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McCain Calls Protesters 'Low-Life Scum' At Senate Hearing

Protesters interrupt the start of a Senate Armed Services hearing on Capitol Hill Thursday, as former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger prepares to testify.
J. Scott Applewhite
/
AP
Protesters interrupt the start of a Senate Armed Services hearing on Capitol Hill Thursday, as former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger prepares to testify.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., lashed out at anti-war demonstrators protesting the presence of former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger at a Senate hearing, calling them "low-life scum."

Kissinger, 91, and other former secretaries of state in both Republican and Democratic administrations, were at the Senate Armed Services Committee, which McCain chairs, for a hearing on global security challenges.

A small group of protesters held banners calling Kissinger a "war criminal" and urged his arrest for U.S. actions when he served in the Nixon administration as National Security Advisor and Secretary of State.

"Arrest Henry Kissinger for war crimes," they chanted.

Critics have accused Kissinger of war crimes for covert actions the U.S. government conducted in Chile, Vietnam, East Timor, Cambodia and Laos.

McCain ordered Capitol police to remove the protesters.

"Get out of here, you low-life scum," he said.

You can watch what happened here.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Krishnadev Calamur is NPR's deputy Washington editor. In this role, he helps oversee planning of the Washington desk's news coverage. He also edits NPR's Supreme Court coverage. Previously, Calamur was an editor and staff writer at The Atlantic. This is his second stint at NPR, having previously worked on NPR's website from 2008-15. Calamur received an M.A. in journalism from the University of Missouri.