A Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate from North Carolina was ejected from a Senate armed services subcommittee hearing Wednesday after disrupting the testimony in an anti-war protest.
Brian McGinnis, a U.S. Marine veteran, protested while dressed in uniform at the testimony of several U.S. generals before the subcommittee on the “Current Readiness of the Joint Force,” screaming, “No one wants to fight for Israel” as officers wrestled him out the door.
Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-MT) stood up from the dais and ran to help U.S. Capitol Police eject McGinnis from the back of the room. As officers attempted to pull McGinnis off the door, McGinnis’s arm, which was wrapped around the back of the door, could be seen and heard snapping. McGinnis and Green Party spokesman Mark Elbourno claimed Sheehy broke McGinnis’s arm, though video shows the arm snap right before Sheehy’s hand touches him again.
In video circulating on social media, protesters yell that the senator had broken McGinnis’s hand.
“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,” Sheehy said on X as videos of the incident started to circulate on social media.
“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 continued.
The Washington Examiner has reached out to McGinnis for comment. Sheehy’s office referred the Washington Examiner to his X post.
In a video McGinnis posted to social media earlier that day, he said he was in Washington, D.C., “to speak out against the Senate and ask them why they’re going to send our men and women to harm’s way when our elected officials said that it would be no world war.”
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“Anybody who feels disillusioned and betrayed by our government, you’re not alone. Join us in demanding accountability for this betrayal. Free Palestine, free America. Let’s go,” McGinnis said in the video before the hearing.
North Carolina held its Senate primary on Tuesday in the race to replace retiring Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC). Former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley and former Gov. Roy Cooper (D-NC) won the Republican and Democratic nominations, respectively, advancing to the general election. McGinnis and Libertarian Party nominee Shannon Bray will also be in the running on the general election ballot.
