The line to get into the one and only hearing on Graham-Cassidy, Republican senators’ last-ditch effort to repeal Obamacare, filled two lengthy hallways in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Monday. Not “spanned” two hallways—filled. Wheelchairs, three-deep, clogged the corridor; police stood shoulder to shoulder to protect a narrow walkway for people to pass.
Several of the protesters at the front of the line told me that they claimed their spaces at 5 a.m. Monday morning. They were with ADAPT, an organization of disability rights activists. As one woman told me, it takes those in wheelchairs a little bit longer to get ready in the morning, so their wake-up call came at 2:30 a.m. About 10 to 15 of those in wheelchairs were able to get into the hearing room, nearly 12 hours after they woke up.
They weren’t wasting any time. The second that Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch tried to begin the hearing, the ADAPT protesters began to shout, “NO cuts to Medicaid, save our liberty!” They are still, about an hour later as I write this, chanting it in the hallways of Dirksen. It took Capitol police about 20 minutes to escort all of those disrupting the proceedings out of the room.
Some protesters followed the police officers’ order to leave. Others didn’t. At least one man would not move and police could not figure out how to unlock his wheelchair. He was picked up and carried out by about half a dozen officers. Others just made it difficult for the police.
Graham-Cassidy Health Care Hearing Starts With Eruption Of Protests
September 25, 20171:56 PM ET
Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, suspended the hearing for about 15 minutes while the demonstrators — some in wheelchairs — were dragged from the room.
“If the hearing is going to devolve into a sideshow or a forum for simply putting partisan points on the board, there’s absolutely no reason for us to be here,” Hatch said.
Hearseeno 