Andy Ngo & Bob Roberts

Bob Roberts was released in 1992, when Andy Ngo was six years old, but the movie seems to have anticipated Ngo's career.

Per the Wiki summary of the end of the movie:

As Roberts is leaving the studio, he is seemingly shot by a would-be assassin. Raplin, who has been causing problems for the campaign, is initially linked to the shooting, but he is later cleared when it is found that due to constrictive palsy in his right hand he physically could not have fired the gun. Following the incident, Raplin contends that Roberts was never actually shot and that the gun was fired into the ground. 

The campaign is boosted by public support following the assassination attempt, and Roberts wins the election with 52 percent of the vote. Although Roberts claims that his wounds have left him paralyzed from the waist down, he is seen tapping his feet at a celebration party. 

The scuffle between Ngo and a few unidentified people in an anti-Proud Boys counter-demonstration has been used by Ngo and by his lawyer, Republican committee woman Harmeet K. Dhillon to raise money by representing a few unidentified randos as a danger to free speech, and most recently Ngo tried to link Congresswoman Maxine Waters to Antifa.

The claim that Andy Ngo suffered a brain hemorrhage as a result of the scuffle came from Quillette:

The Antifa thugs who attacked Quillette editor and photojournalist Andy Ngo in Portland yesterday did not quite manage to crack his skull. But they did manage to induce a brain hemorrhage that required Ngo’s overnight hospitalization. (For those seeking to support Ngo financially as he recovers, there is a third-party fundraising campaign.) 

Many people have pointed out that Andy Ngo's quick recovery from brain injury is miraculous - almost immediately after the Antifa event he made the rounds of right-wing media.

I find it curious that in the screenshot just above, Claire Lehmann was claiming that "liquid cement" was responsible for Ngo's "traumatic brain injury."

Snopes ruled that the claim about quick-drying cement was false:

However, Portland city officials admitted in a July 1, 2019, phone call with reporters that the evidence for the statement made in the tweet was based solely on an observation of a police lieutenant in the field that day who, according to the Portland Mercury, “‘saw a powdery substance that appeared to cause some irritation [when in contact with skin].’ The lieutenant also said the milkshake smelled similar to wet concrete, a smell they were familiar with from ‘having worked with concrete before.'” 

The police department’s tweet referenced vegan milkshakes made and distributed by the activist group Popular Mobilization (PopMob). 

“They put targets on our backs,” said Popular Mobilization spokeswoman Effie Baum, who asserted that activists didn’t add cement or any other non-food ingredient to the drinks and were “flabbergasted” at how the rumor spread online. 

The narrative appears to change from milkshakes to punching in the slightly more respectable end of the right-wing media, the Wall Street Journal:

Footage filmed by an Oregonian reporter shows someone in a black hoodie punching and kicking Mr. Ngo, and others surrounding him and throwing things at him. 

After escaping the mob, Mr. Ngo went to the hospital and was treated for head injuries including a subarachnoid hemorrhage, or brain bleed. 

A photo on Twitter shows his bloody face and battered eye.

Mr. Ngo was also hit with milk shakes, which have become a common Antifa projectile. Portland police on Saturday tweeted that they had received a tip that some milk shakes contained quick-drying cement.

But no actual medical records have been provided to prove that Ngo was treated for a brain hemorrhage.


Before the June 30 scuffle, Ngo was mocked for portraying himself as a martyr of Antifa because he was silly-stringed. It seems possible to me that someone in sympathy with Ngo came up with the cement milkshake story to help Ngo look less ridiculous. And once there was video of punching, the cement milkshakes were no longer needed.

According to Tim Robbins, the movie "Bob Roberts" did anticipate Trump:

“‘Bob Roberts’ came true,” Mr. Robbins says, referring to the 1992 mockumentary he wrote and starred in. 

He prefigured the Trump phenomenon in the film, which is about a charismatic television entertainer and rich businessman who runs for office on the Republican ticket, sugarcoating his corrupt ways with an appeal to family values. He is hailed as a savior by his fans and as a crypto-fascist by his critics. 

When a young woman sends an admiring note to Bob Roberts, he writes back warning her to stay away from crack because “It’s a ghetto drug.”

IDW update: so far none of the "liberals" of the IDW have spoken out against Trump's racism, including his attack at his latest Nuremburg rally.

UPDATE - Pinker has just come out against Trump. Good for him.