Covington Catholic High School student Nicholas Sandmann took aim at the mainstream media during his speech at the Republican National Convention on Tuesday night.
Sandmann made headlines in 2019 when a video of his confrontation with Native American activists at the Lincoln Memorial during the March for Life went viral.
The video showed Sandmann standing face to face with Native American activist Nathan Phillips and smiling while wearing a Make America Great Again hat.
Shortly after the video surfaced, media outlets accused Sandmann and his classmates of taunting and mocking Phillips, as IJR previously reported.
He filed lawsuits against CNN, The Washington Post, and NBC Universal over their coverage of the incident.
“The full war machine of the mainstream media revved up into attack mode. They did so without researching the full video of the incident, without ever investigating Mr. Phillips’s motives, or without ever asking me for my side of the story,” Sandmann said.
He added, “And do you know why? Because the truth was not important.”
Watch his comments below:
Nicholas Sandmann, Covington Catholic graduate who sued news outlets for their coverage of a confrontation between him and a Native American man at the Lincoln Memorial, slams what he calls "the full war machine of the mainstream media." https://t.co/ae9Q2Lnaom pic.twitter.com/rchF8QRgnz
— ABC News (@ABC) August 26, 2020
Sandmann claimed the media portrayed him as an “aggressor with a relentless smirk” on his face.
He detailed his experience and explained the thoughts going through his mind including: “Don’t do anything that might further agitate the man banging a drum” in his face and “never to do anything to embarrass your family, your school, or your community.”
According to Sandmann, his life has not been the same since the encounter.
“What I thought was a strange encounter quickly developed into a major news story complete with video footage,” Sandmann said. “My life changed forever in that one moment.”
Sandmann confirmed on January 7 he settled his lawsuit with CNN. It was not clear how much the network settled for. The Washington Post revealed the newspaper settled its lawsuit with Sandmann in July. They did not disclose the terms of the settlement.
