San Francisco Chronicle

Conservati­ve radio host says he was attacked in Tiburon

- By Michael Bodley Michael Bodley is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mbodley@ sfchronicl­e.com. Twitter: @michael_bodley

Firebrand conservati­ve radio host and adamant President Trump supporter Michael Savage was attacked and pushed to the ground by a man as he left a restaurant in Marin County, his attorney said Wednesday.

An attorney for the 75-year-old Savage questioned whether his client was targeted for his outspoken political beliefs and his backing of Trump, who has said he wouldn’t have won the election without Savage and his millions of listeners.

Savage had just finished dining at Servino Ristorante on Main Street in Tiburon when a man, whom he did not know, approached him in the parking lot around 8 p.m. Tuesday, said Savage’s attorney, Daniel Horowitz.

The man, believed to be about 50 years old and over 6 feet tall, began yelling at Savage, calling him “weenie” and “Weiner,” an apparent reference to Savage’s legal last name, Weiner, Horowitz said.

“The guy obviously knows who Michael is,” Horowitz said, adding that Savage had seen the man inside the restaurant at the bar, but did not speak to him.

Savage, holding onto his toy poodle, Teddy, and a to-go bag, told the man to “get lost,” Horowitz said.

The man then pushed Savage to the ground, and when a bystander tried to intervene, the man punched him in the face, Horowitz said.

Laurie Nilsen, a spokeswoma­n for the Tiburon Police Department, said officers responded to Servino around 8:25 p.m. on a report of a fight with no weapons involved.

Both men blamed the other for starting the altercatio­n and wanted to press charges, Nilsen said, adding that officers were compiling evidence and planned to forward a report to the Marin County district attorney’s office for possible charges. The name of the man involved in the confrontat­ion with Savage was not released.

In a statement, Savage denied starting the altercatio­n, saying his hands were full at the time. Horowitz said he was trying to obtain surveillan­ce footage from the restaurant.

Savage — whose latest book is “Trump’s War: His Battle For America” — is the host of “Savage Nation,” a nationally syndicated conservati­ve radio show that airs in the Bay Area from noon to 3 p.m. weekdays on KSFO-AM. He proudly describes himself as a political outcast in the liberal Bay Area.

Savage was fired from his gig at MSNBC in 2003 for telling a caller he should “get AIDS and die” — one of a series of controvers­ial statements he’s made over the course of his career.

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