Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-MT) allegedly broke the hand of Brian McGinnis, a decorated Marine officer who protested the Iran war during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Wednesday. Sheehy was assisting Capitol Police officers attempting to eject McGinnis from the hearing.
A CBS News reporter recorded video of the incident and posted it to X. In the video, Capitol Police officers struggle with McGinnis as he resists being escorted out of the room. McGinnis then holds onto a doorknob as leverage as he yells about how soldiers don’t wish to die for Israel, a reference to Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s claim that the U.S. attacked Iran in premeditation of possible retaliation from a possible preemptive strike by Israel.
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As McGinnis holds onto the knob, Sen. Sheehy intervenes and helps officers try and pull McGinnis from the door. “A U.S. senator just broke the hand of a Marine!” a man in the room yells after McGinnis seemingly endures an injury from the altercation.
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Sheehy later wrote in a post on the social platform X, “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,” Sheehy added. “I hope he gets the help he needs without causing further violence.”
A spokesperson for U.S. Capitol Police told The Hill that McGinnis and three Capitol Police officers sustained injuries during the incident. McGinnis, a Green Party candidate running for Senate in North Carolina, is now facing three criminal counts for allegedly assaulting a police officer and three more for resisting arrest.
“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 spokesperson said.
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