Representative Derrick Van Orden (MAGAt-WI) yelled and cursed at a group of high school-aged Senate pages while giving a late-night tour of the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday — an action that drew a rebuke from Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Van Orden, who represents Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District, called the pages “lazy s—-” and told them to “get the f— up” off the floor as the pages were lying on their backs in the Capitol Rotunda taking pictures of the building’s dome during their final week at work.
In an interview, the resurrectionist tried to explain his latest outburst by claiming:
“I would think that it’d be terribly disrespectful to lay on the grave of a soldier that died fighting for freedom,” Van Orden told the Journal Sentinel. “And I don’t know anybody that disagrees.”
Although the Capitol Rotunda used to quarter troops during the Civil War, no soldiers are buried underneath the Rotunda’s floor. McHistory!
On the Senate floor Thursday evening, Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he was “shocked when I heard about it. And I am further shocked at his refusal to apologize to these young people.”
McConnell, the Senate minority leader who appeared on the floor Thursday night with the Democratic leader, agreed with Schumer and added that “everybody on this side of the aisle” did as well.
This isn’t Van Orden’s only outburst and display of MAGAt, deplorable behavior. The retired Navy SEAL whose two campaigns for Wisconsin’s rural western district were checkered with online outbursts against detractors and temperamental behavior. In one incident from June 2021, Van Orden reportedly berated a teenage librarian over an LGBT+ book display. Van Orden at the time checked out every available book from the display before eventually returning them.
“Wow, I’m *shocked* that the man who was part of an insurrection, sexually harassed women in the military, and screamed at a teen librarian aide because of an LGBTQ+ display would do something like this,” wrote Courtney Rice, the communications direction for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which has signaled it would focus on Van Orden’s seat in national Democrats’ efforts to flip control of the House in 2024. Rice’s comment referenced Van Orden’s 2015 book in which he mentioned an instance when he revealed a male lieutenant’s enlarged scrotum to unsuspecting female officers in an apparent prank.
