The alleged assault took place in June of 1996 as gourp of Vietman vets & members of their familites waited for McCain to hand him a letter asking him to forego an amendment to the Missing Service Personnel Act (MSPA) of 2005 which was drafted and proposed by McCain. The McCain's amendment to MSPA was widely viewed as running counter to veterans' interests.
There were 5 witnesses to the incident. Here's the account from Carol Hrdlicka, wife of Vietnam War POW/MIA air force pilot Col. David Hrdlicka:
When he [McCain] realized who we were, his face turned red and he became enraged. He would not accept the letters we had brought, he burst through our group assaulting the niece of Jane Duke Gaylor, mother of a MIA. I followed Senator McCain down the hall asking that he leave the legislation alone and all the while he is denying that he knew anything about the Missing Personnel Act. ...As we reached the elevator he said to me that I didn't know what he had been through ... I then stated I understood what he had been through and David Hrdlicka was still going through it. I had the capture picture of my husband and tried to show the picture to him but he would not look at it. ...The elevator arrived and Senator McCain quickly jumped in -- that ended our conversation. After this incident we went to the Capitol Police and filed a report. We also sent complaints to the ethics committee on the Senator's behavior.
"He went from a smiling, congenial, happy face to a beet red, totally enraged face in an instant," she said. "I have never seen a senator act in this way. We were all dumbfounded how this happened. He threw his arm up, and she goes flying and Jane [who was in a wheelchair] gets pushed aside as he brushes by her. All I see is people flying and I'm behind him [McCain]...
Formal complaints were filed with D.C. police and Senate Ethics Committee. No investigation took place.
http://www.buzzflash.com/...