New video footage shows there was more to the skirmish last week between a protester and Rep. Tim Burchett, which ended with the Tennessee Republican forcefully shoving the man.
Burchett characterized the encounter at the time as a heated verbal exchange that grew physical when the demonstrator got in the lawmaker’s face and “bumped” him. But a recording of the incident, reviewed by POLITICO, shows that prior to the two of them coming face to face, Burchett taunted the man, saying “come over here.”
After a tense back-and-forth, the protester appeared to move away from Burchett, but the lawmaker stepped toward him again and escalated the interaction, mocking the man for “quivering.”
The video footage adds more context to the physical altercation that resulted in Capitol Police separating the two men.
“The guy got in the congressman’s face,” Will Garrett, a Burchett spokesperson, said Monday. “They bumped stomachs and the congressman removed him from his face. People have a protected First Amendment right to protest and say whatever filthy and nasty stuff they want to the congressman, but they don’t have the right to physically bump into the congressman and the congressman acted in self-defense.”
The Capitol Police, Garrett continued, “asked us if we wanted to press charges, but we said no.”
A Capitol Police spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
POLITICO reviewed two similar videos of the incident — including one filmed by Burchett’s staff — that shows multiple protestors of the Israel-Hamas War walking alongside the lawmaker and shouting at him. In one of those videos, Burchett, responding to one of the protesters, says “come over here, weenie,” which prompted the protester to step toward him, get in the lawmaker’s face and say, “you just came to me dodo brain.”
Burchett makes a reference to the protestor being paid by the liberal philanthropist George Soros, after which the protestor appears to begin walking away from Burchett, turning his back on the Congressman. Burchett then pursues the man and says he appears to be “quivering,” prompting the protester to wheel back around and respond, “I’m quivering?” In the abrupt turnaround, the man’s torso makes contact with Burchett, who then shoves him with both hands.
As the crowd reacts to the shove, the protester begins yelling, “I didn’t touch him. I didn’t touch him.” Onlookers include Rep. Rich McCormick (R-Ga.).
“With political violence on the rise, no representative should have to tolerate someone aggressively closing in on them. Frankly, I thought Rep. Burchett showed a lot of restraint,” McCormick said in a statement. Burchett went into the Longworth House Office Building while the protester was questioned and ultimately let go by the Capitol Police.
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