Sen. Jim Risch, the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, kicked off a hearing last week with a warning for those in attendance.
“We have zero tolerance on any kind of protests, on any kind of attempt by anyone to contact, influence or in any way communicate with either the witness or people that are here on the dais,” he said.
Minutes later, as Secretary of State Marco Rubio was testifying, a demonstrator stood at the back of the room and started shouting about the war in Gaza. Capitol Police officers rushed to respond, physically lifting her into the air and carrying her out as she kicked and yelled. Police also reacted quickly to other protesters during the same hearing, pushing an older man and a woman out of the room.
And they responded with force in a different Senate committee earlier this month, when demonstrators disrupted Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s testimony, carrying and pushing protesters out and ripping signs.
Protests at congressional committee hearings are nothing new, but how rapidly and physically police are responding is a seemingly recent development. A Capitol Police spokesperson said there hadn’t been any internal policy change about how officers handle hearing protests, although the agency formed a rapid response team more than a year ago to “swiftly react to anything on campus, including unlawful demonstrations.”
“Sometimes unruly protesters leave willingly, sometimes they don’t. We have an obligation to restore order to a hearing as quickly as possible,” the spokesperson said. “Often protesters refuse to follow the officer’s lawful commands because they want to make a scene and get news coverage. We enforce the law and will not let anyone disrupt the important work of the Congress.”
A former Capitol Police officer said in an interview with NOTUS that during the more than 15 years they had served, it “never got to the point where I almost had to physically pick people up” at a congressional hearing.
Rubio is fourth in line to the presidency, and police may generally feel a need to be more forceful when cabinet secretaries are testifying. Lawmakers have also experienced an increase in death threats in recent years, as well as “swatting” attacks on their homes. “Different circumstances call for different responses,” the former officer said.
Even so, the hearing protest response “raised eyebrows, and it definitely wasn’t the normal way that I saw it over the past 15-plus years when I was an officer,” they said.
In the past, demonstrators have mostly been able to walk out of hearing rooms after interrupting proceedings, escorted by an officer. Police have also sometimes pulled activists out by the elbow. But lifting protesters into the air to remove them has typically been “extremely rare because it’s potentially dangerous,” one former Hill staffer told NOTUS.
Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, a Democratic member of the Foreign Relations Committee, said he felt the police’s reaction last week was appropriate. From his viewpoint, he said, it looked like one of the protesters was purposefully “moving towards Secretary Rubio.”
“That’s a scary moment,” he told NOTUS. “Once you have protesters that are showing an intention to try to get at a witness, you have to act very quickly.”
Sen. Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat, said the police response “surprised” him.
“Certainly I would like to see protesters invited to leave before they’re physically escorted,” he said of officers carrying demonstrators out. “But the protesters weren’t probably planning to politely respond and say, ‘Yes, I’ll leave,’ so I don’t know what the line is.”
Sen. Cory Booker, a New Jersey Democrat and a member of the committee, told NOTUS he wasn’t present at the time of the protest, but he always wants police to “operate in a way that is respectful.”
“I applaud people who use their First Amendment rights, but it’s obviously something that will have consequences,” he said of demonstrating at hearings. “Civil disobedience is a strong, important part of our American political culture.”
People across the ideological spectrum often disrupt congressional hearings, standing with handmade signs or with a more organized group of activists to oppose legislation or ask lawmakers to take some other kind of action. Some protesters are easily recognizable on Capitol Hill, attending hearings — and getting arrested — often.
Lawmakers have praised how Capitol Police officers usually respond to peaceful protests on the campus, saying it is a sign that America is a healthy democracy.
“The election denier illustrated the beauty of democracy and freedom,” Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi told NOTUS last year, when a far-right protester disrupted lawmakers’ press conference about the Chinese government’s 1989 massacre of pro-democracy activists. “To be able to do what he did — there’s no way he could do that in Tiananmen Square, which just reminded us of why we’re here commemorating Tiananmen Square.”
These protests aren’t always characterized by shouting or organized activism: A Syrian woman recently stood to quietly and tearfully plead with House Foreign Affairs Committee members to help people who were being massacred in her home country. Members listened for a moment before calling for order, and she sat back down.
President Donald Trump’s far-right ally Laura Loomer once stood at a hearing to protest Twitter’s content moderation policies before police gently led her out of the room.
And last week, officers escorted protesters who disrupted a House Energy and Commerce Committee markup out of the room without using force.
Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., the top Democrat on the committee, responded with support for the protesters, who were calling for continued health care coverage for vulnerable people, and he asked police to be careful.
“People feel very strongly because they know they’re losing their health care,” Pallone said, requesting that Capitol Police not arrest protesters if possible, “because many of them are disabled.”
“I don’t want to see them further hurt,” he said.
—
Haley Byrd Wilt is a reporter at NOTUS. Emily Kennard is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.
Samuel Larreal, a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow, contributed to this report.