Security guards dragged LGBTQ+ ally and Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Ben Cohen out of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s hearing after protesting the U.S.’s support of Israel’s war in Gaza.
Kennedy, President Donald Trump’s Health and Human Services Secretary, was being grilled by Congress on Wednesday about Trump’s health budget for the next fiscal year, when several protesters started shouting.
“RFK kills people with AIDS,” one protester reportedly said while holding a protest sign. She was quickly picked up and carried out of the hearing room by security. There were two other protesters who were also removed.
Cohen wasn’t discouraged by the show of force from security and said, “Congress pays for bombs that kill kids in Gaza!”
He then accused lawmakers of using money from “Medicaid cuts to arm Israel for its war in Gaza,” Mediaite reported. Cohen was then forced out by security as he yelled, “Congress kills!”
In a video posted to X (formerly Twitter) by Cohen, he can be seen being manhandled by police as he is being arrested and then dragged down a hallway. When a reporter asks why he was being arrested, Cohen responded, “Congress kills poor kids in Gaza by buying bombs and pays for it by kicking kids off Medicaid in the U.S.”
Cohen’s ice cream company is well known for supporting liberal causes and candidates, keeping DEI policies in place amid Trump's demand that companies get rid of them, and speaking out against injustice. Ben & Jerry's even created a special ice cream in 2018 to resist Trump, with profits going to socially conscious organizations.
“We are expected to be good Americans and look the other way as Israel prevents food, water, and medicine from reaching the remaining people of Gaza,” a spokesperson for Cohen said in a press release, per Mediaite. “Israel is literally starving them to death… We will not look away. We will not be silenced. We will do everything we can to get our government to stop being complicit in starving little kids to death.”
Ben Cohen couldn't immediately be reached for comment.