Authorities arrested nine climate activists protesting inside a House office building Wednesday in Washington, D.C.
The protesters are members of Climate Defiance, a group which has made headlines in recent months for targeting Biden administration officials they feel have not fervently enough embraced green policies. The group crashed a meeting in the Rayburn building, which high-ranking Biden administration climate official Mary Repko attended, according to The Washington Post.
The group also formed a procession to march through hallways of the building with a banner that read “end fossil fuels,” where a crowd of staffers had grown to witness the commotion, footage posted to Twitter appears to show. Authorities made the arrests in the hallway, the footage appears to show.
“Revolution was in the air” of the building’s hallways as the group protested, Climate Defiance wrote in a tweet. “The ‘progressives’ begged us to stand down. But we held our ground.” (RELATED: Who’s The Alpha German Blonde Dragging This Climate Protester By Her Hair?)
We SWARMED the halls of Congress today. Every head turned. Every jaw dropped. Revolution was in the air. The “progressives” begged us to stand down. But we held our ground. Nine of us were arrested.
We are in an emergency. We must act like it.
— Climate Defiance (@ClimateDefiance) July 20, 2023
Another tweet in the thread seeks to solicit donations to the self-titled “Climate Defiance nine.”
Columbia graduate Michael Greenberg established the group in 2022, according to E&E News, receiving funding from a nonprofit organization called Climate Emergency Fund (CEF). Wealthy American liberals, including Hollywood writer Adam McKay, oil heiress Aileen Getty’s charitable foundation and Hillary Clinton’s Onward Together organization, bankroll CEF with tax-deductible donations, which CEF then shells out to scores of radical and disruptive climate activism groups around the world, including Climate Defiance, according to CEF’s 2022 annual report.
Since late April, Climate Defiance protesters have confronted Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Democratic Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, top White House climate adviser Ali Zaidi and Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm. The group also disrupted the July congressional women’s softball game and attempted to blockade the White House correspondents dinner in April.
“President Biden cannot be a climate champion while continuing to approve brand-new fossil fuel projects,” Greenberg said, according to The Washington Post.
Climate Defiance pursues “consistent, mass-turnout, nonviolent disruption to stop business as usual and compel politicians to act,” according to its website. The group considers climate change “an existential crisis that threatens every fiber of every being in every corner of the world,” according to its website.
Climate Defiance did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
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