House Republican Wants Code Pink Banned From the Capitol After Their Leader ‘Smacked’ Her

 
Anna Paulina Luna

Screenshot via TMZ

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) spoke to TMZ’s Jacob Wasserman on Wednesday about her moving to press charges against a member of Code Pink, who she alleges “smacked” her on the arm following a House hearing.

“So I was questioning Secretary Rubio on Code Pink, which is a foreign-funded organization, and I’ve been going after FARA, et cetera. And so as I was leaving, they were asking questions. I don’t have an issue answering questions, but when you’re berating me and trying to block me from being able to come vote, it’s an issue,” Paulina Luna told TMZ, adding:

But I continued to answer them. I was walking out of Rayburn, and as we were trying to walk away from them, I guess they didn’t like what I was saying, so one of the lead organizers actually smacked me. And so at that point, I broke contact.

Wasserman pressed, “Can you re-enact how you were hit, just so—”

“I was literally walking, trying to walk away from this person, and they smacked me,” Paulina Luna replied.

Wasserman asked, “In what part of the body?”

Paulina Luna replied, “They smacked my arm.”

“Smacked your arm. Are you injured right now?” Wasserman followed up.

“I mean, look, either way, if you don’t touch anyone — especially if you don’t like what they’re saying — you cannot physically harm someone. You can’t hit them. You can’t block people from being able to vote. And so what I will say is I have filed charges. There’s footage of this. They have multiple angles of this, and multiple witnesses. We have people that filed statements as well, and I think she’s going to be getting in a lot of trouble. You cannot do that to people,” insisted Paulina Luna.

“So I just saw you speaking with a group of police officers. Was that you pressing charges?” Paulina Luna pressed.
“Well, I’m giving my statement, and they are basically investigating for assault,” Paulina Luna explained, adding, “So ultimately they’ll determine whether or not we can actually press charges, but I think they have more than enough evidence. We’ll know later on today.”

“But if you’re able to, you definitely will be pressing charges?” Wasserman asked

“Absolutely. Yeah, you can’t hit people,” Paulina Luna replied as Wasserman asked, “What do you hope happens to the person?”

“Look, we live in a day and age when people feel like they can hurt people because they disagree with them politically. We’ve seen this happen to many conservatives, but I’m sure it also happens on the left as well. That’s unacceptable. You shouldn’t be doing that. I’m just glad that there was footage of it, and I think that we have more than enough evidence to hold this person accountable and responsible. Let this person be a symbol to everyone else that’s going to come up here and try to hurt people because they disagree with them,” Paulina Luna argued.

Wasserman added, “So you were just walking out of the hearing and someone comes up and smacks you?”

“It was a group of Code Pink. I was specifically questioning Secretary Rubio on Code Pink’s foreign funding ties and links to the CCP. And that was the group that was surrounding me. They at one point tried to block me from actually walking across the street to come vote, which you cannot do. And then when I did not give them responses that they liked, I got smacked,” Paulina Luna concluded.

The Florida Republican also posted to social media that she asked House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to ban Code Pink from the U.S. Capitol building.

Watch the clip above via TMZ.

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Alex Griffing is a Senior Editor at Mediaite. Send tips via email: alexanderg@mediaite.com. Follow him on Twitter: @alexgriffing