the video below contains bad language.

Metexas was leaving the event, where President Donald Trump made his acceptance speech, when it appears he was with his wife. The man was reportedly let go after being spoken to by police.

The American Conservative’s Rod Dreher, a friend of Metexas’s, stated, “So, what do we make of this? I can’t pretend to be neutral on it. Eric and I have been friends since 1998, and I love the guy. I very much do not love his Trumpy politics, and have shared that opinion with him privately in the past. But I do not make friends on the basis of their politics, and I do not throw friends overboard, publicly or privately, when they say or do things I find objectionable. That is not going to happen here. Period.

I was very surprised to see this, though, because Eric, who is 57 (and therefore probably more than twice the age of the guy he punched) is one of the most genuine, gentle men I know. Over the past four years, when anti-Trump people find out that I’m friends with Eric, they ask me what’s in it for him. They can’t imagine that he has embraced Trump for any reason other than a cynical one.

“That’s completely wrong. That’s not who Eric is. You can criticize him, and criticize him hard, for his political convictions, but you cannot criticize him for cynicism. Other than my mom, Eric Metaxas is the least cynical person I know. Love him or hate him for it, it’s the truth.”

The video below, shown earlier in the afternoon, shows Metexas in white pants, the same color pants the man in the above video was wearing.

Metexas has not released any statement on the matter. He has also been in the news recently after tweeting that Jesus was white. Coming off the back of several black killings, his comments were ill-timed.

“Jesus was white. Did he have “white privilege” even though he was entirely without sin? Is the United Methodist Church covering that? I think it could be important,” he said on Twitter.

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