Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday said he doesn’t view it as his “responsibility” to police the behavior of other Republicans, especially aggressive physical behavior, acknowledging it’s “very difficult to control the behavior of everybody who’s in the building.”
McConnell said he was not aware of two incidents from earlier in the day in which Republican lawmakers made headlines for acting aggressively.
Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) had to be verbally restrained by Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) from getting into a fight with the president of the Teamsters during a heated committee hearing.
And Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) accused former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) of giving him a kidney shot by elbowing him in the back while he was talking to reporters.
“It’s very difficult to control the behavior of everybody who’s in the building. I don’t view that as my responsibility. That’s something the Capitol Police will have to deal with,” McConnell told reporters.
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Mullin sprang up out of his chair at the Health Committee hearing earlier on Tuesday and invited Sean O’Brien, the general president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, to turn their social media spat into fisticuffs.
“You want to do it now? Stand your butt up then,” Mullin, challenging the labor leader.
O’Brien didn’t shy away from the challenge, telling the Oklahoma senator: “You stand your butt up.”
Sanders, in breaking up the battle, reminded Mullin that he is a U.S. senator.
On the House side, Burchett, who joined seven Republican colleagues in voting to oust McCarthy from the Speakership last month, accused the former Speaker of getting physical with him.
“I was standing there and McCarthy elbowed me in the back,” Burchett told reporters after the encounter.
“I said, ‘Hey, what the heck would you do that for?’ And he acted like, ‘Oh, I didn’t do anything, you know, and he’s just, he needs to go home back to Southern California,” Burchett said.
McConnell appeared surprised when later asked about these two incidents.
“Frankly, I hadn’t heard what you just indicated,” the Senate GOP leader said when asked about those confrontations.