2
0
Right wing commentator Andrew Bolt was attacked by two masked men who sprayed him with glitter at a book launch.
The Sky News pundit was approached for a selfie by a woman when the pair rushed him, knocking the woman aside and spraying him.
'They jumped me, spraying me in the face and all over my suit with some sticky liquid with some glitter and dye,' he said of the 'cowardly' attack.
CCTV footage from the restaurant in Carlton, Melbourne, showed Mr Bolt fighting back, knocking over several chairs and tables in the process.
He was seen wrestling with and punching one of them in the face at least once before he pushed him over and the other fled.
The controversial personality said he also kicked one of them between the legs off camera, and one of them would have a bruise on the left side of his face.
'Bad luck for them I don't do running and hiding,' he said.
'I apologise [for the kick between the legs], I guess, but I don't fight nice if I'm pushed too far.'
Police were looking for the two men who were wearing hoodies, along with a third man holding a camera who took photos of or filmed the fight.
Mr Bolt claimed the cameraman loitered outside the restaurant for half an hour waiting to photograph him.
Victoria Police said a 'short scuffle' took place in which the pair threw shaving cream and glitter before fleeing.
Mr Bolt was at the restaurant to help launch The Art of the Impossible, a book about Donald Trump by Steve Kates.
He is arguably the most controversial commentator in Australia whose regular column in the Herald Sun has caused so much outrage his 2006 'best of' book was titled Still Not Sorry.
On Sunday he claimed Britain had 'imported the start of a civil war' by 'opening the gates to mass immigration from the Middle East and Africa'.
Mr Bolt said Australia did the same 'suicidal insanity' by allowing Lebanese and Sudanese refugees in and the government must now 'shut the gates'.
Last Wednesday he slammed Aboriginal leaders for requesting a 'First Nations Voice enshrined in the Constitution', calling it racism.
'Are you insane? Can’t you see you’re playing with fire not to oppose this?' he said.
On the same day he attacked ASIO boss Duncan Lewis for insisting there was no evidence to suggest there was a link between refugees and terrorism.
Mr Bolt listed several prominent Muslim refugees who became terror suspects and declared 'bringing in Muslim refugees does indeed expose us to more danger'.
Earlier he defended the man who slapped a pie into Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce's face over his pro-gay marriage stance.
He also said Donald Trump was right to sack FBI boss James Comey, despite the firing being almost universally condemned by experts.