Lawmakers throw out 'Trojan horse' activists they say are engaged in American subversion

WASHINGTON, D.C.– CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin and two fellow agitators entered the House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing room 2272 today, wearing camera-ready T-shirts supporting the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Communist Party of Cuba, turning themselves into a live demonstration of the "Trojan horses" for foreign influence that lawmakers had gathered to examine.At 2:39 p.m., about 30 minutes into the hearing's start, after Benjamin carefully photographed their T-shirt slogans appearing on the TV screen behind the witnesses, staffers on the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on South and Central Asia had had enough, and Capitol Hill police officers escorted Benjamin and her fellow agitators out of the room, as they protested their ejection for staging their trademark CodePink antics.For lawmakers, CodePink’s camera-conscious performance underscored the central point of the hearing: that protest theater, messaging and social-media content can function as parts of foreign influence operations."It's really about theatrics," Subcommittee Chairman Bill Huizenga, R-Mich., later told Fox News Digital.

"They're using it not to affect policy, but really to enrich themselves because they use that then to go out on social media, to try to whip other people up, to help donations, to help get volunteers, help get some of those other folks, and to really try to go and disrupt our – not just our sense of government and processing government – but society."On Sept.15, 2026, CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin and her fellow activists are being escorted out of a House subcommittee hearing on "Trojan horses" and malign foreign influence.

(Asra Q.Nomani)HOUSE PANEL TO PROBE FOREIGN ‘TROJAN HORSES’ AS SINGHAM SCRUTINY WIDENSThe hearing, "Trojan Horses: Covert Foreign Malign Influence Operations in America," focused on the network of nonprofits, media outlets and activist groups that are promoting the interests of foreign governments and pro-communist ideolog...