In a phone call to the Union-Tribune, Issa said he asked protest organizers if he could address the crowd and field their queries, but they declined.

“They weren’t interested in having an exchange with me, or asking me questions,” he said. He later posted photos on Twitter that showed him talking with individual protesters.

Ellen Montanari, who organizes the weekly rallies and often leads the crowd chants, said she tried to shake Issa’s hand and was rebuffed.

Montanari said Issa told her “step away, you are a protester” and that she replied “I am a constituent.” She said he then made “disparaging remarks” about the protesters and the signs they carry.

Montanari said it was “very clear that he was not interested in listening,” so she decided not to invite him to speak to the crowd.

“He was so rude to me, and I wasn’t going to subject the people at the rally to that rudeness,” she said.

My resistance group is gunning for him. Watch your back, Darryl!