Alt-right leader and white nationalist Richard Spencer has spoken of the moment a masked man sucker punched him “with all his might” during a Washington DC protest rally.
The incident in the downtown area of the US capitol happened as Spencer, head of the National Policy Institute, was returning from celebrating the Friday inauguration of president Donald Trump.
Speaking on camera to a team of journalists, Spencer can be seen receiving a powerful thump in the side of the head by a man covering his face.
It came seconds after Spencer denied that he was part and parcel of a neo-Nazi movement.
It’s understood that the same person also struck Spencer on the cheek earlier.
The alt-right leader was in the middle of talking about how protesters of his political stance - which has seen label immigration “a last stand” for white Americans - accuse him of being a neo-Nazi.
Spencer took to social media to discuss the double punch attack, which he said occurred while he was carrying out a documentary interview and then answering questions from an Australian media outlet.
“We were in downtown DC near a restaurant that I like to go to and we just happened upon this serious demonstration in Franklin Square,” he said in a Periscope broadcast.
“While I was there was this screeching cat lady who seemed to recognise me and she was just screaming names. But that created a scene and so there were many other people who started gathering around. At one point there was just this big circle around me."
He said that after engaging with the crowd someone wearing a black mask punched him in the head twice.
“He came out of nowhere and punched me. He didn’t really land one, there’s a little bit of swelling but it’s not a big deal.
“This Australian broadcast company started talking to me. So I was talking to this Australian public television station and the guy came back and he punched me basically with all his might.
“He came out of nowhere and sucker punched me on my ear. I can’t heart to well out of my right ear at the moment,” Spencer said.