A North Carolina man was arrested Wednesday at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill after he stood up and shouted anti-war slogans, then violently resisted officers who tried to remove him from the room, Capitol Police said.
Brian C. McGinnis faces three counts of assaulting a police officer, three counts of resisting arrest, and one count of unlawful demonstration, the Capitol Police said in a statement. Three officers and McGinnis were all treated for injuries following the confrontation.
The confrontation occurred during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, which McGinnis had specifically targeted to challenge lawmakers over U.S. military operations in Iran, according to a video he posted outside the Capitol that morning.
McGinnis was protesting the U.S. military campaign in Iran, shouting, “America does not want to send its sons and daughters to war for Israel!” as officers moved in to remove him. Multiple videos show McGinnis standing up and beginning to shout while Capitol Police immediately grabbed him and began pulling him toward the exit.
As officers pulled McGinnis toward the door, he grabbed onto a doorway and resisted removal. Capitol Police said he “got his own arm stuck in a door to resist our officers and force his way back into the hearing room” and was treated for his injuries. Other protesters in the room yelled that his hand was stuck.
Sen. Tim Sheehy of Montana, a Republican member of the Armed Services panel and a former Navy SEAL, ran over to assist officers by pulling McGinnis’s arm from the doorway. Sheehy said in a statement posted on social media that he was trying to de-escalate the situation.
“This gentleman came to the Capitol looking for a confrontation, and he got one,” Sheehy said. “I hope he gets the help he needs without causing further violence.”
Capitol Police characterized the incident as dangerous. “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 agency said.
A video posted on an X account under the name Brian McGinnis, whose profile describes him as a “Green Party Candidate for US Senate,” appears to show the same man standing outside the Capitol on Wednesday morning before the hearing. McGinnis said in the video that he was “here in D.C. trying to speak out against the Senate” to ask lawmakers about sending the country into war.
“Anyone who feels disillusioned and betrayed by our government, you are not alone,” he said.