Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Ben Cohen was removed from a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing featuring Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Wednesday for protesting.
About 15 minutes into the Wednesday hearing, protestors began to shout, and people were forced out of the room. Amid the chaos, Cohen is seen standing up in the seating area behind Kennedy and shouting, “Congress pays for bombs.”
Shortly after, Cohen was taken away from where he was standing by a police officer but could still be heard yelling.
“I told Congress they’re killing poor kids in Gaza by buying bombs, and they’re paying for it by kicking poor kids off Medicaid in the US. This was the authorities’ response,” Cohen said in a post on the social media platform X featuring footage of him being taken away by the officer.
Cohen has a history of political activism, previously being arrested for disorderly conduct in 2018 amid protesting the presence of F-35 fighter jets based in Vermont. He also supported Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) 2016 and 2020 bids for the presidency.
During the 2024 presidential campaign, Cohen and his Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Jerry Greenfield unveiled the “Kamala’s Coconut Dream” ice cream flavor as part of a get-out-the-vote initiative for former Vice President Harris, referencing a popular meme at the time that came from comments the vice president had previously made.
