Alaskan Second Amendment advocate Jenn Graham was at the U.S. Capitol when a large crowd of pro-Hamas protestors stormed the Cannon Building, where the offices of the House of Representatives is located.
As with everyone else in Washington, D.C., she was unarmed when the incident occurred, with protesters violently pushing through security stations and entering the building. That’s not typical for Graham, who usually packs when she is in Alaska.
Graham was in Washington, D.C. to be part of a pro-gun-rights press conference that included Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green, Rep. Richard Hudson, and Rep. Kat Cammack. Graham represents a group called Women for Gun Rights.
When the crowd of pro-Palestinians pushed into the building, the congressional staff helped Graham escape through the members-only elevator and the underground tunnel. The protestors had blocked the public elevators and entrances, and the situation spiraled out of control, with protesters assault police.
“It was so bad, the whole building was rattling and shaking with movement. And the shouting — it was psychotic. It took me five hours to get back to my hotel room, and I was three blocks away,” she said, from her hotel room.
“They snuck us out of the building on the subway, but the police had jammed all of our cell phones, so I could not even use my phone until I got back to the hotel,” Graham said.
Graham said that during the protest, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was shoved by a protester, but Capitol Police did nothing, and offered the representative no assistance.
The hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters both in and out of the building were demanding that Israel stop defending itself in the conflict between Israel and Hamas, which began when Hamas killed 1,200 Jews on Oct. 7 in a surprise attack. They called for a cease fire.
An even larger group of pro-Palestinian protesters gathered outside the congressional building. All told, there were potentially thousands of people, with Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the radical Democrat from Michigan’s 12th District, as their featured guest speaker. Capitol Police on Wednesday evening were closing off the roads in the nation’s capital.
Three hundred protesters are known to have been arrested inside the Cannon Building after some assaulted police officers.
