Woman kicks Southwest employee, punches computer monitors in violent airport meltdown

Video shows the moment a woman appeared to have a violent meltdown in the Southwest Airlines concourse at Orlando International Airport last week.

The woman—later identified as 45-year-old Selomit Velez-Rodriguez—is seen in passenger Peyton Turbeville’s video yelling at Southwest employees.

"Motherf- - - -r, are you kidding me?" Velez-Rodriguez is heard saying on the video. "Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me?"

Wearing a large backpack, shorts, a red long-sleeved shirt and a ballcap, she yells at an employee, saying she’s trying to get to her destination to bury her brother.

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She appears to kick the employee, drawing gasps from bystanders.

One person can be heard saying, "Oh, that’s assault."

Velez-Rodriguez launches into a profanity-laced tirade, then hits a Southwest desk monitor three times, saying, "two flights wasted…two flights, three planes, after 45 minutes."

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Moments later, she tells nearby travelers to call the police as she follows an employee through the concourse.

After going off on another bystander in the concourse, Velez-Rodriguez is seen punching another computer monitor with her phone before following the same Southwest employee through the concourse.

Turbeville told Storyful that the woman was upset because she did not make the standby list for three flights, though the claim has not yet been verified.

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Turbeville also said the woman tried to get in through the gate after it closed and staffers asked her to stop.

FOX 35 learned from Orlando Police that officers responded to the airport at about 9:30 p.m. that night.

Witnesses told police Velez-Rodriguez tried to disrupt boarding, struck an employee and damaged more than $1,000 in computer equipment.

She was ultimately arrested and booked on charges of battery, criminal mischief and resisting an officer without violence.

Police told the station she tried to pull away from officers while being taken into custody.

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Court records show Velez-Rodriguez posted $5,000 bond and was allowed to return home to Illinois.

CBS host defends Trump's efforts to de-wokify the Smithsonian's presentation of US history

CBS host Tony Dokoupil agreed Wednesday with President Donald Trump’s push to have the Smithsonian Institution review how it presents American history.

During a "CBS Mornings" segment, Dokoupil defended Trump’s directive for Smithsonian museums in Washington, D.C., to stop focusing on the sins of America’s past and portray the country’s history in a more positive light.

"American history shouldn’t be a thing of reverence. The country is not above critique," Dokoupil said. "But we shouldn’t look at our history with contempt, either. And there is some room for correction back toward the middle."

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Trump criticized how the Smithsonian has presented American history across its various museums in recent years in a Truth Social post Tuesday, accusing the institute of pushing a "woke" agenda that fixates on the darker parts of America’s past. 

"The Museums throughout Washington, but all over the Country are, essentially, the last remaining segment of ‘WOKE.’ The Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL, where everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been — Nothing about Success, nothing about Brightness, nothing about the Future," he said. 

Trump added, "We are not going to allow this to happen, and I have instructed my attorneys to go through the Museums, and start the exact same process that has been done with Colleges and Universities where tremendous progress has been made." 

The White House issued a letter to the Smithsonian on Aug. 12 ordering it to conduct an internal review of its exhibits to ensure that they align with the "President’s directive to celebrate American exceptionalism, remove divisive or partisan narratives, and restore confidence in our shared cultural institutions" ahead of the country’s 250th birthday celebrations next year.

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Dokoupil argued that the words in the letter to the Smithsonian were similar to the current mission statement of the institution itself.

"The mission of the Smithsonian is to forge a shared history, a shared future, not just context, but hope to lead the country and communities together. That’s essentially what Donald Trump is offering here," the morning show host continued. 

He added that Americans deserve to feel proud of their country's history, and that their museums should foster that feeling for all visitors.

"If you ask someone, is the world and its people better off because of the existence of America and its people? To me, the answer is unquestionably yes. And I think people walking in the Smithsonian — when they walk out of it, they should get some sense of that."

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Co-host Vladimir Duthiers King pushed back, saying, "We don’t have to whitewash who we are and where we came from." 

"I agree," Gayle King responded. 

King added that she doesn’t believe that what Trump has deemed to be a "woke" presentation of U.S. history is "an overcorrection," saying it is just presenting "the history that’s all part of who we are."

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