A freshman Republican congressman from Wisconsin yelled and cursed at high school-aged Senate pages during a late-night tour of the Capitol this week, eliciting a bipartisan rebuke from Senate leaders.
Derrick Van Orden, who represents western Wisconsin’s third district, used a profanity to describe the young pages as lazy and another to order them off the floor of the Capitol Rotunda on Wednesday night, according to PunchBowl News. The pages were lying down to take photos, according to the publication.
In a statement responding to the report, Van Orden doubled down.
“I have long said our nation’s Capitol is a symbol of the sacrifice our servicemen and women have made for this country and should never be treated like a frat house common room,” Van Orden said.
“Threatening a congressman with bad press to excuse poor behavior is a reminder of everything that’s wrong with Washington. 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.”
Van Orden, a former Navy Seal who was outside the Capitol during the January 6 riot, also appeared to embrace the presence of alcohol in his office the same evening after images were posted on social media showing bottles of liquor and beer cans on a desk. Van Orden said the alcohol was from constituents.
His spokeswoman, Anna Kelly, said: “As the congressman says, once you cross the threshold to our office, you are in Wisconsin!” She added a beer mug emoji.
On Thursday, just before the Senate left for its August recess, the majority leader, Chuck Schumer of New York, and the Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, rebuked Van Orden and thanked the pages, high school-age students who serve as helpers and messengers. Several were sitting on the Senate floor at the time, smiling and nodding as dozens of senators gave them a standing ovation.
Without mentioning Van Orden, Schumer said he was “shocked” to hear about the behavior of a member of the House Republican majority and “further shocked at his refusal to apologize to these young people”. He noted that Thursday was the final day for this class of pages.
“They’re here when we need them,” Schumer said. “And they have served this institution with grace.”
McConnell said he associated himself with Schumer’s words.
“Everybody on this side of the aisle feels exactly the same way,” he said.
Van Orden was elected in 2022 after a losing bid in 2020. He has insisted he did not enter the Capitol on 6 January 2021. That did not stop a fellow Wisconsin representative, Mark Pocan, a Democrat, from invoking the attack in criticizing Van Orden. Pocan said the Capitol should be respected.
“Wonder if he told that to his fellow insurrectionists, who were beating police officers on the same ground?” Pocan said.
Rebecca Cooke, a Democrat running to challenge Van Orden in 2024, called him an embarrassment and a hypocrite.
“We should be encouraging youth engagement in our democratic process, not using vulgar language towards them,” Cooke said.
Cooke called Van Orden a “serial harasser” and referenced an incident in June 2021 when Van Orden was upset about a display of LGBTQ+ books at a south-western Wisconsin library and yelled at a teenager working there.
“For someone to perhaps drunkenly, and definitely belligerently, yell at these kids for enjoying our nation’s Capitol is just stupid,” Pocan said on Friday. “He would be best to say it was stupid and just move on.”
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