Couple’s fight over President Trump and cable news led to the arrest of a Burton man

A Burton man was charged with third-degree domestic violence on January 4 after he and his wife got into an argument over politics, according to a report from the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office.

Deputies responded to the couple’s residence just after 1 p.m. on Thursday, January 4 in response to a 911 hangup call with distress heard in the background, the report said.

When deputies arrived, the man was on the front porch, “as if he was waiting for the deputies”, the report said.

The man advised deputies he and his wife were fighting about President Donald Trump and then invited deputies inside. Once inside, the couple began verbally arguing again and deputies were forced to separate the pair.

The woman told deputies “Look at what he did to me,” and pointed at her eye, which was “extremely swollen with a very pronounced lump” along the cheekbone, a deputy wrote in the report.

The man told the deputies he and his wife were “getting into it over politics.” He said that his wife was a big fan of President Trump and that he was not the biggest fan of him, or Hillary Clinton for that matter, the report said.

The man went on to explain that the couple has two separate TV’s in the house so each of them could watch their preferred cable news outlets—his being NBC and CNN and hers being Fox.

“He stated she is always making remarks that if you don’t like the president or support him, you are going to hell, etc., whenever he says something about the president. He expressed aggravation that he cannot voice his opinion with her,” a deputy wrote in the report.

As for his wife’s eye, the man claimed she had always had it and that she was a liar and has schizophrenia and bi-polar disorder. He continued to tell deputies he was a preacher and that he would never hit his wife, the report said.

The deputies interview with the man’s wife was not immediately available, but the report stated there was “probable cause” for the man’s arrest.

The man was arrested and held at the Beaufort County Detention Center for a day before being released on January 5, according to an online booking list.

The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette does not typically release the names of those accused of or charged with misdemeanor crimes.

This story was originally published January 7, 2018 at 2:40 PM with the headline "Couple’s fight over President Trump and cable news led to the arrest of a Burton man."