Congressman Rebuked for What He Said to Senate Pages
A freshman Republican congressman from Wisconsin yelled and cursed at high school-age Senate pages during a late-night tour of the Capitol this week, eliciting a bipartisan rebuke from Senate leaders.
Rep. Derrick Van Orden, speaking in Friday interviews on Wisconsin conservative talk radio, did not refute reports of his actions or apologize for what he did.
Van Orden used a profanity to describe the pages as lazy and and another to order them off the floor of the Capitol Rotunda on Wednesday night, according to a report in the online political newsletter PunchBowl News.
The pages were lying down to take photos in the Rotunda, according to the publication.
“I’m not going to apologize for making sure that anybody — I don’t care who you are and who you’re related to — defiles this House,” Van Orden said. “It’s not going to happen on my watch.”
Van Orden said he was protecting the integrity of the Capitol Rotunda because it served as a field hospital during the Civil War and it’s where presidents have lain in state upon their deaths. He said the young people he confronted were “goofing off” and that Democrats were making it an issue.
The same evening Van Orden encountered the pages, images were posted on social media showing bottles of liquor and beer cans on a desk in his office. Van Orden said on X, the platform previously known as Twitter, that the alcohol was from constituents.
Van Orden represents Wisconsin’s 3rd District, a GOP-leaning jurisdiction that comprises parts of central, southwestern and western Wisconsin, including moderate exurbs of Minnesota’s Twin Cities.
On Thursday evening, just before the Senate left for its August recess, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell rebuked Van Orden’s behavior and thanked the pages, students who serve as helpers and messengers around the Senate.
Several of the pages were sitting on the Senate floor at the time as dozens of senators stood and gave them a standing ovation.
Without mentioning Van Orden by name, Schumer said he was “shocked” to hear about the behavior of a House Republican 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 agreed with Schumer. “Everybody on this side of the aisle feels exactly the same way,” he said.
When asked about McConnell’s rebuke, Van Orden said Friday, “I don’t know what it was because I honestly have not tracked any of this stuff.”
The Western Journal has reviewed this Associated Press story and may have altered it prior to publication to ensure that it meets our editorial standards.
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