A group of President Donald Trump's supporters have filed a lawsuit against Cardi B after an altercation at a New York beach, saying the artist defamed them when she went online after the fight and called them racist.
Cardi B was spending the day with her sister, Hennessy Carolina, and her sister's girlfriend, Michelle Diaz, when the confrontation took place on Sept. 6, according to ABC7. The two parties told different versions of what happened at Smith Point Beach in Long Island during Labor Day.
The "WAP" rapper, who posted video of the incident on social media, said Carolina and Diaz were harassed “all because they are a Afro/Hispanic gay couple.” The footage shows the two groups fighting over a parking spot, exchanging obscenities in a heated argument.
One of the men, standing to another man wearing a Make America Great Again hat, tells the women to move their "vehicle out of here." The Trump supporters' group also included a woman who chanted the President's name while the confrontation continued.
Cardi B posted the video as a response to conservative pundit Candace Owens, who blames the rapper for contributing "to the disintegration of Black culture."
"You wanna know why Joe gotta talk to me Candice cause I have the #1 song & yet my sister can’t go to the beach in the Hampton’s wit out trump supporters harassing cause they were by themselves & Santa Claus was harassing my sis GF all because they are a Afro/Hispanic gay couple," the rapper said on Twitter.
You wanna know why joe gotta talk to me Candice cause I have the #1 song & yet my sister can’t go to the beach in the Hampton’s wit out trump supporters harassing cause they were by themselves & Santa Claus was harassing my sis GF all because they are a Afro/Hispanic gay couple https://t.co/OLQX2mrzbp
pic.twitter.com/ISfJStODme— iamcardib (@iamcardib) September 6, 2020
Carolina, who explained the incident in an audio recording, said the two men told her and her girlfriend to “go to your f**king country.”
"How dare you sit here and tell us to f**king leave and bother us?" Carolina said. "We moved out of respect and you still came? Two men? To us and yell 'get out of here'? Go to your f**king country?'"
Cardi B, who posted the audio recording on Twitter, said "that big pink man was harassing my sister girlfriend to move her car for no reason and then my sister came there had a back and forth and they stood quite when she wip [sic] that phone out."
Nooooo that big pink man was harassing my sister girlfriend to move her car for no reason and then my sister came there had a back and forth and they stood quit when she Wip that phone out .They was harassing 2 Women ! Ya going to catch the right fuckin one ! https://t.co/xcH1PvGVAB
pic.twitter.com/rLym9O2yIU— iamcardib (@iamcardib) September 6, 2020
According to attorney John Ray, representing the plaintiffs, the incident seemingly erupted out of nowhere while "peaceful Suffolk County residents were quietly enjoying a Sunday at the Smith Point beach with their families."
"Rap celebrity Hennessy Carolina suddenly approached them, raging, spitting, insulting, assaulting, defaming and threatening them, all the while videotaping them because one of them wore a MAGA hat," Ray told ABC7.
Peter and Pauline Caliendo, who had a Trump flag on their car, blamed Carolina's girlfriend for blocking some cars on the beach.
"Very nicely said, you must not be from here because you don't know the etiquette of the beach," Peter Caliendo told ABC7.
The Caliendos along with the other plaintiff, Manuel Alarcon, said they saw Carolina running at them from the water and recording with her phone while screaming at them.
"Then I get this person, getting in my face, calling me every name in the book and you don't even know me," Alarcon said.
The lawsuit accused the three women for allegedly editing the cellphone video and posting it on social media, labeling the "residents and their families as 'n***ers' and as 'racists.'"
"Real threats of harm were made," Ray said. "They live in fear now. Their reputations have been ruined. We seek substantial damages."
The Caliendos said their 8-year-old granddaughter also witnessed the incident and she is "traumatized."
According to NBC News, the Trump supporters are also filing a lawsuit against Carolina for potentially exposing them to coronavirus with her spit.
The complaint states that Carolina "knew or should have known that her spraying of spittle upon Plaintiffs at a time when COVID-19 virus infection was a nation-wide threat to all persons in the U.S., was assaulting, threatening and intimidating to said Plaintiffs."