Source: Tom Williams / Getty
Things got a little wild at the Capitol yesterday.
Tennessee Rep. Tim Burchett accused former House speaker Kevin McCarthy of elbowing him in the back while he was talking to a reporter on Tuesday.
“And it kind of caught me off guard because it was a clean shot to the kidneys, and I turned back and there was, there was Kevin and, um, and for a minute I was kind of, ‘What the heck just happened,” he said.
Burchett then proceeded to chase after McCarthy, yelling “Why’d you elbow me in the back Kevin?! Hey Kevin, you got any guts?!,” according to NPR’s Claudia Grisales, who was interviewing Burchett at the time of the incident.
When reporters asked McCarthy about the incident, McCarthy denied it, saying he “didn’t shove or elbow him, it’s a tight hallway.”
Burchett said the blow to his back “still hurts because it was a shot to the kidneys” but said he wouldn’t file an ethics complaint on McCarthy. “He’s not worth it. He’s gonna be gone here either after Christmas or next year.”
This wasn’t the first physical altercation to take place at Capitol Hill. In 1838, two representatives got into a duel with rifles.
In 1858, a Republican ripped the hair piece off of a Democrat.
And in 1856, there was the caning of Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner at the hands of an aggrieved colleague.
