Fight club: Three shocking moments from a wild day on Capitol Hill

Tensions were high across Capitol Hill on Tuesday, exemplified by several fiery incidents, including one that nearly erupted into physical violence.

The House of Representatives has been in session for 10 weeks straight, during which it has dealt with a spending battle, removed its sitting speaker, struggled to appoint a new speaker, and just barely averted another spending fight when House Democrats assisted House Republicans in passing a laddered continuing resolution.

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The stress of these conflicts, particularly within the House Republican Conference, is seemingly reaching a boiling point, as three heated moments occurred Tuesday — two of which took place before noon.

Burchett vs. McCarthy

The first incident happened during a hallway interview Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) was doing with a reporter for NPR. In a recording of the altercation, Burchett can be heard asking Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) why he elbowed him in the back. The Tennessee Republican is one of the eight Republicans who voted to remove McCarthy from the speakership last month. According to Burchett, they hadn’t spoken since.

After McCarthy allegedly elbowed Burchett in the kidney, Burchett chased the former speaker to question him again. McCarthy denied doing so.

Later, McCarthy said Burchett’s accusations were overblown.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who led the charge to oust McCarthy from the speakership, escalated the event by filing a complaint to the House Ethics Committee calling for an “immediate and swift investigation.”

Mullin vs. Teamsters

Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) stood up during a Senate committee hearing Tuesday morning and prepared to fight physically one of the witnesses, Teamsters President Sean O’Brien.

The senator used his time to recite a tweet from O’Brien, in which he challenged Mullin to a fight. “Sir, this is a time. This is a place. You want to run your mouth? We can be two consenting adults — we can finish it here,” he said.

“OK, that’s fine. Perfect,” O’Brien said.

Both men appeared to stand up and prepare to fight before Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) intervened.

Mullin is a former professional MMA fighter.

Comer vs. Moskowitz

In a contentious exchange during a House Oversight Committee hearing, Chairman James Comer (R-KY) told Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), who was donning a blue plaid suit, that he looked like a smurf. The comment came after the Democrat suggested Comer should be deposed over a loan to his brother — similar to a loan Comer is investigating President Joe Biden for.

“No, I’m not gonna give you your time back. We can stop the clock,” Comer said. “You all continue to — you look like a smurf here just going around and all this stuff.”

He’s “never loaned” his brother any money, according to Comer.

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Moskowitz has said Comer is a hypocrite for conducting such an investigation into Biden’s family and finances while not sitting for a deposition himself over his family’s money lending.

“I will sit with Hunter Biden and Joe Biden, and we can go over our LLC,” Comer told him. “Let’s do that. We’ll be transparent.”