The Montana senator previously operated an aerial surveillance company whose technology was used to shoot down an Iranian drone in 2019 -Credit:Getty Images
(Getty Images)
A sitting Republican senator from Montana involved himself in an altercation on Wednesday between Capitol police officers and a Marine Corps veteran protesting the war in Iran, grabbing the veteran and wrenching his body until his arm appears to snap and break.
Sen. Tim Sheehy rushed to help the officers during a Senate Armed Services Subcommittee meeting when Brian McGinnis, a veteran and Green Party candidate for the U.S. Senate in North Carolina, shouted, “No one wants to fight for Israel.”
Sheehy was filmed grabbing McGinnis by the legs as McGinnis hooked one of his arms in a door frame, attempting to pry him away from the door until an audible crack is heard.
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Sheehy is the recipient of more than $600,000 from the largest pro-Israel lobby group, AIPAC, and its mega-donors, according to Track AIPAC, a website that catalogs the lobby’s donations to U.S. lawmakers.
The incident occurred as a group of six House Democrats, each of whom has received between $900,000 and $6.7 million from AIPAC, is proposing an alternative war powers resolution that would grant President Donald Trump a one-month extension on his war alongside Israel against Iran.
Sheehy reposted a video of the violent encounter onto his own social media accounts along with a statement in which he referred to the veteran and Senate candidate whom he injured as an “unhinged protester.”
“Capitol Police were attempting to remove an unhinged protestor from the Armed Services hearing. He was fighting back. I decided to help out and deescalate the situation. This gentleman came to the Capitol looking for a confrontation, and he got one. I hope he gets the help he needs without causing further violence,” Sheehy wrote.
Rhetoric from the Trump administration has increasingly equated speech and behavior from anti-administration protesters that is protected by the First Amendment with outright danger and extreme violence -Credit:Getty Images
In another video, as McGinnis is being taken out of the chamber, he can be heard expressing support for a free Palestine. “America does not want to send its sons and daughters to war for Israel!” he shouted.
It was not immediately clear whether Sheehy would be investigated or arrested for his role in the altercation, or whether McGinnis would file a lawsuit against him. The senator’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Mirror US.
In 2015, before running for Senate, Sheehy formed a company that develops aerial surveillance and imaging systems, and that specializes in jamming and shooting down enemy drones. The company’s technology was used to shoot down an Iranian drone in 2019, according to The Bozeman Daily Chronicle. The 2020 acquisition of the company netted Sheehy $75 million.
A spokesperson for the Capitol Police said in a statement that McGinnis was being treated for an injury. Three officers were also treated for injuries, they said.
“This afternoon, an unruly man who started to illegally protest during a hearing, put everyone in a dangerous position by violently resisting and fighting our officer’s attempts to remove him from the room,” the statement said.
McGinnis faces three counts of assaulting a police officer and three counts of “resisting arrest and crowding, obstructing, and incommoding for the unlawful demonstration,” Capitol Police said.
“Protests are not allowed inside the Congressional Buildings. There are plenty of other spots on Capitol Grounds, outside, where demonstrations are allowed,” according to the statement.
The Trump administration has pivoted to “portraying people, who are exercising their First Amendment-protected rights to peacefully document law enforcement abuses, as a threat,” a former DHS attorney said -Credit:Getty Images
Trump, Leavitt and Rubio offer wishy-washy justifications for Iran war
The violent encounter involving a sitting U.S. senator comes as Trump and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Wednesday continued the administration’s oscillating justifications for its initial strikes against Iran on Saturday, offering conflicting explanations just hours apart over whether the strikes were meant to protect against an imminent attack on the U.S. or as support for Israel.
Leavitt, at a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, claimed that the president’s decision to strike Iran was based on his “feeling based on the fact that Iran does pose an imminent and direct threat to the U.S.,” despite having said for months that Trump’s strikes last year totally “obliterated” the country’s nuclear infrastructure. But Trump, hours later, gave an alternative reason: “If we didn’t do it first, they would’ve done it to Israel,” he said.
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Their statements followed a nearly identical, two-sided explanation from Secretary of State Marco Rubio. On Tuesday, in a tense exchange with reporters at the Capitol, Rubio attempted to discredit his own suggestion a day earlier that Trump decided to strike Iran because Israel was ready to act first. He denied making the statement, despite it being captured on video, and instead said Trump himself made the decision to attack because it presented a unique opportunity for success.
Trump administration targeting dissent as protesters deemed ‘domestic terrorists’
The altercation involving anti-administration protest also comes amid a backdrop of amplified rhetoric from the Trump administration that has increasingly equated speech and behavior from anti-administration protesters that is protected by the First Amendment with outright danger and extreme violence.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, former Border Patrol “commander-at-large” Greg Bovino and top White House officials have described protesters in Minnesota as “domestic terrorists” intent on harming federal immigration officers, despite abundant video evidence to the contrary.
On Tuesday, in a tense exchange with reporters at the Capitol, Marco Rubio attempted to discredit his own suggestion a day earlier that Trump decided to strike Iran because Israel was ready to act first -Credit:AP
White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller called ICU nurse Alex Pretti, who two Border Patrol agents killed in Minneapolis while he filmed their activity, an “assassin” who wanted to “massacre” the agents he was observing.
The language and increasingly violent treatment of protesters is indicative of a broader federal law enforcement campaign that’s currently underway, according to Spencer Reynolds, a former DHS intelligence attorney who served during Trump’s first presidency and part of Joe Biden’s term.
The Republican administration has pivoted to “portraying people, who are exercising their First Amendment-protected rights to peacefully document law enforcement abuses, as a threat. They are taking a really broad perspective on what is dangerous, and it includes generally constitutionally protected behavior and activity,” Reynolds told The Mirror US.
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