A 'hurricane of stupid' slammed into Capitol Hill this week: D.C. insider

A veteran congressional reporter despaired at the "hurricane of stupid" he witnessed Tuesday on Capitol Hill.

Among the documented atrocities: Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) apparently shoved Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN), who had voted to oust him as House speaker; Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) threatened to fight Teamsters president Sean O’Brien in the middle of a hearing; and Rep. James Comer (R-KY) called Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) a "liar" and a "smurf" after he questioned his family business dealings.

Punchbowl News co-founder John Bresnahan reacted to all this on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" by lamenting how chaotic Republicans had made Congress.

"Yesterday was just -- yeah, yesterday was just a hurricane of stupid," Bresnahan said. "I mean, it was -- you know, look, I think part of it is that the House has been in session for 10 straight weeks. Members, they get restless. They don't like being around each other that much."

"No, no, no, no – no, it's not an excuse for physical violence," said co-host Mika Brzezinski. "Come on. Oh, my lord."

"I'm just saying that weird things happen," Bresnahan replied. "But I also think, look, I think there's a broader issues here. First, it's a coarsening of American politics. There's no question about it. The Donald Trump era you have Trump going out and saying what he's done and everything... We can't just dismiss this and post-Jan. 6, look, you have Paul Pelosi, his attacker is on trial right now. This is -- when people do these stupid incidents, you all know it, it gets blown up on social media and when the public sees it, they take it as reality – this is okay, the political violence is okay, and this is what happens when we get members are shot at malls, of course, Steve Scalise. You can't just start this a little thing and expect it not to blow up to a big thing out in the public."

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