Ben & Jerry’s Co-Founder Arrested For Stunt During RFK Testimony

Several protesters were tackled and arrested by Capitol Police on Wednesday, after they screamed and interrupted testimony from Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. before the Senate Health Committee.

Among the protesters who were arrested was Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Ben Cohen. It’s unclear what he was protesting regarding Kennedy, but other protesters had signs that called RFK “anti-vaccine” or said, “RFK Lies, People with AIDS Die.”

Samuel Corum/Getty Images

As video footage below shows, Kennedy and others in the room were startled when the protesters screamed to interrupt the secretary’s opening statement. Some are heard yelling, “RFK kills people with hate!” Quickly, Capitol Police stepped in to remove the protesters, some by force.

WATCH:

Very aggressive protesters at Bobby’s hearing. I don’t like this one bit. Besides President Trump, he has the biggest target on his back. ???? pic.twitter.com/L0YmJIlZaU

— Link Lauren (@itslinklauren) May 14, 2025

Cohen was arrested for obstruction, according to authorities, Fox News reported on Wednesday. Six others were arrested, as well.

Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg via Getty Images

As highlighted by The Daily Wire earlier on Wednesday, Kennedy sparred a number of Democrats during his testimony before the House committee on appropriations.

Kennedy defended cuts made to HHS and called out Democrats for echoing party talking points and for engaging in what he viewed as the politicization of public health.

In one instance, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) accused Kennedy of potentially breaking the law and putting Americans’ health at risk over cuts he’s made at HHS. The secretary shot back by describing the “absolute cataclysmic disorganization” of the department when he took it over, which he said was under her oversight for decades.

“We had nine separate offices of women’s health,” Kennedy explained. “When we consolidate them, Democrats say that we’re eliminating them. We’re not, we’re still appropriating the $3.7 billion, but we’re not keeping all nine. We had eight separate offices for minority health, we eliminated one. We had 27 HIV offices, we had 59 behavioral health programs.”

Later in the hearing, Kennedy called out DeLauro for her partisan behavior and called on Democrats to work with him on health initiatives.

“Let’s work together and do something we all believe in, which is have healthy kids in our country, for God’s sake,” he said. “There’s no such thing as Republican children or Democrat children. There’s just kids, and we should all be concerned with them.”

Related: Sparks Fly At Hearing As RFK Jr. Takes On Dems For Playing Politics With Health