The Dreaded Milkshake Attack Has Made Its Way to America

Like revolution, the Beatles, and a few decent game shows before it, the milkshake attack—as a political assault maneuver—had officially made its way from the United Kingdom to the U.S. of A. Here’s Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) making history as the first American victim of the milkshake wars:

Matt Gaetz got milkshaked in Pensacola pic.twitter.com/yqz3bPgjw5

— jordan (@JordanUhl) June 1, 2019

If you don’t know Matt Gaetz, and the ”(R-FL)” didn’t already tell you everything you need to know, here’s The Cut with a good summary:

Though Gaetz is a 37-year-old freshman U.S. congressman (and a lawyer), he has already made something of shameful name for himself. He’s been known to lie about crime statistics to drum up xenophobic sentiment, and he publicly embraced Trump’s concept of “shithole” countries, proclaiming that Haiti is one of them. Earlier this year, he was investigated by the Florida Bar Association for alleged witness tampering over a threatening tweet directed at fellow ghastly individual Michael Cohen, the president’s former lawyer, ahead of Cohen’s planned testimony before Congress.

A 25-year-old woman named Amanda L. Kondrat’yev was arrested for the assault, which basically makes her both the Lewis and Clark of milkshake attacks.

If you’re new to this phenomenon, here’s Paste‘s Harry Todd with a spot-on explainer:

There’s been a lot of talk of “milkshaking” lately, the dangerous and thrilling new form of political violence stirring fear in alt-right blowhards. For those unaware of the dangerous new trend, milkshaking is when you throw the delicious drink at a politician during a rally.

That’s the whole explanation: Alt-right political and cultural figures appear in public, and someone throws a milkshake at them. There is a whole Wikipedia page for it, and previous targets include Nigel Farage, Milo Yiannopoulos, and a bunch of other British people you’ve never heard of. It appears to have started with Tommy Robinson:

One Month Ago

#TommyRobinson punches man after having milkshakes chucked over him twice in two days. pic.twitter.com/4dNhLx6A2E

— Crackdown Chronicles (@CrackdownReport) May 31, 2019

And now that the trend has hit American shores, the milkshake attack has truly gone global.