A 2-year-old girl and a GOP staffer were involved in a scuffle around a door after activists’ Tuesday visit to GOP Rep. Dana Rohrabacher’s Huntington Beach, Calif. office.
As office visitors affiliated with the the “Indivisible” movement, a loosely connected set of groups opposed to President Trump’s agenda, tried to slip Valentine’s Day cards under the door, it swung out and hit one of the activists’ 2-year-old daughter, according to an Orange County Register report.
A scuffle over opening the door ensued, with 71-year-old district director, Kathleen Staunton, falling over. Rohrabacher’s office claims the district director was knocked unconscious and hospitalized, although police did not make any arrests.
Rohrabacher said Staunton was attempting to exit the office Tuesday afternoon when a protester yanked open the front door.
{mosads}Staunton then fell and hit her head, he added.
Congressional Republicans have come under increasing pressure from Indivisible, which organizes constituents to pressure lawmakers against issues like ObamaCare repeal.
Several Republican lawmakers have found themselves facing rowdy crowds — and later, unflattering viral videos — at town halls visited by Indivisible groups.
In a statement, Rohrabacher accused the activists of “political thuggery.”
“I am outraged beyond words that protesters who mobbed my Huntington Beach office violently knocked down my faithful district director, Kathleen Staunton, causing her to be hospitalized,” Rohrabacher said in a statement. “And, yes, deliberate or not, the incident came as part of a mob action that not only intimidates but coerces.”
“Thought the protesters think of themselves as idealists, they engaged in political thuggery, pure and simple,” Rohrabacher added. “These people do not want, as they’ve claimed, to hold a town hall meeting with me.”
“These holier-than-thou obstructionists will be held responsible for this outrageous assault. They are exposing themselves for what they are — enemies of American self-government and democracy.”
Indivisible OC, the Indivisible branch that visited the office, said in a statement early Wednesday activist Megan Blash and her 2-year-old daughter, Lola, were delivering a Valentine’s Day card when Staunton opened the “locked and shut door,” resulting in an accident.
“We are hardworking, taxpaying Americans who want to engage in our democracy and to simply be heard by our Congressional representative,” the group said.
“It is a shame that Rep. Rohrabacher has refused repeated requests to hold a town hall meeting for his district and holds a particular contempt for engaged citizens by characterizing civic duty as ‘political thuggery.’”
The Register added Indivisible OC has visited Rohrabacher’s office in Huntington Beach four times since Trump took office.
None of Orange County’s four Republican Congress members has scheduled a public town hall since the president’s Jan. 20 inauguration.