GOP lawmaker 'screamed' curse words inches from Senate pages' faces and 'shooed' them, source says
A freshman Republican lawmaker received bipartisan condemnation after he allegedly yelled at a group of high- school-age Senate pages for “defiling” the Capitol on Wednesday. New details shared with NBC News paint an even more disturbing picture of what took place that night.
Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis., told the teenagers to “get the f--- out” of the rotunda, according to one source who witnessed the interaction and spoke on condition of anonymity. The source described Van Orden's demeanor as “physically aggressive” toward the pages.
The lawmaker was “screaming inches from the pages’ faces” and “shooed” at them with his hands several times, said the source, who described previously unreported details of Van Orden’s behavior.
The summer pages are part of a prestigious Senate tradition that dates back to 1829, and were enjoying their last week on the job. After completing a long shift, a group of them decided to take advantage of a typically empty rotunda at that time of night to take in the Capitol sights.
Van Orden approached the group. He had been hosting a beer and cheese event with constituents as he often does, a spokesperson said, and a photo posted to Twitter by a reporter for Punchbowl News showed empty alcohol bottles and trash in his office.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/gop-lawmaker-screamed-curse-words-inches-senate-pages-faces-source-say-rcna97157
His constituents should be appalled...but probably aren't...at his gutter behavior. How drunk was he? (No excuse)
= new reply since forum marked as read
Republicans are nominating participants in the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol for major offices across the country. “They stormed the Capitol. Now they’re running for office,” noted Politico. CNN explained, “Republican candidates with January 6 ties are winning primaries for competitive House seats. Will voters care in November?” Last week, before the first public hearing of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol, The New York Times reported, “Ryan Kelley, a candidate for Michigan governor who was at the Capitol on Jan. 6, is arrested by the F.B.I.”
Laurel Noack, the digital director for the Wisconsin Senate Democrats tweeted, “Do @derrickvanorden next @FBI,” and posted a Daily Beast article headlined, “GOP Candidate Bankrolled Jan. 6 Riot Trip With Campaign Cash.” The article explained that Derrick Van Orden, who got beat by U.S. Rep. Ron Kind, D-La Crosse, in the race for Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District in 2020 and is running again for the seat in 2022, “joined ‘stop the steal’ rioters on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol — and he paid for the trip with donor money left over from his failed campaign.”
While Van Orden has claimed that he never entered the Capitol grounds during the day of rioting by Trump supporters who were seeking to overturn 2020 election results, The Daily Beast article counters that “social media posts from the riot suggest that isn’t true.” “A Facebook image from Jan. 6 shows Van Orden standing on a wall on the Capitol grounds that was inside a restricted area. (The Daily Beast recreated the photo on Friday and confirmed that Van Orden would have had to cross police barricades to reach that area),” noted the article, which also pointed out that Van Orden “wrote off roughly $4,000 in transportation and D.C. hotel costs around Jan. 6 for him, his wife, and a campaign staffer.”
Watchdog groups such as Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington, questioned the legitimacy of the expenses, which may explain why Van Orden got upset when Noack posted the article. “You are using the glorification of political violence — including the injury and deaths of American citizens — in an attempt to influence a federal election. You should be embarrassed and ashamed of yourself,” griped Van Orden. “Shame.” But, of course, Noack had nothing to be ashamed of. The shame was on Van Orden for making the absurd claim that those who object to the use of violence to overturn an election result are somehow glorifying it.
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GOP Candidate Bankrolled Jan. 6 Riot Trip With Campaign Cash
Derrick Van Orden barely lost his race to be a Congressman. But then he used campaign funds to get to D.C. for the Jan. 6 riot. Now he’s running again.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/gop-candidate-bankrolled-jan-6-riot-trip-with-campaign-cash
Two months after Republican congressional candidate Derrick Van Orden lost his 2020 race, he joined “stop the steal” rioters on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol—and he paid for the trip with donor money left over from his failed campaign. Now Van Orden is running again, and has already scored major endorsements from senior GOP House leadership, including Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). Van Orden, a former Navy SEAL and small-time actor, has previously acknowledged attending the Jan. 6 rally, but has repeatedly claimed he never entered the Capitol grounds. However, social media posts from the riot suggest that isn’t true.
A Facebook image from Jan. 6 shows Van Orden standing on a wall on the Capitol grounds that was inside a restricted area. (The Daily Beast recreated the photo on Friday and confirmed that Van Orden would have had to cross police barricades to reach that area.) As for Van Orden’s campaign expenses surrounding Jan. 6, it’s unclear how they relate to Van Orden’s attendance. Federal Election Commission regulations state that travel expenses must be “directly related to the campaign.” Van Orden—who wrote off roughly $4,000 in transportation and D.C. hotel costs around Jan. 6 for him, his wife, and a campaign staffer—lost his race in November and didn’t declare his 2022 candidacy until April.
Jordan Libowitz, communications director for campaign finance watchdog Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington, questioned the legitimacy of the expenses. “Campaign accounts are not personal slush funds. They must be used for campaign-related activities. Attempting to overthrow an election you just lost is not a proper campaign activity,” Libowitz told The Daily Beast. “If he did use his campaign to pay for travel for him and his staff to attend the rally-turned-insurrection, it would raise serious questions about his compliance with campaign finance laws.”
In an op-ed published the week after the attack on the Capitol, Van Orden claimed he made the trip “for meetings and to stand for the integrity of our electoral system,” both “as a citizen and at the behest of my neighbors here in Western Wisconsin.” He didn’t specify the nature of those meetings, and did not reply to The Daily Beast’s questions about the trip. “If those were campaign-related meetings, he should say so,” Libowitz said. “If it was a personal trip as a private citizen, that’s another matter.”
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Figures. 
