Congressional Fight Club: Big talk, bigger egos and all the hot air

WASHINGTON — Testosterone’s overflowing at the Capitol this week. But, even with Republicans talking tough, it’s still unclear if anyone can land a punch.

This morning, on the House side of the Capitol, former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was accused of forcefully jabbing his elbow into the kidney of Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN), one of the eight Republicans who forced his ouster last month. Meanwhile, in the Senate, former MMA fighter and current freshman Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) challenged Teamster President Sean O’Brien to fisticuffs.

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Tension’s been building all year long, but there seems to be extra strain on lawmakers these days, especially with another government shutdown hanging over Congress ahead of the midnight funding deadline this Friday. Even as tempers are flaring, many lawmakers are sitting these fights out.

“Oh, I saw it,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) told Raw Story. “I’ll let it speak for itself. I’m glad I wasn’t in a position of having to tamp things down.”

It’s the same for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.

“What do you think of Mullin trying to fight the [Teamster president] earlier?” Raw Story asked Schumer earlier. “No comment, Mr. Leader?”

Schumer kept walking onto the Senate floor, refusing to even turn around.

“He was a kickboxer. I wouldn't mess with him,” Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT) told Raw Story. “I gotta watch the video.”

No one seems to be backing down though, especially not Mullin.

“At the end of the day, he popped off at the mouth. I was raised totally different than him: If you say something, back it up. I gave him the opportunity to back it up. It’s a done deal at that point,” Mullin told reporters just off the Senate floor.

The former undefeated (5-0) MMA fighter was asked if he thinks he could take O’Brien, and, once again, Mullin refused to back down.

“Because I used to fight professionally, I would hope to be but I don’t know,” Mullin said. “It doesn’t matter to me. He could be 6’ 8” 380lbs or — probably not, he’s much smaller than that.”

Still, Mullin says he’s down to grab a cup of coffee with O’Brien.

“If he wants to go have a cup of coffee now. Fine. I’ll go have a cup of coffee,” Mullin said.

Mullin has at least one Democratic defender in his fellow Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee member Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO).

Hickenlooper was slated to question the witnesses right after Mullin, so he caught all the drama up close. He saw through it.

“It's a classic case. You know, they had some history. They disrespected each other,” Hickenlooper told Raw Story. “What he posted, I think it was on Twitter, accused Mullin of inheriting what he had. Mullin took over his father's business because his father died, and he went through a really hard time and really struggled.”

Hickenlooper says it was as avoidable as it was predictable.

“So what happened was, he touched that third rail, and so then they're at each other without really having a good reason to,” Hickenlooper said. “If you actually look at Mullin and some of the stuff around labor and protecting workers, Mullin’s actually pretty good.”

The former Colorado governor predicts O’Brien and Mullin would get along “in a different context.”

“I think you could see them — maybe they're not gonna agree on everything; that’s certain, for sure — but they certainly wouldn't be at each other's throats,” Hickenlooper said.

As for talk of a coffee summit between the senator and union boss? The Coloradan who helped co-found Denver’s first brewpub, Wynkoop Brewing Company, in 1988 says all this talk of coffee is making him thirsty.

“Or a beer,” Hickenlooper said. “For me, a beer has been always very successful.”

If beer heals political divides, on the House side of the Capitol, they may need a keg. Tuesday morning NPR correspondent Claudia Grisales reported seeing former Speaker McCarthy shove Rep. Burchett.

“Have NEVER seen this on Capitol Hill,” Grisales tweeted on X. “While talking to @RepTimBurchett after the GOP conference meeting, former @SpeakerMcCarthy walked by with his detail and McCarthy shoved Burchett. Burchett lunged towards me. I thought it was a joke, it was not. And a chase ensued…”

When asked if he planned to apologize, McCarthy basically shrugged.

“Well, I didn’t punch the guy,” the recently former speaker told reporters at the Capitol. “If I was punching him, he would know it.”

Burchett says McCarthy’s lying.

“First he said, ‘He just brushed me.’ Then he said, ‘It's a narrow hall.’ And then he says, ‘If I’d have hit him, he’d known it.’ Then he says, ‘I’m gonna call him,’ and I guess make up to him or something. He needs to make up his mind,” Burchett told Raw Story. “The NPR reporter was there. I'll just stand by what she said.”

“Especially what McCarthy told us — ‘Oh, if I would have hit him, he'd known it” — that's some macho high school talk?” Raw Story asked.

“If you hear his voice, when he starts talking, his voice gets higher and higher as he talks. That’s a telling sign,” Burchett said.

As for all the extra testosterone? Many lawmakers fear it’s a harbinger of gridlock to come.

“People engaging in physical altercations, it’s not a sign of somber deliberation, let’s put it that way,” Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) told Raw Story.

When asked if this week’s spats are fitting in a Capitol with a violent history — from historic shootings to contemporary insurrections — including the historic caning of a Massachusetts senator by a South Carolina House member in the leadup to the Civil War, Nadler didn’t love the comparison, at first.

“That we don’t want. That was a prelude to the Civil War,” Nadler said.

“But aren’t we having a little bit of a GOP civil war?” Raw Story asked.

“We do,” Nadler then said.