A number of people were arrested for disorderly conduct Tuesday on Capitol Hill, whether they were hauled out of the Senate Judiciary Committee room itself or were located elsewhere in the building.
The anti-Brett Kavanaugh chorus reached a crescendo before the hearing even began, and it was quite a scene to behold.
There was plenty of yelling, screaming and interrupting throughout the day, which resulted in a reported 70 arrests by Capitol Hill police. Twenty-two were forcibly escorted from the premises within the first hour.
Other charges included crowding, obstructing, unlawful demonstration activities and incommoding (inconveniencing).
#CancelKavanaugh disruptions were planned, says the Women’s March official Twitter account.
You may recognize a couple of the people arrested. Women’s March leader Linda Sarsour and actress Piper Perabo were both arrested.
According to VICE, 61 people were removed from the room and nine other were arrested on the second floor.
Much of the #CancelKavanaugh rhetoric can be traced to fears about how his nomination to the Supreme Court may tip the scales on the issue of abortion, now that retired Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy is out of the picture.
This was only day 1 of Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings, so you can expect to see more of the same.
BuzzFeed’s Zoe Tillman said that the maximum penalty for these misdemeanors is 90 days of jail time.
The Women’s March responded to the news that 70 had been arrested, claiming that the reason why is that President Donald Trump is “under federal investigation.”
“70+ people were arrested disrtuping the #KavanaughConfirmation hearings today,” the tweet began. “Why? The president is under federal investigation. He’s used executive privilege to keep the Senate from reviewing Kavanaugh’s record.”
Trump himself responded to the Kavanaugh disruptors by saying it is “truly a display of how mean, angry and despicable the other side is.”
Several Republicans at the hearing said Democrats were using the hearing as another failed attempt to undo the 2016 presidential election. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) vowed to keep the hearing on track tomorrow.
Democrats on the Committee also submitted motions to shut down the hearings several times, citing what in their view is a lack of transparency concerning records pertaining to Kavanaugh’s work in the White House. Grassley denied a number of motions to suspend the hearing pending the release of those documents.
[Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images.]
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