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U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI) has no regrets and no apologies after swearing at and cursing out 16 and 17 year-old U.S. Senate pages Wednesday night who reportedly were in the Capitol Rotunda taking photographs before their final day serving the nation’s lawmakers.
Instead, Congressman Van Orden, who has a history of berating teenagers, is claiming there is nothing wrong with his actions and blames the left for criticizing him – which he suggests is nothing more than playing politics because House Republicans made changes when Kevin McCarthy became Speaker, including ending a COVID-era program for House members to vote by proxy, and for what he claims is defunding IRS agents.
Van Orden, who was endorsed by Donald Trump, attended Trump’s Stop the Steal rally and was at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 after losing his first attempt to become a U.S. Congressman, in a statement did not deny swearing and cursing at the teenaged high-schoolers.
Rather, Van Orden, who that night, his aides say, had hosted a group of about 50 constituents and, according to a photograph (below) had a large amount of alcohol in his congressional office, criticized the teens by suggesting they were treating the Capitol like a “frat house.”
“Wake the f*ck up you little sh*ts,” Congressman Van Orden told the Senate pages, according to a transcript one of them wrote down, as The Hill reports. Punchbowl News was first to report the incident. “What the f*ck are you all doing? Get the f*ck out of here. You are defiling the space you [pieces of sh*t].”
“Who the f*ck are you?” he reportedly asked. When told they were Senate pages, Van Orden is said to have replied, “I don’t give a f*ck who you are, get out.”
He does not dispute he cursed out the kids, nor does he dispute the photograph taken from outside his office Wednesday night, which appeared to be filled with bottles of alcohol. Nor does he dispute he was “heard partying loudly” in his congressional office that night.
Per a source, here’s a photo from last night of a bunch of alcohol in Van Orden’s office. Van Orden and staff were heard partying loudly before he cursed out a group of teenage Senate pages pic.twitter.com/W6KF35nfWt
— Max Cohen (@maxpcohen) July 27, 2023
According to Punchbowl News’ Max Cohen, who broke the story on Thursday, Van Orden appeared on local Milwaukee talk radio station WISN Friday morning. He began by appearing to mock the massive criticism he’s received over his verbal abuse of the teenaged pages.
Cohen reports Van Orden said, “for the record, I wanna say I was misquoted. what I actually said was get off my lawn.”
He also said, “the people who have brought this up are not serious people. Let’s stop pretending like they are.”
“Here’s why this is a thing. In the last 180 days, we have defunded IRS agents, we ended proxy voting… we opened the people’s house,” Van Orden said, according to Cohen.
But the people who are criticizing the Congressman from Wisconsin include his fellow lawmakers on Capitol Hill, include the entire U.S. Senate, Democrats and Republicans alike.
Thursday evening Senate Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer denounced Van Orden’s attack on the pages. Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell joined in that condemnation, saying, “everybody on this side of the aisle feels the same way.”
Schumer: The pages have served this institution with grace. However, I understand a member of the house majority thought it appropriate to curse at some of these young people… I would like to take a moment to thank these pages. pic.twitter.com/Rxz9PLh6Aq
— Acyn (@Acyn) July 28, 2023
Punchbowl News co-founder Jake Sherman on Friday adds, “Several top figures in the House Republican leadership told me they were alarmed by Van Orden’s behavior.”
Watch the video of Leaders Schumer and McConnell’s remarks above or at this link.
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