US Congressman places hands on Maryland activist, removes him from press conference

WASHINGTON — Several videos have gone viral appear to show a United States Congressman grabbing an activist at a press conference on the Capitol Building grounds Wednesday. 

The videos, which were posted to Twitter around 4:15 pm Wednesday, show a man who identifies himself as Rep. Clay Higgins (R – Louisiana) putting his hands around activist and Maryland resident Jake Burdett and pulling him away from a media gathering. 

Burdett can be heard in one video yelling a question to Representative Paul Gosar about a previous press conference the Arizona Republican had appeared in.  

After that, Higgins walks over toward Burdett. Burdett asks Higgins not to touch him. Higgins then responds that he is a United States Congressman who respects Burdett’s First Amendment Rights. 

“All I’m asking you to do is just peacefully standby and I promise you I’ll come to you straight up and answer all of your questions,” Higgins said. 

The interaction between the two men did not end there, however. 

Another activist, Kristy Fogle, founder of the Maryland Progressive Healthcare Coalition, happened to be in the area for another press conference that had just wrapped up. She eventually noticed another interaction between Higgins and Burdett and started recording it with her cellphone. 

“[Burdett] had wanted to ask tough questions to Representative Lauren Boebert and so I had seen him walk around the other side of the press conference to other the side of it, opposite I was on,” Fogle said. “And, I saw him attempt to ask a question and several of the male reps were saying, ‘Stop. No, no, no’.” 

She said Burdett then walked around the back of the press conference, evading the other Congressmen. 

“When he did that, he was able to get a little bit closer to Lauren Boebert and he said, ‘Rep Boebert’, and he went to ask her a question, he didn’t even get it out of his mouth,” Fogle said. “And, Representative Higgins, who I didn’t even realize was Representative Higgins at the time, I thought he was a bodyguard the way he was acting, he grabbed Jake and kind of pushed him backwards.” 

She said, Burdett, who she knew prior to his encounter with Higgins, did not look like he was trying to touch or harm anyone at the event. 

“At that time, the Capitol Police came and asked Jake, ‘What’s going on here’ and took him across the street to kind of separate him from the arrest of us,” Fogle said. 

She said the police let Burdett go at the end of the press conference. 

United States Capitol Police tell WUSA9 no complaint has been filed in relation to the incident and that Burdett was not detained.  

“We are aware of this situation, interviewing the people who were involved, and reviewing the available video,” a USCP statement reads. 

WUSA9 reached out to Rep. Higgins’ office and is waiting for a response. 

Fogle said she has been to many press conferences where activists ask questions of both Republican and Democrat members and has never seen an incident like the one she did Wednesday. 

“Why would this one member of Congress think it’s okay to put his hand on an activist?” she said. “The activist did not come up and try to physically harm anybody.”