• Rep. Derrick Van Orden screamed and cursed at young Senate pages in the Rotunda on Wednesday night.
  • He now says he's being "threatened with bad press" for doing so.
  • Van Orden was notably among the thousands of Trump supporters who descended on DC on January 6.

Republican Rep. Derrick Van Orden screamed at a group of Senate pages — high school-aged teenagers who work  Senate as assistants — after coming across a group of them laying in the Capitol Rotunda on Wednesday.

One of the pages jotted down a transcript of the interaction shortly after it occurred, later providing it to The Hill after Punchbowl News first reported the interaction on Thursday.

"Wake the fuck up you little shits. … What the fuck are you all doing? Get the fuck out of here. You are defiling the space you [pieces of shit]," Van Orden said, according to The Hill.

"Who the fuck are you?" Van Orden asked. When informed that they were Senate pages, he reportedly replied: "I don't give a fuck who you are, get out."

It's not the first angry outburst by Van Orden, who traveled to Washington, DC on the day of the January 6 riot but has insisted that he didn't enter the Capitol. He once threatened a Wisconsin library staffer over a books display that included books that cover LGBTQ themes.

In response to the coverage of the late-night altercation, Van Orden confirmed that the incident occurred and issued a statement arguing that he'd been "threatened with bad press" for his outburst.

"Luckily, bad press has never bothered me and if it's the price I pay to stand up for what's right, then so be it," he said.

And according to Punchbowl News' Max Cohen, Van Orden — who said in his statement that the Capitol "should never be treated like a frat house common room" — was heard drunkenly partying loudly with his staff before the incident.

 

 

Read the original article on Business Insider