U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell Tuesday called on the Justice Department to investigate the attack of conservative journalist Andy Ngo, who was hospitalized after being assaulted during an Antifa protest in Portland, Oregon over the weekend.
"When I watch this horrific beating, and when I saw the video of him appealing for help from the police, I knew I had the ability and the responsibility to speak out and to define this in a way that others weren't," Grenell told Fox News' "America's Newsroom."
Grenell said the group in Portland had targeted Ngo, an editor for Quillette who has often investigated its activities.
"He was trying to do his job, and he was a very courageous, brave young man to do it, but they knew who he was," said Grenell. "They knew that he is gay, that he's Asian, and that he is conservative."
Grenell, who is openly gay, also complained that the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest LGBTQ advocacy group, is staying silent, with the spokeswoman of one of the largest organizations trying to "change it around" and say "he deserves this."
"I don't know if they are silent because he is conservative or because he is Asian," said Grenell. "Either way, it is completely wrong."
He further commented that the Portland mayor's office knew there had been threats that Ngo was being targeted, but there was nothing done to protect him.
Ngo, appearing on CNN's "New Day" Tuesday, said he wonders if the United States is attuned to when the "left can go too far."
"In the city of Portland, it’s become a hotbed for far left militancy, and it’s always been my goal to document these protests in a professional manner, and for that, I was deemed to be a provocateur and deserving of my beating," said Ngo.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.