In May, the American public was treated to an extraordinary spectacle: a violent confrontation between Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s security detail and a crowd of predominantly Kurdish protesters.

Erdoğan’s bodyguards rushed on the demonstrators and began beating and kicking them — not in Istanbul or Diyarbakır (the spiritual capital of Turkish Kurdistan), but in Sheridan Circle, in the heart of Washington DC’s ambassadorial district. Images and videos depicting the brutality rocketed around the Internet.

While President Trump refrained from commenting on the incident, other Republican leaders were quick to condemn such blatant thuggery. Senator John McCain, clearly incensed by the whole affair, mustered a “hell” when calling for Turkey’s ambassador to be ejected from the country. Representative Paul Ryan — speaking on the heels of a 379-0 vote demanding that inciters of the violence be held to account — issued a statement blaming the incident on the Turkish government and insisting that “our resolve to defend the First Amendment and condemn suppression is stronger than ever.”