Republican says he was ‘assaulted’ by a ‘pro-Hamas’ protester outside Milwaukee convention: Demonstrator is arrested as tensions run high

Rep. Derrick Van Orden said he was ‘assaulted’ by an anti-Israel protester at the Republican National Convention (RNC) who was later arrested. 

‘While standing in line to enter an event at the RNC today, I was assaulted by what appeared to be a member of the pro-Hamas group CODEPINK,’ Van Orden said.

Code Pink, the rabble-rousing liberal activist group, is a fixture on Capitol Hill, these days often confronting politicians over Israel policy. 

The Wisconsin Republican added that 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 occurred just days after former President Donald Trump was shot at a Butler, Pa. rally. 

‘Republicans have been intimidated and targeted for years including the attempted assassination of President Trump and we will no longer standby and allow lawlessness,’ Van Orden went on. 

Earlier Tuesday, police officers shot dead a knife-wielding man in a hail of bullets less than a mile from the convention. The incident was not believed to be related to the convention. 

Van Orden, meanwhile, is demanding the House set up an emergency panel to investigate the Trump assassination attempt, which he blamed on rhetoric from the media and Democrats. 

‘I hope [the shooting] changes the mood with the press,’ Van Orden said in an interview with DailyMail.com at the Republican National Convention (RNC) in his home state of Milwaukee. 

‘For over a decade, the press in collusion with the Democrat Party used to be the left wing Democrats now became mainstream. For over a decade they’ve been saying that Trump is a Nazi. He’s Hitler. He is fascist, he’s gonna destroy democracy. He’s against all American values. President Biden said it’s time to put a bullseye on President Trump.’

Van Orden went on: ‘Put yourself in the shoes of that that 20-year-old trying to kill him. Since the time he was 11 or 12, he has been hearing all those vitriolic lies about the president.’ 

‘What else would make a 20-year-old climb a roof the roof knowing that for sure he’s gonna get killed by taking a shot at the president other than the fact that he had been radicalized by the left wing part of the Democrat party that turned mainstream and has been projected to him since he was 11 by the media?’ 

While the shooting prompted bipartisan condemnation and calls to tone down rhetoric, some Republicans were quick to point fingers at liberal hyperbole about 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 isn’t some unfortunate incident,’ Scott’s post continued. ‘This was an assassination attempt by a madman inspired by the rhetoric of the radical left.’ 

The now-deceased gunman was a 20-year-old Pennsylvania local. He was a registered Republican who had made a small donation to the Biden campaign. 

Van Orden said the Secret Service had ‘failed’ that day in Butler, Pa., but refrained from calling for anyone to be fired. 

‘When your one job is to make sure the former president does not get shot, and the former president gets shot, there’s clearly a problem – you have failed your primary mission.’

Van Orden said he’s implored Speaker Mike Johnson to ‘not handle this the way Congress normally handles things.’

‘There’s actually four different committees that have jurisdiction. I don’t want a whole bunch of committees doing their own little thing.’  

‘We have to have a special commission that’s comprised of members of those committees and other members with subject matter. expertise. We need to get this together very soon. And it needs to be completely completely open. Meaning the American people have to see everything we’re doing every person we’re talking to every piece of information that we have, so that they understand what the heck is going on.’