Capitol Police forcibly removed Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Ben Cohen from a Senate hearing Wednesday after he and other anti-Israel protesters disrupted Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s testimony, turning a routine budget discussion into a shouting match over Gaza.
"You’re killing poor kids in Gaza and paying for it by cutting Medicaid for kids here!” Cohen bellowed.
As he shouted, an officer seized his arm and hauled him out of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions hearing room.
"RFK kills people with hate!” protesters chanted, drowning out Kennedy’s opening statement.
Another yelled, "RFK kills people with AIDS!" while brandishing a sign.
Ben & Jerry’s Co-founder Ben Cohen removed as part of the RFK protests today.
— TrashDiscourse (@TrashDiscourse) May 14, 2025
They just continue to destroy their company. pic.twitter.com/32MqyNj6Iw
"Congress pays for bombs that kills kids in Gaza!" Cohen added, accusing lawmakers of slashing Medicaid to fund Israel’s war.
Capitol Police arrested seven people, including Cohen, on charges of crowding, obstructing, and incommoding.
Some faced additional counts of resisting arrest and assaulting an officer, though it’s unclear who drew the harsher charges.
Footage from the hearing showed two officers escorting Cohen out as he continued his tirade.
🚨WATCH: Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Ben Cohen is removed by law enforcement for interrupting RFK Jr. hearing pic.twitter.com/OU7Pc5GHrP
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) May 14, 2025
Nothing says "progressive hero" like getting dragged out by cops for the cameras.
"Members of the audience are reminded disruptions will not be permitted while the committee conducts its business. Capitol Police are asked to remove the individuals from the hearing room,” said Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., the committee chairman, pausing the hearing.
Once order was restored, Cassidy quipped, "That was a made-for-C-SPAN moment."
Before the hearing, Cohen joined Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., at a pro-Palestinian press conference outside the Capitol, where he introduced the congresswoman.
"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. Israel is literally starving them to death," Cohen declared.
"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," he continued.
Cohen’s activism is nothing new.
In 2023, he was arrested for blocking the Department of Justice entrance while protesting Julian Assange’s detainment.
He’s also a vocal critic of the Trump administration, recently slamming the Pentagon’s budget as a “huge demonic sucking tube” on The Tucker Carlson Show.
Citing Trump’s proposed 13% defense spending hike, which would push the Pentagon’s budget past $1 trillion, Cohen argued, "We could have more affordable housing. We could make it so that the American dream could actually still happen, that people could afford a house. That you can get a decent education, and that you can get childcare."
Ben & Jerry’s, long in align with Cohen’s progressive values, famously ended sales in Israeli-occupied West Bank in 2021, a move that sparked GOP backlash.
Apparently, Cohen thinks shouting in Senate hearings and peddling ice cream can solve world hunger and geopolitics.
Conversation