McCain to protesters: ‘Get out of here, you low-life scum’

WASHINGTON – Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain has kicked protesters out of a budget hearing, calling them “low-life scum.”

The upheaval came Thursday on Capitol Hill after members of an anti-war group calling itself Code Pink approached a witness table where former secretaries of state Henry Kissinger, Madeleine Albright and George P. Shultz were testifying. The protesters carried signs calling the 91-year-old Kissinger a war criminal.

McCain blurted out, “Get out of here, you low-life scum.”

Capitol Police removed the protesters from the room.

The hearing was the third in a series in which the Arizona Republican has called luminaries from the foreign policy world to share their experiences with lawmakers on the panel.

This story was originally published January 29, 2015 at 11:04 AM with the headline "McCain to protesters: ‘Get out of here, you low-life scum’."