Alaska U.S. Rep. Don Young found himself a center of attention this week after a hallway encounter with representatives of the liberal group MoveOn.org.
Young, 86, was among Republicans voting against continuing an investigation into whether President Donald Trump should be impeached. On Thursday, Young was followed down a U.S. Capitol hallway by MoveOn and repeatedly asked variations of the question, “Do you think it’s OK for the president to pressure foreign governments to interfere in our elections?” The video was posted to social media by MoveOn.
Young, accompanied by an aide, at first ignored the questioner and a person filming the encounter. But as he waited for an elevator, Young stepped toward the camera, lowered his head, appeared to make contact with the camera with his glasses and said, “There you go,” before circling back to the elevator.
Watch Republican Congressman @repdonyoung (R-AK) headbutt the camera when we asked him if it’s okay to ask foreign governments to interfere in our elections.
— MoveOn (@MoveOn) October 31, 2019
And no, he never answered the question. pic.twitter.com/FWgmkdzycG
“Just asking the same question over and over again is not going to get you anywhere,” said the aide, who repeatedly suggested the people questioning Young contact the congressman’s office.
The run-in resulted in a flurry of online stories — “GOP lawmaker head-butts camera as progressive activist peppers him with questions,” said Fox News; “Don Young head-butted a camera to avoid answering a question about Trump,” said The Washington Post — several of which recounted earlier antics and encounters involving the 24-term congressman. Earlier this year, Young apologized for shoving a reporter out of his way. Two years ago, Young apologized to a colleague, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., after saying on the House floor that “she doesn’t know a damn thing what she’s talking about.”
Young’s office had no comment on the incident this week.
Liz Ruskin, a longtime Alaska reporter in Washington who has covered Young for years for Alaska Public Media and the Anchorage Daily News, said in an Alaska Public Media interview, “Headbutt? No, I’d say it was more of a head nudge. ... In the range of Don Young behavior at the Capitol, and in Alaska … it hardly ranks with some of the others. ... After the nudge I’m pretty sure I saw him smile a little bit. It was perhaps not the most decorous thing he’s done but MoveOn is certainly making some hay with it."
Young, Alaska’s sole member of the House, is the only sitting congressman to have been through three presidential impeachment inquiries. He voted in favor of inquiries into presidents Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton.
Read more:
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