Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) was caught on video snatching a phone from a man asking her if President Joe Biden should step down while she walked through Detroit Metro Airport.
“Excuse me, congresswoman, should Joe Biden step down?” the man asked the longtime Democrat congresswoman while he recorded her.
The National Republican Congressional Committee posted the video:
😡
— NRCC (@NRCC) June 28, 2024
ENRAGED @Marcy_Kaptur snatches phone away from man asking how she feels about Biden’s mental acuity.
Bystander shouts: “She’s RUDE and DISRESPECTFUL – and doesn’t care about the people.” pic.twitter.com/AoqHjADyLj
Kaptur ignored the question, prompting the man to repeat it.
When she continued to ignore him, he asked, “Why has the White House been lying about Joe Biden’s declining cognitive abilities?”
That was when the 21-term representative appeared to lose her cool.
Kaptur, 78, stared into the man’s camera before grabbing his phone, and the video cut.
“Congresswoman, why did you take my phone like that?” the man asked once he began recording again.
A female bystander chimed in off-camera, saying, “Cause she’s rude and disrespectful and don’t care about the people, obviously.”
“That’s why she’s mad,” the woman added.
Finally, Kaptur spoke back to the man with her own series of questions.
“What is your name?” the congresswoman demanded. “Where do you live?”
She asked him several times where he lived as she circled him.
“I don’t have to tell you that information,” the man replied, prompting Kaptur to say, “Then I’m not answering you.”
She began to walk away again as the man asked one more time, “I just want to know, congresswoman, should Joe Biden step down?”
“No,” she responded.
The bickering went on, with Kaptur asking the questioner why he was “reading questions off that sheet” and asking, “Who owns you?”
“Nobody owns me,” the man replied. “I’m just curious on some questions.”
“They own you,” Kaptur stated before exiting the airport.
A spokesperson for Kaptur’s campaign told Fox News, “It’s one thing to ask a question, but an unknown man refusing to identify himself, forcing a camera in the congresswoman’s personal space, is another thing entirely.”
“The man has still not identified himself or the organization for which he works,” the spokesperson continued. “All these politics aside, Congresswoman Kaptur remains fully focused on delivering further transformational federal investment to Northwest Ohio.”
Another employee of Kaptur’s found himself embroiled in controversy when he bragged about receiving a “call” that his student debt was canceled.
Ben Kamens, Kaptur’s communications director, posted on X in June that he was “happy to let the government cancel it instead of paying it off.”
“As a government worker, this guy got paid more than $80,000 last year by taxpayers according to Legistorm, and now he’s bragging about forcing those same taxpayers to pony up another $8k for loans he refused to pay himself,” Sean Davis, co-founder of the Federalist wrote:
As a government worker, this guy got paid more than $80,000 last year by taxpayers according to Legistorm, and now he’s bragging about forcing those same taxpayers to pony up another $8k for loans he refused to pay himself. https://t.co/BOH6WE2mXV
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) June 20, 2024
After receiving plenty of backlash, Kamens set his account to private.
“Imagine the plumber, HVAC worker, mechanic, Walmart worker, janitor, personal support worker who didn’t go to college or rack up debt. Who just decided to work hard,” political commentator Ari Goldkind said:
Imagine the plumber, HVAC worker, mechanic, Walmart worker, janitor, personal support worker who didn’t go to college or rack up debt. Who just decided to work hard
— Ari Goldkind (@AriGoldkind) June 20, 2024
Imagine them now knowing that they’re paying for this fool’s education. A choice the fool knew would rack up debt https://t.co/XfHcbZ5WDr
“Imagine them now knowing that they’re paying for this fool’s education. A choice the fool knew would rack up debt.”
Spectator reporter Matthew Foldi later confronted Kamens outside of Kaptur’s office as he tried to avoid the press by covering his head with a hoodie:
WATCH:
— Matthew Foldi (@MatthewFoldi) June 21, 2024
Bailout Ben Kamens was confronted over his viral student loan bailout tweet outside Marcy Kaptur’s office
It’s never a good thing when staff become the story 😬 https://t.co/4QhIqWUsKN pic.twitter.com/XeybcEuVIm