WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) – The winner of the race for the 21st Congressional District posted a video of the 7 News reporter he ordered kicked out of his election-night speech.
Constantino’s video and speech
In a profanity-filled victory speech, Republican Anthony Constantino criticized “the evil news media” in general before randomly singling out 7 News reporter Garrett Domblewski.
He called Domblewski and 7 News anchor Jeff Cole a**holes. He also called a reporter from a different organization a “f**king a**hole.”
Constantino then claimed Domblewski looked “so angry” and was giving him a “death stare” as the camera panned from Constantino to Domblewski, who was standing in the audience with his arms folded.
The camera then panned to the reporter whom Constantino called a “f**king a**hole.” She was laughing.
As Constantino continued to criticize the news media in general, he again singled out Domblewski and ordered that he be removed and led the crowd in a chant, “Kick him out. Kick him out.”
The video shows security guards escorting Domblewski out of the building.
Constantino’s social media post
In Constantino’s accompanying social media post, he says, “Here is the video of me kicking out the WWNY7 reporter who was staring me down as I spoke. I correctly identified him as a member of Evil Media as he went onto lie saying I kicked out his photographer which was false.”
Constantino’s security team pushed our camera sideways as it was recording Constantino’s speech so that it was no longer focused on Constantino. The security team then helped our cameraman remove his equipment from the building during the speech.
In Constantino’s social media post, he again repeated old claims that 7 News deleted two of his interviews and published a fake transcript.
Constantino’s social media post continued: “I don’t know what hostile liars are capable of so I correctly acted to keep the event safe. My security noted Mr. Domblewski’s hostile state and recorded him out of concern. The fact that my security was also concerned shows that I did the right thing. WWNY7 has a lot of explaining to do.”
Cordial interview before speech
Domblewski said he had no idea why Constantino singled him out. He conducted a cordial interview with the candidate earlier in the evening.
Constantino has repeatedly claimed that 7 News deliberately deleted interviews and published a fake transcript. 7 News categorically denies these claims and has previously addressed the accusations.
Dispute over earlier interviews
On March 8, 2025, 7 News reporter John Moore interviewed Constantino when he was running for the primary. The interview was used for on-air reports featuring “soundbites”, or excerpts from the interview. 7 News never intended to upload his or any other candidate’s full interview to online platforms.
On March 17, 7 News interviewed Republican congressional candidate Liz Joy. Due to miscommunication among 7 News staff, her full interview was uploaded online. Again, there was never any intention to upload any candidate’s full interview.
When Constantino requested that his full interview be uploaded online, 7 News was unable to accommodate him because the raw video had already been deleted from the computer system, as is our practice with all raw video.
To make it right, we offered Constantino the chance to do another interview with anchor Jeff Cole at Constantino’s earliest convenience, which was on March 28. The interview is online. About 14 minutes in, Cole explains what happened to the raw recording of the first interview.
On June 9, 2026, 7 News interviewed Constantino and Robert Smullen, another Republican running in the primary. After the interviews were finished, 7 News learned there had been technical problems with our new Digital News Desk. The audio was so poor in both interviews that 7 News decided against broadcasting them.
Constantino requested that his interview, even with poor audio, be uploaded online. We did so. He claimed he was misquoted in the online article, but never told us what he believed was incorrect.
Smullen’s team made no requests about his interview.
National attention
Constantino’s election-night speech was mocked Thursday on national comedy shows, including “The Daily Show” and “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”
Both shows pointed out that at least one child was in the audience when Constantino used expletives and called on President Trump to free Sean “Diddy” Combs, the imprisoned rapper convicted of transporting women for prostitution.
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