House Republican insults 'tubby' Matt Gaetz to his face in heated discussion: report
Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI) reportedly got into a heated discussion Thursday with rebellious members of his caucus who have been trying to block foreign aid from passing.
CNN's Haley Talbot reports that Van Orden grew frustrated with Gaetz and his fellow hardliners who have spent months derailing aid packages to American allies Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan.
"DVO called Gaetz 'tubby' in fiery scrum," reports Talbot. "GOP Rep. Derrick Van Orden entered the 20 minute heated floor conversation as it was ongoing and dared his right-wing colleagues to move on the motion to oust Johnson."
In an interview with Punchbowl News' Mica Soellner, Van Orden confirmed he got into a confrontation with Gaetz and his allies because he's "tired" of having to deal with them.
"Matt Gaetz just wants to be on TV," Van Orden said, according to Soellner. "They’re holding up foreign aid and not governing. I’m not OK with that."
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The fight over the foreign aid package has been brewing for months, with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) making nonstop threats to oust Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) should he pass an aid package for Ukraine, which for more than two years has been trying to fend off an invasion from Russia.
So far, Greene has only gotten one other Republican to sign on to her motion to vacate, but many other members of the House Freedom Caucus are also now in an uproar over Johnson's plans to move ahead with the aid packages despite not having secured any additional funding for border security.
Negotiators in the United States Senate earlier this year unveiled a bipartisan immigration reform package that would have included a significant boost to border funding, but Johnson and other House Republicans rejected it after former President Donald Trump falsely claimed that the deal would allow for "open borders."