'Political violence': Activist and WI Republican accuse each other of assault at the RNC
A Wisconsin member of Congress and a staff member of the peace group CODEPINK are each accusing the other of assault in an incident outside a Republican National Convention event Tuesday.
In a statement CODEPINK said the group’s staff member, Nour Jaghama, was shoved from behind by U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Prairie du Chien) while Jaghama and other CODEPINK members were in line for an event.
The event was a Republican women’s luncheon. In his own account of the incident, Van Orden posted on X that he “was assaulted by what appeared to be a member of the pro-Hamas group CODEPINK.” The post did not describe the actions that he said constituted an assault.
“A nearby police officer witnessed this assault and I understand they have been arrested,” Van Orden’s post stated.
The incident occurred at about 11 a.m. outside the Pfister Hotel in downtown Milwaukee, where people were in line to go into the building for the event in the hotel’s grand ballroom, said Melissa Garriga, a CODEPINK spokesperson.
CODEPINK’s statement said Jaghama was “peacefully waiting in line to enter an event” when she was “intentionally bumped into by a bald, white member of Congress while he tried to shove past her.”
The statement said Jaghama did not react to the incident, but was accused of assault by a Texas State police officer who was at the scene and who took her into custody. Milwaukee Police subsequently arrived and made the arrest.
CODEPINK made a post on X about the incident with a video made on the scene, apparently just after the incident and while some other people were still in line to enter the hotel. CODEPINK published the post at 3:27 p.m. Tuesday.
In the video, Jaghama says of Van Orden, “He cut me in line, so I stood in front of him, because I was first.”
In a video on CODEPINK’s website, one of the group’s members says that Van Orden “as soon as he ran into her said, ‘You are assaulting a member of Congress.’”
CODEPINK’s statement described Jaghama as “visibly Palestinian.” The statement said two other CODEPINK staff members ahead of Jaghama had gone into the building “without any issues, raising concerns of racial profiling.”
Garriga said Jaghama was taken to the Milwaukee Police Department District 3 station after her arrest. “We do not know what the charges are as of now,” Garriga told the Wisconsin Examiner in an email early Tuesday evening.
Van Orden’s post on X about the incident was time-stamped at 5:26 p.m.
In his post, Van Orden wrote, “This appears to be an incident of political violence and I will never tolerate this. Regardless of the severity of the violence, political violence is political violence.”
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