Twelve shutdown protesters were arrested outside of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell‘s office Wednesday afternoon.
Protesters flooding the hall outside McConnell’s office chanted “end the shutdown,” “do what’s right,” and, “where is Mitch.” One Capitol Hill police officer told Breitbart News he believed they were with unions and said there were 12 arrested.
Breitbart News captured video of some of the arrests:
Capitol police officer tells me 12 protesters arrested outside McConnell’s office, believes they were with unions https://t.co/0NTr2hAt36
— Michelle Moons (@MichelleDiana) January 23, 2019
Some of those among the crowd wore hats or bags identifying with unions, while a few other activists wore Code Pink clothing.
The protest outside McConnell’s office in the Russell Senate building took place after protesters demonstrated against the shutdown in the atrium of the Hart Senate building. Many of those in the crowd were wearing hats or shirts that identified them as with activist groups or union groups, including Code Pink and SEIU.
A protest leader announced to the media at the end of the silent portion of the protest that there were some furloughed federal workers sprinkled among the crowd and would be available for interviews. Breitbart News attempted to interview several individuals who identified themselves as furloughed workers, but they declined to be interviewed.
One woman who identified herself as a furloughed worker declined to be identified but provided a statement to Breitbart News: “I love my job and I want to go back to it and I’m dedicated to the country and I’d like to go back to working for the country.”
For 33 minutes the protesters silently stood in the Hart building holding disposable plates with handwritten messages on them. The 33 minutes of silence represented the 33 days that the government has been in partial shut down. The group concluded their protest in the atrium of the Hart Senate building by beginning to chant, shortly after which capital police told the protesters to disperse.
Shortly after the protest ended in the Hart building, a portion of the protesters continued on to the Russell Senate office building to protest outside Senator McConnell‘s office. Upon arriving at McConnell’s office, the group stood for a period of time without any chanting and moved to one side of the hallway as police had requested. Soon after, the group began chanting, and capital police began pushing the protesters back from the door of McConnell’s office.
Some protesters remained outside of the office door and did not move. Those protesters were eventually placed under arrest by Capitol Hill police. Directly after the arrests, the group dispersed from the area.
Michelle Moons is a White House Correspondent for Breitbart News — follow on Twitter @MichelleDiana and Facebook
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