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Rohrabacher Staffer Injured in Protest at District Office

Congressman says protesters engaged in ‘political thuggery’

Activists were trying to get Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., to hold a town hall meeting in his district. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call file photo)
Activists were trying to get Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., to hold a town hall meeting in his district. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call file photo)

A tussle at California Rep. Dana Rohrabacher’s Huntington Beach office led to his district director being hospitalized and a the daughter of a protester being hit on the head.

Activists showed up at the Republican congressman’s office to deliver Valentine’s Day cards that requested Rohrabacher hold a town hall meeting, the Orange County Register reported. When they found the doors locked, they shoved the cards under the door. When the 2-year-old daughter of one protester was adding a card, the door opened and hit her on the head.

Her mother said the child seemed only to be startled.

As district director Kathleen Staunton tried to hold the door closed, a male activist tried tugging it open, and the 71-year-old Staunton fell.

Rohrabacher spokesman Ken Grubbs said Staunton was transported to a hospital by paramedics after she fell unconscious.

Megan Blash, the mother of the child, said she didn’t think anyone was trying to hurt anyone, but Rohrabacher condemned the incident.

“Deliberate or not, the incident came as part of a mob action that not only intimidates but coerces,” he said in a statement. “Though protesters think of themselves as idealists, they engaged in political thuggery, pure and simple.”

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