A protester claims he is being detained by District of Columbia Police after an incident in which a Louisiana congressman apparently shoved the protester away from a media briefing being held by Republican House members.
Jake Burdett, a self-described "progressive activist" and "Social Democrat/Democratic Socialist," posted videos of the encounter with Rep. Clay Higgins (R-Lafayette) on his personal Twitter page. The Maryland resident was protesting a press conference in which Reps. Paul Gosar (R-Arizona) and Lauren Boebert (R-Colorado) and began asking Gosar why his family participated in campaign commercial endorsing his opponent in a previous election. Rep. Higgins approaches the man asked the man to stop.
"Let this man talk, then I'll come to you privately." Higgins told Burdett, who then asked Higgins not to touch him.
"I respect your First Amendment right," Higgins continued. All I'm asking you to do is peacefully stand by with your camera, and I promise you--look at me--I'll come talk to you straight up and answer all your questions. Fair enough?"
After Higgins stepped away from him, Burdett then shouted another question, this one at Rep. Boebert. As Burdett asked Boebert to speak about her divorce filing against her husband, Higgins and another man returned and pushed Burdett away from the press conference. The video then shows Higgins push Burdett away from the press conference as the other man says, "You're out."
"Get off of me," Burdett shouts at Higgins as other protester demand that Higgins let go of Burdett. "Aren't you a congressperson touching me?"
"Yes, I am," Higgins replied. "Stand by. Calm down."
"You're manhandling me!" Burdett responded.
The video later shows a police officer intervening to separate Burdett and Higgins. The officer then ask the officer Burdett what happened. Another officer wearing a different uniform from the first arrives and asks Burdett to "come with us."
In a separate tweet, Burdett asked, "How is this legal?" In another tweet, he alluded to pursuing charges against Rep. Higgins.
"This is me in this video," Burdett wrote in a shared retweet of another video showing the encounter from a different angle. "Do any attorneys feel that this was assault, and would be willing to help me pursue legal action?"
We called Rep. Higgins's chief of staff Andrew David. The call went to voicemail. Later on Tuesday, Higgins's press secretary, Mackenzie Martinez, responded via text message with a link to a tweet published by Higgins at 2:17 p.m. on Thursday. Martinez described that tweet as "a statement."