Kevin McCarthy Allegedly Elbows Congressman Who Voted Him Out, Matt Gaetz Files Civil Complaint, And Social Media Is Exhausted With GOP Circus

Republican Congressman and former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy seemingly added to an unusually violent week for Republican members of Congress when he reportedly elbowed fellow Republican Congressman Tim Burchett, who was one of the Republicans who voted him out of the Speaker seat, yesterday afternoon.

NPR reporter Claudia Grisales witnessed the incident and recounted what happened in a thread on Twitter / X. According to her report, after McCarthy elbowed Burchett, Burchett initially tried to play it off as an accident before chasing McCarthy down and demanding to know why he elbowed him, saying, "Do you have any guts?" McCarthy denied elbowing Burchett, but Burchett was insistent, noting Grisales saw the incident as well.

"He's just a jerk," Burchett told Grisales. "He's just a childish little … he's on a downhill spiral … he just, that was pretty gutless of him. I'm disappointed in him."

Audio of the incident was released later that day.

Audio of Tim Burchett's exchange with Kevin McCarthy recorded by @cgrisales, who was interviewing Burchett for NPR when it happened https://t.co/RVjJTsFubp pic.twitter.com/K3j3gpJ0aq

— Aaron Fritschner (@Fritschner) November 14, 2023

As reporters began digging further into the incident, Burchett elevated his description of the attack, calling it a "sucker punch" and a "clean shot to the kidneys." McCarthy denied intentionally elbowing Burchett, saying it was a "tight hallway."

The drama didn't end there, as McCarthy's apparent top antagonist, Matt Gaetz, filed an ethics complaint against McCarthy later that day. Gaetz wrote dramatically about the altercation, calling it an "open and public assault." Of note, McCarthy has accused Gaetz of working to get him removed from Speaker because McCarthy opened an ethics investigation into Gaetz for alleged sexual misconduct and misuse of funds.

Gaetz has himself become something of a black sheep of the party for his efforts to oust McCarthy, as after the vote, Republicans including Markwayne Mullin, who himself had a near-violent outburst on Tuesday, began sharing lurid stories about Gaetz to the press.

All of the political infighting within the GOP, whether metaphorical or literal, had many on social media exhausted with the state of affairs in Congress.

Despite all the infighting, the House was able to pass another stopgap bill to keep the government open until early next year.