Brian McGinnis, a Green Party candidate for Senate in North Carolina, is now facing multiple assault charges after he interrupted a Senate hearing in an anti-war protest on Wednesday.
McGinnis, 44 and a U.S. Marine veteran, is now facing seven charges for his protest: three counts of assault on a police officer, three counts of resisting arrest, and crowding, obstructing, and incommoding, the U.S. Capitol Police told the Washington Examiner. Three Capitol police officers sustained injuries and McGinnis had his arm broken in the confrontation.
“Three officers had to be treated for injuries by DC Fire & EMS. The suspect, who got his own arm stuck in a door to resist our officers and force his way back into the hearing room, was also treated,” Capitol Police said. “Protests are not allowed inside the congressional Buildings. There are plenty of other spots on Capitol Grounds, outside, where demonstrations are allowed.”
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Capitol Police, with the help of Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-MT), ejected McGinnis from the Senate armed services subcommittee hearing as McGinnis yelled, “No one wants to fight for Israel.” He stood up in protest, wearing his Marine uniform, as several U.S. generals testified on the topic of the current readiness of the Joint Force.
Capitol Police said McGinnis “put everyone in a dangerous position by violently resisting and fighting our officers’ attempts to remove him from the room.”
The Washington Examiner has reached out to McGinnis for comment. On Wednesday, McGinnis and Green Party spokesman Mark Elbourno said Sheehy broke McGinnis’s arm, though the video seems to show the arm snap right before Sheehy’s hand touches him again.
In a video McGinnis posted to social media earlier Wednesday, 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.” He ended the video with calls to “Free Palestine, free America.”
On Thursday, McGinnis’s campaign said on social media that it was “taking a necessary step back from the public eye” to focus on his well-being.
“At this time, our priority is Brian’s wellbeing,” McGinnis’s campaign wrote. “We are taking a necessary step back from the public eye to allow him to focus fully on his recovery in private. While he looks forward to engaging with you all again very soon, his health and his family remain the current priorities.”
The Washington Examiner has reached out to Sheehy for comment on the charges before McGinnis.
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“Capitol Police were attempting to remove an unhinged protestor from the Armed Services hearing. He was fighting back,” Sheehy wrote on X Wednesday. “I decided to help out and deescalate the situation. 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.”
Former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley and former Gov. Roy Cooper (D-NC) won the Republican and Democratic nominations, respectively, for Senate in North Carolina on Tuesday, advancing to the general election to replace retiring Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC). McGinnis and Libertarian Party nominee Shannon Bray will also be in the running on the general election ballot.