The former Marine who disrupted a Senate hearing to voice his opposition to a potential war in Iran broke his left arm as officers and a US senator forced him out the room.

Brian McGinnis, 44, stood up at the Senate Armed Services Sub-Committee hearing on Wednesday and started to shout that Israel was to blame for the military operation in Iran.

‘Israel is the reason for this war,’ he was heard yelling in dramatic video of his protest. ‘America does not want to fight this war for Israel!’

‘America does not want to send its sons and daughters to war for Israel! Your inability to name that shows your ineptness as leaders! This is wrong and nobody wants to fight for Israel!’ 

Capitol Police soon sprang into action, with one officer seen grabbing at McGinnis’ arm before he jerked it away.

At that point, other officers made their way to the back of the hearing room as McGinnis fought to hold them off.

He then fell to the ground as two officers continued to wrestle him to the door.

Meanwhile, Senator Tim Sheehy, a Republican from Montana, got up from his seat at the dais and moved toward the back of the room to help the officers. He was then seen appearing by the officers’ side as they got McGinnis to the door, and Sheehy helped grab him.

Brian McGinnis, an ex-Marine now running a third party campaign for Senate in North Carolina, interrupted the proceedings to denounce the battle in Iran as a war being fought for Israel

McGinnis broke his left arm in the brawl after it became stuck in the doorway 

But neither Sheehy nor the officers seemed to notice that McGinnis managed to swing open a door next to the one they were trying to pull him through – and as he grabbed onto the doorframe to keep the officers from dragging him out, his arm was caught between the now-closed door and the frame.

When the officers then continued to try to pull McGinnis through the door, his arm was jerked downward and a cracking sound could be heard.

McGinnis and three US Capitol Police officers were then treated for their injuries, and the former Marine was taken to a local hospital for his broken arm, where he remained on Thursday, according to an online fundraiser to help with his medical expenses. 

‘When Brian stood up to speak inside the US Capitol, he was exercising one of the most basic rights Americans are supposed to have. The right to speak. The right to question power. The right to be heard,’ it reads.

‘Instead, he was forcibly removed and violently handled during a Senate Armed Services hearing.’

‘Regardless of politics, this should concern every American,’ the fundraiser continued. ‘A man who served this country should never be treated this way simply for speaking inside the halls of power.

‘Brian stood up because he believes the American people deserve a voice in decisions about war and the lives of our soldiers.

‘Now, he needs our help,’ the description for the fundraiser concludes. 

US Senator Tim Sheehy, a Republican from Montana, intervened as officers tried to push McGinnis through the door

HE said he ‘decided to help out and deescalate the situation’

Capitol Police, though, said in a statement to WNCN that McGinnis ‘got his own arm stuck in a door to resist our officers and force his way back into the hearing room.’

The police department went on to call McGinnis ‘an unruly man, who started to illegally protest during a hearing,’ saying he ‘put everyone in a dangerous position by violently resisting and fighting our officer’s attempts to remove him from the room.

‘Protests are not allowed inside the Congressional buildings,’ it noted. ‘There are plenty of other spots on Capitol grounds, outside, where demonstrators are allowed.’

In his own post about the situation, Sheehy said he ‘decided to help out and deescalate the situation’ when ‘Capitol Police were attempting to remove an unhinged protestor from the Armed Services hearing.’

‘This gentleman came to the Capitol looking for a confrontation, and he got one. I hope he gets the help he needs without causing further violence.’

McGinnis had announced his plans to disrupt the hearing in a video posted to X.

‘Hey guys, I’m here in DC, trying to speak out against the Senate and ask them why they’re going to send our men and women into harm’s way when our elected officials said there would be no war,’ he said.

Before his disruption, McGinnis announced his plans in a video posted to X

The former marine now faces seven criminal charges, including three counts of misdemeanor assault on a police officer, three counts of misdemeanor resisting arrest and misdemeanor crowding, obstructing and incommoding.

He could also face a $250 fine and six months in prison for wearing his official Marine Corps uniform at the hearing. 

Additionally, McGinnis has been placed on paid administrative leave from the fire department in Raleigh, North Carolina pending the outcome of an investigation, The Raleigh News & Observer reports. 

But his mother, Mary Lou McGinnis, told The Independent she doesn’t ‘know where he got the idea to do it.’ 

She noted that her son, whom she described as being a high school class president, a popular football captain, a firefighter and a father-of-four, is married to a Palestinian woman named Hamadee. 

‘He talks a lot about her family and Israel,’ Mary Lou admitted. ‘I think that probably played into his thinking.

‘Certain subjects, I guess, he’s gotten kind of riled up about – Gaza, his wife’s family and all, he has strong feelings.’ 

McGinnis, is running as an anti-war left-winger on the Green Party ticket

The worried mother went on to tell how her son joined the Marines following high school, made the All-Marine boxing team in 2003 and deployed to Iraq as a Light Armored Vehicle Crewman that same year.

‘When he was in Iraq, he started sort of wondering,’ she said. ‘He wasn’t quite sure what he was doing there and he had questions about all that.

‘After the war, he came home and met a girl with Palestinian background.’ 

McGinnis has since been vocal of his support for the Palestinian cause, and made local headlines in 2024 when he helped bring aid to Gaza with a volunteer group called the Freedom Flotilla Coalition. 

His arrest comes amid his campaign for the US Senate as a Green Party candidate, with his campaign manager Mark Elbourno describing the veteran’s actions as heroic.

‘He cares about our country and our community more than he cares about his arm,’ Elbourno told WNCN. ‘He didn’t even shake after it snapped.’

His wife is of Palestinian descent and he has become active in the Palestinian cause 

He added that the campaign is motivated to fight for what they believe in.

‘We don’t need war, we need to stay at home and bring our troops home, enough losing our own blood for somebody else’s issue.’

The Green Party also put out a statement saying they ‘salute’ McGinnis’ actions.

‘For a Senator to participate in the assault of a citizen who was already being handled by police is a violent abuse of power that should disqualify him from public service,’ said Kaila Fitzgerald, North Carolina Green Party spokeswoman.

‘Is that how the Senate silences vocal opposition?’

But on Thursday, a team representing McGinnis released a statement saying in part: ‘At this time, our priority is Brian’s well-being.

‘We are taking a necessary step back from the public eye to focus fully on his recovery in private,’ the team said.

‘While he looks forward to engaging with you all again very soon, his health and his family remain the current priorities.’