A high-ranking member of the Lexington County Republican Party was arrested Dec. 16 for assaulting a city councilman at the political party’s Christmas drop-in.

Angus Godwin, 51, an executive committeeman for his precinct and a voting member at county party meetings, turned himself in to the Town of Lexington Police Department. He is charged with assault and battery in the third degree for allegedly slapping Mike Green, who represents District 1 in West Columbia, in the face.

According to Green, Godwin approached him while Lexington County GOP Chairman Craig Caldwell was praying over the meal at O’Hara’s Public House at the Dec. 6 event, slapping him on the back and saying, “Hey, Mike Green.” The councilman said he later approached Godwin and told him, “Good job on the Pete Fisher campaign.”

Green told the Chronicle that Godwin recruited Fisher, whom Green defeated in November to retain his seat on council, to run against him.

The councilman said at that point, “[Godwin] just turned around, haul[ed] off and slapp[ed] me on the left-hand side of my face” and then tried to get him to go outside and fight.

A news release from the Lexington Police Department states that in the course of their investigation they found that “Angus Godwin told a witness at the restaurant that he had just slapped the victim.”

“This is very sad to me that this is the level that passes for political discourse now,” Green told the Chronicle. “If you don’t like someone, you just physically attack them. I’ve been involved in Republican Party politics for, I don’t know, maybe 25 years. Never has anyone ever laid their hands on me. This was Gestapo-like tactics that were used, and they’re trying the exact same thing now.

“It’s unacceptable to ever physically assault someone over political ideas or political disagreements,” Green said.

Reached via email, Craig Caldwell, the Lexington County GOP chairman, provided a written statement on behalf of the group that expressed much the same sentiment.

“The Republican Party condemns all violence, and expects all of its members to conduct themselves with decency and decorum,” it reads. “While disagreements are part of life and politics, being able to agree to disagree and continue to work together to our common agenda is critical.”

Godwin disputed Green’s version of the incident when reached by the Chronicle. He said that after he slapped Green and others on the back, Green approached him quickly, got in his face and accosted him. Godwin said he put a hand on his face, but he didn’t slap him.

“I did put my hand on his face to get him out of my [face],” Godwin said. “If I wanted to hurt the man, he’s half my size, he’d probably just now be waking up. This was not an intent of harm. This was, ‘Get out of my face Mike Green, not today devil.’”

Godwin said that he didn’t push Fisher to run against Green, but did support him when he did so. Godwin said Green came at him and taunted him about the loss.

“He walked up to me and shouted, ‘How did your participation in Pete Fisher’s election go, how’d that turn out, huh?” Godwin said. “He jumped in my face. Like lunged at me.”

Godwin said Green frequently accosts and yells at him at party functions and that the situation at the Christmas drop-in was the latest example. He said he has gone to Caldwell, the Lexington County GOP chairman, several times asking him to intervene.

“He’s using the law to try to punish me because he doesn’t believe in freedom,” Godwin said. “This was a political hit to get someone that has an opinion that’s opposing his out of the picture.”

Both Green and Godwin said that tensions between them had been building since the Lexington County GOP convention in April and that the disagreement started with Godwin blaming Green for alleged discrepancies in the balloting for electing party officials at the convention. Godwin said Green was in charge of the laptop used to tally the votes. Green said he wasn’t involved in the count.

Both added that their dispute had another flashpoint during a breakfast club meeting at a Lizard’s Thicket in Lexington, with each blaming the yelling match that resulted on the other.

“They think that I’m a RINO,” Green said, using the common abbreviation for “Republican in name only” to describe how he’s viewed by some in the county GOP. “I voted for Trump, I voted for Trump all three times. In the primary and the general election and in the general election again. But apparently because I didn’t go to the Jan. 6 rally to try to overturn the election or I believe that President Biden is, you know, the true president, they think I’m a liberal. It’s amazing. I’ve never had to face something like this before.”