Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., accused former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., whom he helped oust from the post last month, of elbowing him in a Capitol Hill hallway. And it wasn’t the only near-fight on the Hill on Tuesday. Across the Capitol on the Senate side, more tempers were flaring. Rekindling an old spat, Oklahoma Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin threatened to fight Teamsters President Sean M. O’Brien in the middle of a hearing.
The chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) called Republican fighting in Congress a “clown show” Tuesday. “Kevin McCarthy is elbowing his colleagues,” Jaime Harrison told anchor Blake Burman in an interview on “The Hill on NewsNation.” “I mean, these folks, it’s a clown show on the Hill right now.” Harrison appeared to reference an…
It was either a sucker punch or an accidental bump in a crowded hallway — and it wasn’t the only near-fight on Capitol Hill on Tuesday. An incident between former Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Tennessee Republican Rep. Tim Burchett was evidence of simmering tensions in a divided Congress that has been in session for weeks without a break. And a Senate hearing nearly devolved into a cage fight between Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma and Teamsters President Sean O’Brien, who hurled insults at each other and appeared ready to trade blows. Committee chairman Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont had to yell at Mullin to sit down after he challenged O’Brien to a fight.