Leftist protesters storm, briefly occupy McCarthy's office on Capitol Hill to make demand about federal program



Capitol Police arrested leftist protesters on Monday who stormed and briefly occupied Speaker Kevin McCarthy's office.

In a statement, Capitol Police confirmed that seven people were arrested after briefly occupying McCarthy's office in the Rayburn House Office Building. They were charged with unlawful entry.

"This morning, multiple individuals were demonstrating inside a House Office Building. After the demonstrators refused to cease demonstrating, USCP then arrested the 4 males and 3 females for Unlawful Entry," the agency said in a statement.

Video of the protesters occupying McCarthy's office was posted to social media. In total, the protest reportedly lasted about 15 minutes.

"Pass PEPFAR now, McCarthy!" the protesters shouted.

— (@)

Among those arrested were Charles King — CEO of Housing Works, a non-profit dedicated to combatting homelessness and HIV/AIDS — and Asia Russell, executive director of Health GAP, an organization that helps HIV-positive individuals afford their medications.

The activist group was demanding the reauthorization of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. The program, also known as PEPFAR, was launched in 2003 by then-President George W. Bush and is the largest global health initiative providing funding for the research, treatment, and prevention of HIV and AIDS. The program is credited with saving more than 25 million lives.

However, funding for PEPFAR — about $7 billion per year — will expire at the end of September unless Congress reauthorizes it.

But that reauthorization is jeopardized by Republican lawmakers who want to ensure that PEPFAR money does not fund abortions. Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) believes the Biden administration's decision to lift funding restrictions enacted by the Trump administration is allowing PEPFAR funds to end up in the hands of pro-abortion groups.

Republicans want to restore those Trump-era restrictions, which prohibited U.S. funds from supporting abortion overseas.

The Biden administration, of course, denies that funds are being used to support abortion.

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'F*** you!' Ted Cruz chuckles at potty-mouthed protester in 'The View' audience taking aim at him; Whoopi Goldberg actually gives leftists in crowd what for



A potty-mouthed protester yelled "f*** you!" at U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz on Monday's edition of "The View," eliciting a chuckle from the Texas Republican and a look of shock on show co-host Sunny Hostin.

What are the details?

Co-host Sara Haines asked Cruz about Republican plans to combat inflation, Fox News said, and while Cruz was responding — invoking Nobel Laureate economist Milton Friedman — protesters in the crowd tried shouting over Cruz.

"Cover climate now! Cover climate now!" the leftist protesters shouted in a repeated chant, an outburst presumably directed at the show's co-hosts.

Cruz continued his answer as the chant wore on, which made it difficult to focus on Cruz's words.

With that, Whoopi Goldberg stepped in and actually gave the protesters what for.

"Excuse me! Excuse me! Ladies! Ladies!" Goldberg barked. "Excuse us, let us do our job, let us do our job! We hear what you have to say, but you gotta go! You gotta go; you gotta let us do our job, you gotta let us do our job!"

Hostin noted that "The View" does, in fact, talk about climate change.

Co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin — a new conservative voice on the panel — told Cruz with a laugh that "they weren't even protesting you."

A still-smiling Cruz remarked, "I couldn't even hear what they were protesting."

Co-host Ana Navarro quipped about "Yankee fans," which presumably referred to Cruz showing up Sunday night at Yankee Stadium to watch Game 4 of the American League Championship Series against the Houston Astros. Cruz, of course, rooted for the Astros — and Yankees fans spotted him in the crowd and gave him a good old-fashioned Bronx cheer.

Content warning: Language:

\u201cTed Cruz taking a stroll at Yankee Stadium:\n\n"You f*cking loser. Racist piece of sh*t. Go back to Cancun"\n\n\u201d
— Wu-Tang is for the Children (@Wu-Tang is for the Children) 1666582352

Indeed, Cruz is used to such treatment from the left — and the Astros won, advancing to the World Series against the Philadelphia Phillies, which undoubtedly warmed his heart.

'F*** you!'

Later in the show, an audience member hollered "f*** you!" at Cruz, which Fox News said was bleeped out of the broadcast. The conservative senator was addressing Americans' overall quality of life.

The cable network said the protesters were removed from the studio before the next segment, adding that Navarro said she'd been critical of Cruz but was apologetic for the audience's conduct toward him.

"So we’re back with Senator Ted Cruz. Yes, he came. He stayed," Goldberg added after a commercial break.

Newsweek headline says cop car 'strikes' protesters at LA march — but video in magazine's own story appears to indicate otherwise



Newsweek ran a Sunday story with the following headline, "Police Cruiser Strikes Breonna Taylor Protesters During Los Angeles March."

But one might be inclined to take issue with the conclusion Newsweek's headline draws, based on Twitter video the magazine includes in its story to illustrate the apparently heinous act.

The second video below is the clip Newsweek uses; its caption from self-described "Gonzo anti-fascist/anti-racist reporter" Vishal P. Singh tells an even more sinister tale: "LAPD just ran over two protesters at the Hollywood Breonna Taylor march."

Let's roll the tape, shall we? (Content warning: Profanity):

LAPD just ran over two protesters at the Hollywood Breonna Taylor march. https://t.co/jthfty13oT
— Vishal P Singh (@Vishal P Singh)1615698762.0

If you were expecting a speeding cop car walloping innocent protesters doing nothing remotely problematic during Saturday's festivities, you might be disappointed about now. Instead the video Newsweek uses shows a pair of protesters standing in front of a police cruiser that's inching forward, trying to get through an intersection:

Image source: Twitter video screenshot via @VPS_Reports

The camera turns away from the scene momentarily as the sound of one protester pounding the vehicle's hood is heard, which is shown in other videos. The camera turns back and shows the cruiser's front bumper beginning to touch one protester's leg as the vehicle continues inching forward:

Image source: Twitter video screenshot via @VPS_Reports

As the cruiser continues inching forward, the protesters pound the hood again and climb atop it:

Image source: Twitter video screenshot via @VPS_Reports

The cruiser accelerates, and the protesters begin to feel some Newtonian effects:

Image source: Twitter video screenshot via @VPS_Reports

One protester is dispatched from the hood and easily lands feet-first on the street and smartly gets out of the way:

Image source: Twitter video screenshot via @VPS_Reports

Image source: Twitter video screenshot via @VPS_Reports

Alas, the other protester stays atop the hood as the cruiser drives down the street — with other protesters furiously chasing the cruiser on foot as one individual hollers, "Holy s**t!" and "Did you see that? They just ran two people over!" It isn't clear from the video what became of the second protester.

Image source: Twitter video screenshot via @VPS_Reports

Newsweek describes the video as showing "the police cruiser speeding forward, knocking off two protesters who had climbed onto the car's hood" — and the magazine does not use any form of the word "strike" in its story.

As the video in question turns to another intersection, an individual close the camera is heard repeating the mantra: "LAPD just ran over two protesters!" And as the camera is trained on a line of cops, the same voice by the camera is heard saying, "You guys just ran two people over."

Image source: Twitter video screenshot via @VPS_Reports

Newsweek also quotes another tweet from Singh: "Ppl asking why the protesters who got hit by LAPD's car jumped on the hood... uh... cuz when you're getting hit by a car YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE UNDER IT."

Here's another Twitter video of the incident, this time from a "Notorious Lefty" who unsurprisingly parrots the same message:

The moment the police cruiser floored it towards me hiiting two protestors last night in Los Angeles at the… https://t.co/GoJndOpWz4
— Notorious Lefty-Desiree McLefty Face (@Notorious Lefty-Desiree McLefty Face)1615739226.0

The following clip offers perhaps the clearest vantage point that Newsweek's choice to use "strikes" in its headline was perhaps far-fetched — as was the claim from the street that "LAPD just ran over two protesters!"

LAPD Takes Antifa For A Rideyoutu.be

'The sheer dishonesty'

Some folks on Twitter pushed back against Newsweek's headline:

  • "What gall, when there is a whole video. 'Cruiser strikes protesters' my ass," one user wrote. "They hopped on the hood and started beating on the car after blocking its path. The sheer dishonesty."
  • "Fake news," another commenter said.

Others took issue with Singh's initial tweet:

  • "No, LAPD did not run over two protestors, two protestors attacked a LAPD car, which for their own safety the occupants drove away," one commenter said.
  • "Are you so blind that you can't even see who is at fault in this clip? What these 2 are doing is called Obstruction, it's against the law," another user wrote. "And the officer clearly did not run over them, they ran over him by jumping on his car. WAKE UP!"
  • "'Ran over' is nonsense—they got in front of an accelerating car, then jumped on the hood and started beating on it," another commenter observed. "What do you expect, for police to just sit there and let themselves be violently attacked? This is pure provocation, and has zero to do with 'peaceful protest.'"

Anything else?

The New York Post also ran a story on the incident. And while its headline is accurate — "Protester clings to hood of LAPD car during clashes at Breonna Taylor rally" — the caption for the Post's featured photo invokes that familiar word: "An LAPD cruiser strikes a protesters [sic] during a Breonna Taylor march in Los Angeles on Saturday night."

Neither Newsweek nor the New York Post immediately responded Monday to TheBlaze's requests for comment.