Congressman Derrick Van Orden said he was “attacked” by an anti-Israel protester at the Republican National Convention (RNC), who was later arrested.
“While standing in line for an event at the RNC today, I was attacked by someone who appeared to be a member of the pro-Hamas group CODEPINK,” Van Orden said.
Code Pink, a liberal activist movement that causes uproar, is a fixture on Capitol Hill and now often confronts politicians over Israel policy.
According to the Wisconsin Republican, a police officer witnessed the incident and arrested the protester.
“This appears to be an incident of political violence and I will never tolerate this.”
The confrontation came days after former President Donald Trump was shot at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Rep. Derrick Van Orden said he was ‘attacked’ by an anti-Israel protester at the Republican National Convention (RNC), who was later arrested
“Republicans have been intimidated and attacked for years, including the attempted assassination of President Trump. We will no longer stand by and tolerate lawlessness,” Van Orden continued.
Earlier Tuesday, police officers shot and killed a man with a knife in a hail of gunfire less than a mile from the convention. The incident was not believed to be related to the convention.
Van Orden, meanwhile, is demanding that the House set up an emergency committee to investigate the attempted assassination of Trump, blaming the effort on the rhetoric of the media and Democrats.
‘I hope [the shooting] “The mood in the press is changing,” Van Orden said in an interview with DailyMail.com during the Republican National Convention (RNC) in his home state of Milwaukee.
“For over a decade, the press, in partnership with the Democratic Party, the left-wing Democrats that have now become mainstream, has been saying for over a decade that Trump is a Nazi. He is Hitler. He is a fascist, he is going to destroy democracy. He is against all American values. President Biden said it is time to target President Trump.”
Van Orden continued: ‘Put yourself in the shoes of that 20-year-old who is trying to kill him. Since he was 11 or 12, he’s been hearing all these vicious lies about the president.’
Donald Trump arrived in Milwaukee on Sunday for the GOP convention, the day after an attempted assassination.
“What else could compel a 20-year-old to climb onto a roof, knowing that he will surely be killed if he shoots the president, other than the fact that he has been radicalized by the left wing of the Democratic Party, which has become mainstream and has been projected onto him by the media since he was 11?”
While the shooting prompted bipartisan condemnation and calls to tone down the rhetoric, some Republicans were quick to point out that liberal exaggerations were about placing blame on Trump.
“Democrats and liberals in the media have called Trump a fascist. They’ve compared him to Hitler,” Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., posted on X.
“This is not an unfortunate incident,” Scott’s message continued. “This was an assassination attempt by a madman, inspired by the rhetoric of the radical left.”
The now deceased shooter was a 20-year-old Pennsylvania resident, a registered Republican who had made a small donation to Biden’s campaign.
Van Orden said the Secret Service had “failed” that day in Butler, Pennsylvania, but he refrained from firing anyone.
“If your only job is to make sure the former president doesn’t get shot, and the former president gets shot, then clearly there’s a problem: You’ve failed in your primary mission.”
Van Orden said he pleaded with Speaker Mike Johnson “not to handle this the way Congress normally does.”
“There are actually four different committees that have jurisdiction. I don’t want a bunch of committees doing their own thing.”
“We need to have a special committee that is made up of members of those committees and other members who have expertise in that area. We need to get this together very quickly. And it needs to be completely open. That means the American people need to see everything we do, every person we talk to, every piece of information we have, so they understand what the hell is going on.”