Amid escalating anti-war demonstrations against the Donald Trump administration over the intensifying US-Iran conflict, chaos erupted at a Senate hearing on Capitol Hill on Wednesday when a protester was injured during a scuffle with police and a US senator.
Brian McGinnis, the Green Party candidate in North Carolina’s senatorial race and a former US Marine, interrupted a Senate Armed Services subcommittee hearing featuring testimony from members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
He shouted slogans in the middle of proceedings, including “No one wants to fight for Israel,” while grabbing the door of the hearing room as officers attempted to remove him.
Video footage of the incident quickly went viral. After the scuffle, a bystander asked McGinnis if his arm was alright; he replied, “No, it is not.”
Senator Tim Sheehy (R-Montana), who witnessed the event, later intervened, describing McGinnis as “an unhinged protester” and stating he stepped in “to help out and de-escalate the situation.”
In a post on X, Sheehy wrote, “This gentleman came to the Capitol looking for a confrontation, and he got one.”
Capitol Police stated that McGinnis was “violently resisting and fighting our officers’ attempts to remove him from the room.”
Authorities have filed charges against him, including three counts of assaulting a police officer and three counts of resisting arrest, crowding, obstructing, and incommoding for unlawful demonstration.
The incident reflects growing domestic backlash against the Trump administration as the war with Iran intensifies, with protests mounting over US service members killed and injured in the Middle East.
Follow us
