McCain: No regrets on ‘scum’

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) says he has no regrets for calling protesters “scum” after they interrupted a hearing on Thursday. 

{mosads}“No, because they are that,” McCain told Fox News’s “Your World with Neil Cavuto” hours after he exploded at the protesters. “Anybody who would do that kind of behavior is guilty of it. It was terribly upsetting to me.”

The protesters from the group Code Pink were calling for former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to be prosecuted for war crimes related to the Vietnam War and other issues. Kissinger was testifying at McCain’s panel.

McCain, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told them “Get out of here, you low-life scum,” as they were escorted out.

He told Cavuto the protesters had threatened to harm Kissinger.

“Frankly, when someone does almost physically threaten someone, I do believe they should be arrested,” he added. “If they want to demonstrate and be thrown out, that’s one thing, I don’t like it, but I have never objected to it, but what they almost did to Dr. Kissinger is beyond the realm of decent behavior in my view.” 

McCain said his staff had to run out of the room to get additional Capitol Police officers. He said in a statement that protestors had been “waving handcuffs within inches of his head.”

“I have spoken to the chairman of the Senate Rules Committee and the U.S. Capitol Police, and expect that those responsible will be held fully accountable for their actions,” he added in the statement. 

McCain stressed the line between peaceful protests and threats.

“They can say anything they want to,” he said in the Fox interview. “And yet when people physically threaten an individual, that’s not what America is supposed to be all about, that’s not what our laws are about and that’s certainly not the way that the United States Senate should have the ability to conduct a hearing so that we can inform the American people.”