WATCH: Two people reportedly tasered by police at Marjorie Taylor Green town hall, 3 arrested
Reporters on the ground at the event in Georgia indicated there were at least six protesters escorted from the town hall within minutes of it starting. Three of the individuals were eventually charged by police for their involvement in the disruption, including one for disorderly conduct, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
"Put your hands behind your back!" a police officer can be heard in a video of the incident shared on social media by CBS News reporter Jared Eggleston. "F--- off –" the man can be heard yelling as he disappeared off-screen behind a wall, before a loud bang could be heard followed by the sound of a taser.
A second bang from another taser going off could be heard shortly thereafter.
Different videos from the event show a handful of others being escorted out, with some leaving on their own volition and others having to be literally dragged out by police.
"Free Garcia," one protester could be heard saying as they were exiting in a video posted to X, referring to Kilmar Ábrego García, who has been at the center of a deportation controversy after a federal judge said the Trump administration wrongly deported him with a group of Venezuelan gang members.
"Free Kilmar!" another could be heard screaming repeatedly on video as they were escorted out.
At moments, as police escorted the protesters out of the town hall, Green engaged with the disruptors.
"The protest is outside. Thank you very much," Greene said. "If you were to sit and listen, you're welcome to listen. Everyone across the aisle – Democrats, Independents," she added while someone was being escorted out.
"I'm glad they got thrown out," Greene said following the event. "That's exactly what I wanted to see happen … This isn't a political rally or a protest. I held a town hall tonight. You know who was out of line? The protesters."
The disruption at Greene's rally follows increased volatility at local GOP town halls. Things have gotten tense enough that the chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., has told his fellow Republicans to temporarily refrain from holding in-person town hall events.
Citing the uptick in "Democrat threats of violence," GOP Wyoming Rep. Harriet Hageman followed Hudson's advice and moved all of her in-person town halls online. The move came after an incident in which an attendee of one of her in-person events followed Hageman as she left and initiated a physical confrontation with her staff, eventually requiring police to intervene.
Green was only one of a handful of GOP members that decided to do an in-person event amid the current ongoing legislative recess, according to NBC News.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Miami Herald
9 minutes ago
- Miami Herald
‘I have nightmares': Venezuelans imprisoned in El Salvador relive terror after return home
Mervin Yamarte, a young Venezuelan detained for more than four months in the Salvadoran mega-prison known as CECOT after his deportation from the United States, said even though he's now back in his home in Maracaibo, he is still afraid. And he still wakes up every morning at 3:30 a.m. — the same time he was awakened by guards in the maximum security facility. 'I haven't been able to sleep as I should. It's taken me a while to adapt. But I'm happy,' he told the Miami Herald at his home in the neighborhood of Los Pescadores in western Venezuela. Yamarte and three of his friends from that impoverished community – Edwuar Hernández, 23, Andy Perozo, 30, and Ringo Rincón, 39 – were deported to El Salvador on the night of March 15, accused by the U.S. of having links to the dangerous Venezuelan criminal gang Tren De Aragua. It is an accusation that they and their families have vehemently denied. 'I don't go out, because I'm afraid of being singled out' on the streets of his community as a criminal, Yamarte said. In March, the Trump administration sent 252 Venezuelans to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador, using a 1798 law known as the Alien Enemies Act. Yamarte, who worked in a tortilla factory while living in Texas, was included in the first group of 238 Venezuelans to arrive at the Salvadoran prison. 'We are not criminals. We are dignified people. I never had problems with the law, neither here nor in the United States,' he told the Herald after his return home to Los Pescadores, where he was greeted with balloons, celebrations, tears and hugs. Yamarte was arrested on March 13 inside his apartment in Dallas along with Hernández, Perozo and Rincón, three childhood friends. Local police and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers went to the apartment looking for Perozo, who had a deportation order after missing his appointment with an immigration judge after entering through the Mexican border without documentation in 2023. The four men said they were arrested because the agents mistakenly profiled them as members of the violent Tren de Aragua gang because of their tattoos. Other friends and relatives with whom they lived and who did not have tattoos were not arrested, they said. All of them thought that they would face some form of legal process in the U.S., or at worst be deported back to Venezuela. The reality turned out to be worse: On March 15 they were flown to CECOT, the Salvadoran megaprison that has been the subject of international accusations of human-rights abuses. The four men, released and sent home on as part of a deal between the U.S. and the Venezuelan government, said they had suffered physical and psychological torture inside CECOT. Yamarte called it 'hell.' Rincón said the 'terror' has left 'marks' on their bodies and psyches. A softball and soccer player, Yamarte said he is still sore in his shoulders, especially at night, from the times CECOT guards lifted him by both arms while he was handcuffed behind his back. He said lost several toenails after officers stood on his feet while during searches. His ankles still sport dark shadows from tight cuffs. Perozo, who has five children, said he was beaten daily for a week at CECOT and a gun was fired near his left ear during a riot 15 days after his imprisonment. 'Every time they took me to the doctor, they didn't treat me, they beat me,' he told reporters minutes after receiving hugs from his parents. Perozo has not left his neighborhood since he arrived. 'I have nightmares and I can't sleep. I dream that I'm still there,' he said, adding he has as an urgent request for anyone who can help him adapt to life back in Venezuela: 'We need psychological help.' President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador has consistently denied that abuses and human rights violations have occurred inside CECOT. Maduro accused Bukele of 'kidnapping and torturing' the group of Venezuelans inside CECOT and called them 'hostages'. The Venezuelan political leader also echoed the claims that many of them received 'beatings' and ate 'rotten food'. Referring to a new investigation about it from Venezuelan justice system, he said: 'There will be justice'. This week, a special report from a group of outlets and journalists that included ProPublica quoted Natalia Molano, a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, who said that United States is not responsible for the conditions of the Venezuelans' detention in El Salvador. She added that 'the United States is not involved in the conversation' about abuses inside CECOT denounced by the former prisoners. During the months that the four men from Los Pescadores were imprisoned in El Salvador, friends and family held several protests, traveled to Caracas to meet with Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and participated in prayer vigils Their mothers, wives, neighbors and teammates described the four Pescadores men as young workers with no criminal records in Venezuela or the United States, and who decided to emigrate to the U.S. to earn money to send back to their families in Maracaibo. 'I suffered a lot. We were very said,' said Wilfredo Perezo, Andy Perezo's father, crying as he remembers the 127 days of the imprisonment of his son and his friends in CECOT until their arrival home, where the group was received by the national government as heroes. Returning to his family, especially his 6-year-old daughter, his wife Yainelis and his mother Mercedes, has been 'extraordinary,' said Yamarte, who sports tattoos on his arms and one on his hand, the number 99, his favorite, he said, and which he wore on the shirts of his soccer teams every weekend. 'I want to clear my name. I didn't deserve this,' he told the Herald. Yamarte said he still doesn't have a job. He would like to get one that allows to finish the house his family began renovating in Los Pescadores, near his mother's home, thanks to the money he sent from Texas. His mother was the first among the men's parents to recognize one of the four from videos of their transfer to CECOT. In one of the images, Yamarte was seen being shaved and in despair. Mercedes said she screamed with joy on July 18 when she saw on television her son get off the first of two planes that flew from El Salvador with the 252 Venezuelans on board. During her son's time in prison, she said she consoled herself with prayers and playing the song that he dedicated to her a few days before his arrest and deportation, 'Es mi madre' — She's my mother, by Colombian singer Jhonny Rivera: 'She doesn't abandon me. She is the one who suffers if I suffer, she is the one who cries when I cry, she protects me and is my shield.' Ringo Rincón lives a few houses away from the homes of the Yamartes and the Hernández Herreras. He was arrested in the Dallas apartment shortly returning home after finishing his shift making deliveries. He said he was surprised to see so many police officers inside his residence and his friends handcuffed face down in the living room. One of the first questions he was asked was if he had any tattoos. They asked him to remove his shirt and show them. He has several on both arms and on his chest, and a large one of a watch on his left shoulder. Rincón says the biggest scars on his body were left by blows from CECOT guards, whom he says beat him 'without compassion.' 'The abuse came every day,' he said. Rincón smiled when he spoke of his children, being reunited with his mother and his favorite food, chicken and rice, which he has eaten no less than three times since his return home. Yarelis Herrera, mother of Edwuar Hernández Herrera, decorated her home colored balloons and a giant poster with photos of her smiling son when he returned home. That day, he was greeted with lunch and cold beer. Christian music and the song Volver a casa — Returning Home — by Venezuelan singer Cáceres, played in the background. Edwuar Herrera, the youngest of the men from Los Pescadores deported to CECOT, described his days back in his hometown as calming and happy. He said that, like his friends who were imprisoned with him, he is 'trying to clear' his mind of what happened in El Salvador, playing sports, spending time with family and watching movies. 'Being able to have time again with my daughter and my mother is priceless,' he said. He tries to 'not to think about it so much,' he said about his time in the Salvadoran prison, although he hopes that the U.S. justice system will 'cleanse' the reputations of the 252 Venezuelans send to CECOT. He said he never had access to a judge or a lawyer, either in the U.S or El Salvador. He added he was beaten badly by the prison guards and was hit by four rubber bullets during a riot. The U.S. government, he said, 'threw us out as alleged terrorists. We don't deserve any of that.'
Politico
10 minutes ago
- Politico
Elon Musk gave the GOP $10M while he was fighting with Trump
Musk, who spent $290 million of his own money to boost Trump and other Republicans last year, led the cost-cutting efforts of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency in the first few months of the Trump administration. When he left that role in May, he also suggested he was done with political giving for the time being: 'If I see a reason to do political spending in the future, I will do it. I don't currently see a reason,' he said at the Qatar Economic Forum. He then engaged in a harsh public fight with Trump in June amid the push to pass the president's signature budget bill, breaking with the president and, later, the GOP. Musk's donations to CLF and SLF were enough to make him the largest known individual donor to the main House and Senate GOP super PACs so far this year, although they reflect only a fraction of the money both raised. Congressional Leadership Fund brought in $32.7 million in the first half of the year, while Senate Leadership Fund raised $26.4 million. A spokesperson for the Congressional Leadership Fund said it does not comment on donors. Senate Leadership Fund and Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Thursday. Musk also poured another $45 million of his own money into his super PAC, America PAC, this spring. That group spent primarily on Wisconsin's Supreme Court race in April, which Musk was heavily involved in publicly. Its expenses included $27 million for petition incentives, $12.7 million on campaigning related to the Wisconsin race and three controversial $1 million payments to spokespeople selected for signing Musk's petition opposing 'activist judges.' Musk's preferred candidate in that Wisconsin race, conservative Brad Schimel, lost by 10 points in what was widely seen as a sign of Musk's electoral drag on Republicans. In July, Musk said he would create his own political party, the America Party. But Thursday's FEC filings, which cover only through the end of June, provide no insight into what that effort might look like.
NBC News
10 minutes ago
- NBC News
Tariffs announced, tariffs delayed — tariffs denied? From the Politics Desk
Welcome to the online version of From the Politics Desk, an evening newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team's latest reporting and analysis from the White House, Capitol Hill and the campaign trail. In today's edition, our team looks at Trump's tariff agenda on the eve of his deadline for reimposing some of the duties he announced and then delayed in April, as well as a legal case looming over all of the tariffs. Meanwhile, Jonathan Allen outlines the thought process that awaits Kamala Harris ahead of the 2028 election. — Scott Bland Trump's tariffs face another inflection point, and a court test President Donald Trump's most sweeping tariffs, the ones he originally announced in April, are set to go into effect (again) on Friday. But on Thursday, his whole tariff agenda faced a stern test in federal court, NBC News' Steve Kopack reports. The Court of International Trade initially blocked the tariffs in late May, though they were allowed to stay in place pending appeal. The court said the law Trump cited in many of his executive orders did not 'delegate an unbounded tariff authority to the President.' It also said the tariffs did not meet the test of interceding against an 'unusual and extraordinary' risk to the country, after Trump implemented them by claiming a national emergency. All of Trump's tariffs on major trading partners, such as Canada, Mexico, China, the European Union, Japan, India, Brazil and a handful of other countries, have been deployed using the law. On Thursday, an appeals court took a skeptical view of the Trump administration's argument that imposing the tariffs is well within the president's authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, per NBC News' Ryan Balberman. Some of the judges noted that Trump's use of the law effectively cuts Congress out of tariff policy, though the law doesn't mention tariffs. Meanwhile, Trump extended the deadline for negotiations with Mexico before imposing new tariffs there. He's hit India, Brazil and South Korea with new tariffs as the deadline looms. Altogether, as NBC News' Rob Wile and Steve Kopack write, since the April tariff rate announcement Trump dubbed 'Liberation Day,' the president backed down — and since then has steadily been reintroducing elevated tariffs at levels not seen since the 1930s. What's next? We'll find out more on Friday. And more still when that appeals court makes its decision. What Kamala Harris will weigh ahead of 2028 Analysis by Jonathan Allen There are more than 2 million reasons for Kamala Harris not to run for president again: That's the margin she lost by in 2024. Moreover, no Democrat has lost a general election and come back to win the presidency since Grover Cleveland in 1892. The last Democrat to win the party's nomination, lose the general election and come back to win the nomination four years later was Adlai Stevenson in 1956. But what may ultimately be more compelling to Harris are the arguments for mounting a third bid for the Oval Office in 2028. In passing on a run for governor of California this week, she said that 'for now,' her focus is not on elective office. That left open the door to a future campaign, and there's only one job above the one the former vice president held most recently. If Harris does hope to make a comeback, she will have to reckon with the most glaring deficiency of the 107-day campaign she ran in the shadow of President Joe Biden: She didn't articulate a clear vision for the country that met the needs of voters who were dissatisfied with his leadership. While she has time to hear voters, develop an agenda and brush up her presentation skills, she would have to devote herself to executing on those goals to win a primary and the presidency. Still, Harris would walk into a primary race with a set of advantages over most of her rivals. For starters, and for better or worse, everyone in her party knows who she is. Most candidates have to spend exorbitant amounts of time and money to build name recognition outside their states. That's not a problem for Harris, who received more than 75 million votes in 2024. Candidates also have to spend money on television ads and field operations, which can be prohibitively expensive. Harris would start the race with the strongest record of raising money — much of it attributable, of course, to the fact that she was the party's nominee — and the biggest list of donors. Again, she would start the race farther down the track than prospective opponents. In her 2024 and 2020 campaigns, the latter of which actually ended in 2019 when she ran out of money and support, Harris showed she had a lot to learn about creating and communicating a message. In 2028, she would not be dealing with the scrutiny of the national media and the exhausting crunch of day-to-day campaigning for the first time. Again, these are edges she would have over first-timers. One question she will have to answer for herself — and it's one that helped dissuade Hillary Clinton from running in 2020 — is whether she would still run if she were convinced she could win the nomination but was unlikely to defeat a Republican in November. There's plenty of time for Harris to determine her own appetite for another campaign, the electorate's interest in her and the pure political calculation of her chances of ending up in the White House. It may be that Americans have seen the last of Harris on a ballot. But while a Democrat last avenged a defeat in the distant past, one very present politician did it less than a year ago: Donald J. Trump. Elon Musk gives millions to Republican super PACs ahead of the midterms By Ben Kamisar and Bridget Bowman Billionaire Elon Musk may be gone from President Donald Trump's White House, but he may not be done with Republican politics. Musk made a pair of $5 million donations on June 27 to the main super PACs backing House and Senate Republicans. That made Musk the largest individual donor to both groups in the first six months of 2025, according to new campaign finance reports filed Thursday. The new contributions are further proof of how Musk can make a big splash in politics by putting his signature on just one check. And they raise the question of how much more there might be before the midterms, despite Musk's messy post-White House breakup with Trump and his statements in July about starting a third party, made after the donations. Musk's June 27 donations supporting the Senate Leadership Fund and the Congressional Leadership Fund, the two GOP super PACs, came about a month after leaving his official post as an adviser to Trump and days before he began publicly discussing the idea of starting a new political party. Meanwhile, other new campaign finance reports show Musk pumped $45.3 million into his own super PAC in the first six months of this year. The tech billionaire gave nearly $17.9 million directly to the group and sent another $27.4 million in in-kind contributions, with Musk covering funds for million-dollar prizes to voters who signed petitions.
