Not surprisingly, many members of Congress have expressed an interest in a classified briefing on the crisis in Israel, and the Biden administration was eager to offer one this week.
With this in mind, Victoria Nuland, the acting deputy secretary of state; Sasha Baker, the acting undersecretary of defense for policy; and Morgan Muir, the deputy director of national intelligence for mission integration went to Capitol Hill to provide lawmakers with detailed information, and by most accounts, members learned quite a bit.
There was, however, something a little different about the briefing. As Politico was first to report, Republican Rep. Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin interrupted the session with “a curse-laden outburst.”
Multiple attendees described Van Orden (R-Wis.) as acting belligerent towards the Biden administration briefers when he asked questions. Several people said Van Orden cursed directly at the briefers, prompting loud boos in the room. One person in the room said Van Orden shouted that the briefers’ presentation was “pathetic.” Another attendee described it as “offensive and inappropriate.”
According to the reporting, Rep. Dean Phillips shouted “shame on you” in response to Van Orden’s verbal affront, “prompting Van Orden to drop an f-bomb” toward the Minnesota Democrat.
NBC News soon after ran a related report, confirming the details, noting that Van Orden “attacked the administration’s presentation and shouted obscenities at the officials.”
Democratic Rep. Jason Crow of Colorado apologized to the officials for Van Orden’s behavior, which apparently “drew widespread applause from the crowd of lawmakers in the room,” according to Democratic Rep. Judy Chu of California.
If the GOP congressman’s name sounds at all familiar, it’s because Van Orden also made headlines in July after reportedly throwing a tantrum directed at teenaged Senate pages during a Capitol tour. One of the kids had the presence of mind to write down what the Wisconsin Republican said, and The Hill obtained the partial transcript. According to the report, Van Orden called the pages “jackasses” and “pieces of s‑‑‑,” and told them he didn’t “give a f‑‑‑ who you are.”
The circumstances were not unfamiliar. The New Republic also noted, “In 2021, the then-candidate threatened a 17-year-old staff member at a local library, demanding to know who set up the Pride Month display of books. Van Orden went on to check out every book from the display so that they would not be available to other patrons.”
After dealing with the future congressman, the girl went home and told her parents that she no longer felt safe working at the library. Now, evidently, Van Orden is adding to his list of outbursts, lashing out inappropriately at U.S. diplomats and intelligence officials. Let’s also not forget what else has made him famous. As regular readers might recall, Van Orden also went to Capitol Hill on Jan. 6, 2021. According to his version of events, he left when the pro-Trump mob became violent, and he insisted that he did not enter the grounds of the Capitol itself, though a Daily Beast report later called Van Orden’s claims into question. (The congressman rejected the accuracy of the article.) Van Orden represents a highly competitive congressional district in southwestern Wisconsin. I have a hunch his re-election campaign will be worth watching. This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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