Senator Tim Sheehy, Republican of Montana, helped Capitol Police officers forcibly remove an antiwar protester from a Senate hearing on Wednesday in a physical struggle that was captured on video.
The protester, Brian McGinnis, a Marine Corps veteran and a Green Party candidate for Senate in North Carolina, said on social media that his arm was broken during the struggle. The Capitol Police said three officers were also treated for injuries.
Video footage of the episode shows Mr. McGinnis, dressed in a Marine uniform with his arm hooked around a door in the Hart Senate Office Building during a subcommittee hearing on military readiness. Three Capitol Police officers struggle to grab Mr. McGinnis and pull him from the door when Senator Sheehy, a former Navy SEAL, dives into the fracas and pulls Mr. McGinnis by the leg.
“No one wants to fight for Israel,” Mr. McGinnis shouts before an audible cracking noise is heard. Mr. Sheehy then hooks his arm around Mr. McGinnis’s arm, which is still bent around the door, and yanks.
The officers eventually removed Mr. McGinnis, 44, from the hearing room, and he was charged with three counts of assault on a police officer as well as resisting arrest, and crowding, obstructing and incommoding, the Capitol Police said in a statement.
“An unruly man who started to illegally protest during a hearing put everyone in a dangerous position by violently resisting and fighting our officers’ attempts to remove him from the room,” the statement said. It did not describe the officers’ injuries but said they had been treated by the District of Columbia Fire and Emergency Medical Service Department.
Mr. McGinnis, “who got his own arm stuck in a door to resist our officers and force his way back into the hearing room, was also treated,” the Capitol Police said in their statement. Protests are not allowed inside congressional buildings, the statement said, adding, “There are plenty of other spots on Capitol Grounds, outside, where demonstrations are allowed.”
Senator Sheehy’s office did not immediately respond to a request for an interview. But Senator Sheehy shared video of the struggle on social media and defended his actions.
“Capitol Police were attempting to remove an unhinged protestor from the Armed Services hearing,” Senator Sheehy wrote on social media. “He was fighting back. I decided to help out and deescalate the situation. This gentleman came to the Capitol looking for a confrontation, and he got one.”
Mr. McGinnis did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A post signed “Team McGinnis” on his X account thanked people for their support, on behalf of Mr. McGinnis’s family.
“At this time, our priority is Brian’s wellbeing,” the post said. “We are taking a necessary step back from the public eye to allow him to focus fully on his recovery in private. While he looks forward to engaging with you all again very soon, his health and his family remain the current priorities.”
Senator Sheehy has voiced strong support for the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran that began on Saturday. He was among the Republican senators who on Wednesday blocked a measure that would have limited President Trump’s power to continue the war on Iran without congressional authorization.
Mr. McGinnis has expressed strong opposition to the war and Mr. Trump’s decision to deploy American forces to the Middle East.
“And for the record, I’ve been running long before this, and yes even after breaking my arm standing up for what I believe in,” he wrote on social media on Thursday. “It’s only made me more determined. Anger is real, and so is resolve.”
Michael Levenson covers breaking news for The Times from New York.
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