Protesters who went viral confronting Flake cheered at award event

SPOTTED: Maria Gallagher and Ana Maria Archila — the two protesters who famously confronted then-Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) in an elevator about his support of Justice Brett Kavanaugh — receiving a standing ovation as they accepted honors at the 10th annual Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Awards in New York.

The pair made headlines in September for their filmed confrontation with Flake in an elevator at the Capitol when he was on his way to a Senate Judiciary Committee vote to advance Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination to the Senate floor.

{mosads}”When we showed up on that day, and I met Maria half an hour before that interaction, I did not expect to see Sen. Flake, and that we would hold him in the elevator for five minutes,” Archila told the crowd Friday at the ceremony Borough of Manhattan Community College.

Archila — the co-executive director of the Center for Popular Democracy who attended the State of the Union address as a guest of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) in February — praised Gallagher, saying, the moment with Flake showed “what it’s like to be a real New Yorker.”

Before the elevator encounter, Flake had announced that he would support Kavanaugh. After it, he called for a one-week delay in a Senate floor vote to allow for an FBI investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct against the judge.

Flake ultimately voted to confirm Kavanaugh, who now sits on the Supreme Court.

Also among the honorees at the awards show: Nelson Mandela’s grandson, Ndaba Mandela, former model and FEED founder Lauren Bush Lauren, and 8-year-old Nigerian refugee and chess prodigy Tanitoluwa “Tani” Adewumi.