One of the two young women involved in a brunch scuffle with Tomi Lahren spoke out on Wednesday to say that she stands by the incident and ‘doesn’t care’ that President Trump disapproves of her friend throwing water at the Fox News pundit.
Twenty-three-year-old college graduate Libby, 23, was at a table with eight girlfriends at UNION rooftop bar and restaurant in Minneapolis when her friend threw water at Lahren as she walked by.
After throwing the water, the girl under the screenname Jasmine Kohler shared photographs of it on her Snapchat story and wrote: ‘Thanks for the screenshots. I did it lol’. Earlier in the day, she appeared to goad followers by telling them in post: ‘Tomi Lahren at union (sic). 5 screenshots and we dump a drink on her.’
After being hit with the water, Lahren turned to engage the group but it was Libby, not Jasmine, who launched a foul-mouthed tirade at her which was also captured on another video which later emerged.
She called Lahren, who is her age, a ‘racist piece of s***’ and a ‘f****** piece of human garbage trash.’
She went on to tell Lahren’s 55-year-old mother Trudy that she worked with immigrants ‘every day of her life’, didn’t want to hear what her daughter had to say and told the Lahren family: ‘You’re done, you can go.’
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Libby, 23, is shown above, circled, arguing with Tomi Lahren and her mother Trudy (top left) after her friend threw a drink on the Fox News host on Sunday. She called her a ‘racist piece of s***’ and said she deserved to have the water thrown at her
The incident was condemned by President Trump on Wednesday morning in a tweet where he said he stood by Lahren saying: ‘Everybody is with Tomi Lahren, a truly outstanding and respected young woman!’
Libby said Lahren was not entitled to ‘peaceful discourse’ because she ‘spreads hate’
The fracas was also scolded by democratic comedian Kathy Griffin and Lahren herself deemed the group of girls ‘bullies, ‘embarrassing’ and hungry for ’15 minutes of fame’.
Speaking to DailyMail.com on Wednesday, Libby said that while she did not throw the water, her friend was quite right to do so because Lahren is ‘racist’ and was ‘not welcome’ Minneapolis.
‘When you use your platform to spread hate speech, you have lost your privilege to have a peaceful discourse,’ she said.
‘Especially when you come into our city, Minneapolis, which is a huge city for people of color and immigrants. She is not welcome here. Have you heard anything she says? She equated the Black Lives Matters movement to the KKK.
‘You can’t just say that about people and just expect everyone to give you a platform,’ she said.
Libby is a liberal arts graduate who volunteers for a non-profit organization which helps immigrants seeking asylum. She hopes to attend law school in the fall and wants to become an immigration attorney.
On Sunday, she said she watched as Lahren was accosted by other patrons on the rooftop bar where drag performances had been going on all day.
‘Tomi was there at the brunch and everyone at the restaurant figured it out people were walking by her table and calling her names. We were going to do a chant, “like go home Tomi,” but it didn’t happen.
‘[As Lahren was leaving], she walked by and the girl in the video tossed the water and it barely hit her,’ she said.
Jasmine Kohler proudly posted photographs to her Snapchat account after throwing the drink on Sunday. She is Libby’s friend and has refused to speak about it the incident became national news on Wednesday thanks to a condemnation from President Trump
In other videos taken from the rooftop after she threw the drink, Jasmine is seen, her white top and black off-the-shoulder top recognizable from the images she posted herself, laughing
As she skirted past the confrontation Libby was having behind her, Jasmine smiled and laughed
She got involved once Lahren and her mother had turned around and walked over to their table to confront them.
‘Her mom started saying something and then Tomi started to defend herself and that’s when I jumped in,’ she said.
She said that neither she nor any of her friends participated in the name calling and that they only got involved at the last second.
‘There were a lot of people walking by her table and making rude comments but the servers were perfectly kind to her.
‘There were people who moved to the bar seats and were scowling at [Lahren]. None of us at my table did that,’ she said. She added that ‘Lahren’s server was a woman of color and all of the servers were people of color,’ which, she suggested, intensified the thorny atmosphere given Lahren’s reputation.
Jasmine has not returned DailyMail.com’s requests for comment.
On Wednesday, Libby spoke on her behalf, saying: ‘She has decided to lay low and has no official statement.’ She added that she ‘probably’ didn’t regret it’ despite her retreat from public view.
Before she threw the water, Libby had been telling Jasmine how Lahren called out two of their friends at a recent show.
On Wednesday morning, the president weighed in to support Lahren on Twitter
Tomi Lahren appeared on Fox and Friends on Wednesday morning to speak about the ‘disheartening’ incident
‘[Jasmine] absolutely shares my feelings and she was also upset that Tomi was in our city. It’s Minneapolis, it’s a very traditional, democratic city. So she knew, we all knew. She shares feelings about how she is racist and says awful things about people.
When you use your platform to spread hate speech, you have lost your privilege to have a peaceful discourse,
Libby, 23, who got into verbal altercation with Lahren
‘I had told her about two of my girlfriends who had gone to Tomi Lahren’s show a week beforehand and how she had opened the show by saying, “If you’re a liberal, thank you for coming and being open-minded. Can you raise your hand.”
‘They were absolutely harassed, they had to leave early and they had to have security escort them out so that they were safe. So Tomi can preach all she wants about being peaceful but the people who listen to her, to what she says, they won’t take it to heart.’
After tossing the water, Jasmine got out of her seat and tried to escape the row while Libby argued with Lahren and her mother.
She was seen trying to squeeze by Libby, laughing and turning to look over her shoulder while bouncer Jeremy Jackson tried to separate the two groups.
Jackson then escorted Lahren and her parents away from the girls’ table. He told The Blast that the host had complained about being ‘thrown out’ when she was the one who had been hit with water. He replied to her that he was merely trying to do his job.
Not long afterwards, the group of girls was escorted down in the elevator by the same bouncer.
‘We were on our way out actually, we had already paid. [After the water throwing] the bouncer got in the elevator with us and said that he was sorry he had to be but that it was policy then we all kind of laughed and he actually gave us all high fives.
Lahren was with her mother Trudy (pictured together) and father Kevin when the incident took place on Sunday. The family had just finished brunch and were on their way out of the restaurant
Even some of Lahren’s most unlikely fans spoke out to support her after footage of the incident emerged
‘I think he was happy that somebody gave Tomi Lahren a piece of their mind,’ Libby said.
She shrugged off President Trump’s remarks and lumped him in the same school of thought as Lahren.
‘I don’t really care about his opinion at all. He does the exact same thing [as Tomi]. To release a press release saying that MS13 are animals? You can’t reduce a group of people to less than a human.’
Libby said her family was aware of the footage and was ‘very proud’ of how she spoke to Lahren and her mother.
In audio of her conversation with Lahren, she can be heard saying: ‘I don’t care what you have to say. You are a f****** racist piece of s***, sexist f****** piece of human garbage.
She is not welcome here. Have you heard anything she says? She equated the Black Lives Matters movement to the KKK. ‘You can’t just say that about people and just expect everyone to give you a platform’
You say all these awful things about immigrants, people of color. You can leave, you can leave. I don’t want to hear anything that you have to say.
She’s done. Goodbye. Piece of s***. Garbage, racist piece of s***. Goodbye.’
Trudy, Lahren’s mother, responded to her: ‘Who do you think you are?’
She hit back: ‘I am someone who has worked my entire life, I work with immigrants every single day of my life and I love, I love those people.
‘Those people have worked their entire lives and they have earned their place here in America.’
Others who were on the rooftop shared videos of the altercation proudly. In some, Lahren was told: ‘Get that b**** out of here’ and was slammed as a ‘racist’.
Lahren appeared on Fox and Friends on Wednesday morning to speak about ‘the incident’.
She said: ‘This something that was embarrassing, at the end of the day I’m a person too, but I’m tough, my family is tough, we can handle it.
‘I think that those that threw profanity and water and were applauding and laughing about it, wanted to get their 15 minutes of fame by making a video of me.’
In a Facebook post later, after President Trump’s tweet, she said: ‘To all the girls who follow and look to me as a source of inspiration, don’t let what happened to me discourage you from speaking your mind and being your authentic self.
‘Bullies win when we start giving them our energy.
‘Take that energy and let it fuel you! Thanks for all the love and support from Donald J. Trump and even my usual critics. It means a lot to me!’