An alleged sharp elbow. A near-brawl. Personal insults. Congress had it all Tuesday.
Tensions erupted among multiple sets of lawmakers across the Capitol as both chambers went about their work.
At a hearing of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) challenged International Brotherhood of Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien to a fight.
The senator read a past tweet from O’Brien in which the union leader appeared to challenge Mullin, writing, “You know where to find me.”
“You want to run your mouth, we can be two consenting adults, we can finish it here,” Mullin declared Tuesday.
O’Brien accepted Mullin’s challenge, with Mullin saying, “Stand your butt up then.”
After Mullin rose, committee chair Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) intervened. “Sit down. … You’re a United States senator.”
“God knows the American people have enough contempt for Congress,” Sanders said, urging those in the room to refocus on the hearing.
MEANWHILE…IN THE HOUSE: Rep. Tim Burchett (Tenn.), one of eight GOP members who voted to strip Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) of the Speakership last month, claimed McCarthy elbowed him in the back — “a clean shot to the kidneys” — in a Capitol hallway.
“I guess our elbows hit as I walked by,” McCarthy later told reporters. “If I would hit somebody, they would know I hit them.”
Talking to CNN later Tuesday, Burchett accused McCarthy of being “a bully with $17 million in security.”
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) filed a formal ethics complaint over the incident.
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