Dramatic footage from inside the United States Capitol captures the moment a former Marine protesting against the war in Iran was forcibly removed from a Senate hearing, leaving him and three police officers injured.Brian C. McGinnis, 44, of North Carolina, interrupted a session of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday, shouting: “America does not want to send its sons and daughters to war for Israel!” Videos circulating on social media show him standing up mid-hearing before officers from the United States Capitol Police quickly moved to remove him.
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McGinnis, who was wearing a US Marine Corps uniform, resisted as officers attempted to escort him out of the room.
Footage captures him clinging to a doorway as police struggled to pull him free. At one point, Montana Senator Tim Sheehy, a former Navy SEAL and member of the committee, stepped in to help officers prise the protester’s arm from the doorframe.A loud snap can be heard in the video before the situation subsides. Capitol Police later said McGinnis “got his own arm stuck in a door to resist our officers and force his way back into the hearing room”.
He was treated for injuries, as were three officers.In a statement, Capitol Police 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 officers’ attempts to remove him from the room.”McGinnis was arrested and is facing three counts of assaulting a police officer, three counts of resisting arrest, and a charge related to unlawful demonstration.Senator Sheehy later wrote on X that he had tried to help “deescalate the situation”, adding: “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.”Earlier in the day, a video posted to an account under McGinnis’s name described him as a Green Party candidate for the US Senate. In it, he said he had come to Washington “to speak out against the Senate” over what he called the push towards war, telling viewers: “Anyone who feels disillusioned and betrayed by our government, you are not alone.”
