{"id":16832,"date":"2026-07-25T14:03:56","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T09:03:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=16832"},"modified":"2026-07-25T14:03:56","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T09:03:56","slug":"watch-gop-congressman-slaps-at-democratic-staffers-phone-in-wild-sidewalk-clash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=16832","title":{"rendered":"WATCH: GOP Congressman Slaps at Democratic Staffer\u2019s Phone in Wild Sidewalk Clash"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_5745448\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5745448\" class=\"wp-image-5745448 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/am13.mediaite.com\/med\/cnt\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Screenshot-2026-07-24-at-5-25-36-PM-1200x668.jpg\" alt=\"Rep. Zack Nunn (R-IA)\" width=\"1200\" height=\"668\" \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-5745448\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Screenshot via X.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>An interaction between a Republican congressman and a Democratic staffer got physical when the lawmaker used his phone to swat away the phone of the tracker who was filming him.<\/p>\n<p>The incident happened as Rep. <strong>Zach Nunn<\/strong> (R-IA) was walking down a sidewalk in Washington, D.C. Thursday with another man and they were approached by a Democratic staffer, according to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ms.now\/news\/republican-congressional-incumbent-swats-at-democratic-trackers-phone\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">report<\/a> by MS NOW Capitol Hill reporter <strong>Kevin Frey<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"embed_container\" id=\"a74d8091ada9823e773da23035b1307f\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">NEW: Tracker interactions are usually pretty tame, but this moment w\/ Rep. Nunn went in a different direction \u2014\u00a0as he swatted at the tracker&#039;s phone. <\/p>\n<p>Nunn calls it not his &quot;finest moment.&quot; <\/p>\n<p>Video first obtained by <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/MSNOWNews?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@MSNOWNews<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>Story: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/bHk822RxH1\">https:\/\/t.co\/bHk822RxH1<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/i6zcY2DBdC\">pic.twitter.com\/i6zcY2DBdC<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Kevin Frey (@KevinJFrey) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/KevinJFrey\/status\/2080741234155401266?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 24, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<p>As Frey noted, trackers &#8220;are a part of life&#8221; for members of Congress, who are used to staffers from the opposing party being &#8220;paid to follow their every move both on and off Capitol Hill.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The encounters between the elected officials and the trackers paid to follow them are &#8220;usually pretty tame,&#8221; wrote Frey, but on Thursday, Nunn &#8220;took a different tack.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In the video clip shared by the tracker with MS NOW, Nunn is approached by the tracker, who asked him a question about rural hospital closures.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m with a constituent,&#8221; Nunn cut him off. &#8220;Come on.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;No, response, sir?&#8221; the tracker asked.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;No, I said I&#8217;m with a constituent,&#8221; Nunn replied. &#8220;You should protect their privacy.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>At this point in the video, Nunn can be seen raising his phone and using it to bat down the tracker&#8217;s phone.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Careful,&#8221; said the tracker and Nunn and the man accompanying him cross the street at the crosswalk.<\/p>\n<p>When reached for comment by MS NOW, Nunn replied in a written statement, &#8220;This wasn\u2019t my finest moment, I shouldn\u2019t have responded this way, and I set a bad example.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPartisan political operatives are paid to roam Capitol Hill and harass members,&#8221; he added. &#8220;These are the exact kind of dirty games that make people hate politics.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Nunn was first elected to Congress in 2022. This year, he is facing a tough re-election race, with the GOP&#8217;s majority control of the House on the line and his district being targeted by Democrats to flip blue. His opponent is Iowa State Sen. <strong>Sarah Trone Garroitt<\/strong> (D).<\/p>\n<p>Cook Political Report currently rates the race a \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cookpolitical.com\/house\/race\/483096\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Toss-Up<\/a>,&#8221; adjusting their analysis from &#8220;Lean R&#8221; earlier this year as the political environment has shifted.<\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/media\/news\/watch-gop-congressman-slaps-at-democratic-staffers-phone-in-wild-sidewalk-clash\/\">WATCH: GOP Congressman Slaps at Democratic Staffer\u2019s Phone in Wild Sidewalk Clash<\/a> first appeared on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\">Mediaite<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Screenshot via X. An interaction between a Republican congressman and a Democratic staffer got physical when the lawmaker used his phone to swat away the phone of the tracker who was filming him. The incident happened as Rep. Zach Nunn (R-IA) was walking down a sidewalk in Washington, D.C. Thursday with another man and they&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16833,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/am13.mediaite.com\/med\/cnt\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Screenshot-2026-07-24-at-5-25-36-PM-1200x668.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsweek-trending"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16832\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}