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McCain reacts to DC brawl: Throw Turkey's ambassador 'the hell out'

Calls are growing in Washington for a serious response to the violent behavior of the Turkish president's security detail as a high-level investigation opens and a prominent senator speaks out.
Police secure the street outside the Turkish embassy during a visit by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on May 16, 2017 in Washington, DC. 
Earlier, after Erdogan had met US President Donald Trump at the White House, the Turkish leader's security detail had clashed with pro-Kurdish protesters, leaving at least eight people wounded, one of them critically.  / AFP PHOTO / Dave Clark        (Photo credit should read DAVE CLARK/AFP/Getty Images)

Reaction to the trademark thuggery of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s security detail continued to grow today as US Sen. John MCain, a veteran voice on foreign policy issues in Congress, called for the expulsion of Turkey’s ambassador. “We should throw their ambassador the hell out of the United States of America. This kind of thing cannot go unresponded to diplomatically,” McCain, the head of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told MSNBC in an interview. McCain also called for legal action.

District of Columbia police have teamed up with the State Department and the Secret Service to investigate the bloody fracas outside the Turkish ambassador’s Sheridan Circle residence on Tuesday. At least nine people, including two women, who were chanting pro-Kurdish slogans, were injured after being brutally assaulted by pro-Erdogan demonstrators and individuals thought to be members of the Turkish leader’s security detail. The Wall Street Journal’s Dion Nissenbaum, who was deported from Turkey earlier this year after being held incommunicado for three days over a tweet, reported that the State Department is exploring ways to block members of Erdogan’s security detail from re-entering the United States.

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