“THEY BROUGHT LUNCH”
by Sharon Rondeau
(Sep. 8, 2018) — Shortly after 9:30 AM on Thursday, Shannon Bream of Fox News reported that a group of protesters had “taken over” Sen. Chuck Grassley’s office in the Russell Senate Building to show their opposition to the nomination of U.S. District Court of Appeals for the District of Colombia Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh on what would be the third day of confirmation hearings.
The hearings were marked by loud disruptions in the Hart Senate Office Building from their outset just after 9:30 AM on Tuesday in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee. While most senators attempted to continue speaking over the protesters, others stopped until the disruptors were removed from the room by the U.S. Capitol Police.
Video of the protest in Grassley’s office, which reportedly included members of the Women’s March, NARAL, Planned Parenthood, and Pro-Choice America, was posted at 9:32 Thursday morning and said to consist of “roughly two dozen people” who demanded an audience with Grassley.
According to Fox, Grassley’s communications director “told Fox News he offered to speak with demonstrators Thursday morning but they declined.”
The pro-life, Biblicly-based public advocacy group Concerned Women for America (CWA) issued several articles on last week’s hearings, including video coverage of the protest in Grassley’s office.
CWA strongly supports Kavanaugh’s nomination. A summary of the hearings presented from its point of view states that the protests within the Hart Senate Office Building, where the hearings took place in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee, “paled in comparison to what was happening in Sen. Grassley’s (R-Iowa) office.”
“On Thursday morning, CWA’s Communications Coordinator, Annabelle Rutledge, and Iowa State Director, Tamara Scott, were at Sen. Grassley’s office when a group of protesters came in yelling, chanting, and waving cameras,” the summary continues. “From 9:00 a.m. to around 4:00 p.m., they held a sit-in. His staff had to go in the back of the office to continue working as the protesters took over behind the desks. They brought lunch, bringing groups of people in shifts to make sure the office was full throughout the day.”
Video of the protesters posted on Rutledge’s Twitter account shows people chanting and one protester attempting to block her camera. The 29-second video concludes with a male voice shouting above the fracas, “I have two daughters, and they both have preexisting conditions…”
An eyewitness report from CWA Iowa State Director Tamara Scott on the protest states that in her view, the protesters “were there to disrupt the process, distract from facts, and destroy the foundations of our Republic and the media present seemed all too delighted to help.”
The Washington Post termed the protest a “sit-in.” Its video shows protesters chanting, singing and eating in Grassley’s office.
According to Breitbart, “Police did not prevent anyone, including reporters, from entering the office and only enforced a clear pathway to and from the office entrance.”
CNN reported that as many as 20 groups participated in protests beginning on Tuesday, the first day of the hearings, and that coordinator Winnie Wong termed the effort “well-organized and scripted.”
Many protesters fear that if Kavanaugh is confirmed, the landmark 1973 case of Roe v. Wade will be overturned.
Prior to Thursday’s office “takeover,” U.S. Capitol Police had made 73 arrests primarily for “disorderly conduct” inside the Hart Building, Fox reported. It is unclear if any of the office protesters was arrested.
According to CNN, Wong was arrested on Monday, prior to the commencement of the hearings. “She recounted what she yelled from the back of the room: ‘I said, for any senator who votes yes on the confirmation of Judge Kavanaugh there will be a political price to pay. That to me is an explicit demand and a promise,'” CNN reported.
The Greenville News reported that “Protest organizers defended their intentionally disruptive strategy as vital to preserving civil rights and democracy” amid an admission that their outbursts were “not normal.” The paper quoted an organizer as being aware that if arrested, protesters could face felony charges.
Some protesters traveled to Washington from as far away as Alaska, CNN noted, with expenses and bail, if needed, paid for by funds raised by the organizations.
The Capitol Police did not respond to The Post & Email’s request for comment on the process by which protesters were removed from the Hart Building on Tuesday.