The 7 biggest lawmaker feuds on Capitol Hill
Feuds on Capitol Hill are nothing new, but the current Congress has featured some doozies.
From the historic toppling of a House Speaker to the profanity-laced sniping between conservative hard-liners, the last 16 months have been chock-full of momentous clashes that have roiled both chambers and played an outsize role in how Congress functions.
Those personal tensions reflect the broader polarization of Congress and the country, trends that have been exacerbated by the ubiquity of social media, the rise of the attention economy and the decline of political civility in the era of former President Trump.
Here are the seven biggest feuds in this Congress.
Kevin McCarthy versus Matt Gaetz
Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) made history on several fronts in the 118th Congress, none of them reason to crow.
It took him 15 rounds of voting to overcome conservative resistance and win the gavel in January 2023 — the longest Speaker’s vote since the Civil War. Nine months later, he would be booted from power by eight of those same hard-liners, marking the first time since the nation’s founding that a Speaker was ejected.
And standing at the center of both ordeals was Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Florida bomb-thrower who thrives on conflict and takes no prisoners.
It was Gaetz who became the face of the McCarthy conservative opposition during the marathon Speaker’s contest, denying McCarthy a victory on the 14th round by voting “present” — a move that almost sparked a physical brawl on the chamber floor. And it was Gaetz again who would, months later, force a vote on the resolution that would lead to McCarthy’s removal.
The Speaker, Gaetz said days before the vote, is “a sad and pathetic man who lies to hold on to power.”
Since then, the feud has only intensified.
When the dethroned McCarthy announced he would resign from Congress altogether in December, Gaetz mocked him with a terse social media post: “McLeavin’,” he wrote on the social platform X.
More recently, McCarthy has accused Gaetz of taking him down only to halt an ethics investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct swirling around the Florida lawmaker.
The latest salvo in the fierce back-and-forth came Wednesday, when McCarthy told Politico he was endorsing Gaetz’s primary opponent.
“Gaetz is the Hunter Biden of the Republican Party,” he said.
John Fetterman versus Bob Menendez
The animosity between first-term Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) and veteran Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), who is facing a slew of felony charges, has blown up into one of the biggest beefs in the Senate.
Fetterman has repeatedly called on Menendez, who has been charged with accepting bribes, obstructing justice and acting as a foreign agent, among other charges, to resign from the Senate — as has more than half the Senate Democratic Caucus.
But Fetterman has gone further than many senators by confronting Menendez personally, such as when he shouted to his New Jersey colleague that it would be a good day for him to resign while they passed each other on the escalators in the Senate subway.
Fetterman earlier this year called Menendez a “sleazeball” and questioned why he’s being allowed into classified briefings with senior administration officials.
Menendez has kept mostly quiet about Fetterman’s scorn but has revealed in subtle ways that his colleague’s barbs are rankling him.
Menendez was observed stopping in his tracks and waiting while en route to a Senate vote Tuesday to avoid having to share an elevator with Fetterman, who stands at 6 feet, 8 inches and towers over anyone crammed next to him.
If Menendez somehow manages to avoid a conviction and go on to win reelection to another Senate term as a self-described “independent Democrat” — a big if — he’s not likely to forget Fetterman’s barbs and mockery anytime soon.
After federal prosecutors failed to convict Menendez on another set of corruption charges in 2017, he famously declared in front of the courthouse: “To those who were digging my political grave so they could jump into my seat, I know who you are and I won’t forget you.”
Marjorie Taylor Greene versus Mike Johnson
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R), a Georgia rabble-rouser, has hammered away at Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) throughout his young Speakership tenure — criticism that crescendoed this week into a vote on her resolution to remove him from office, which she forced to the floor Wednesday.
Her effort failed in a lopsided vote, as Democrats rushed to shield Johnson from the coup attempt.
But that outcome did nothing to ease the tensions between the two rivals, as Greene spent more than 15 minutes on the chamber floor reading her resolution, which charged the Speaker with a litany of “betrayals,” each one portraying him as a traitor to conservative causes for his willingness to compromise with Democrats on major legislation.
“Mike Johnson is ill-equipped to handle the rigors of the job of Speaker of the House and has allowed a ‘uniparty’ — one that fuels foreign wars, tramples on civil liberties, and increases our disastrous national debt,” Greene said on the floor.
Part of the hostility is personal: Greene had built close relations with Johnson’s predecessor, McCarthy, and was furious that conservatives had toppled her leadership ally in favor of Johnson.
More prominently, however, Greene has focused her criticisms on Johnson’s leadership style, accusing the new Speaker of caving too quickly to Democratic demands during bipartisan negotiations over big-ticket legislation such as funding the federal government.
She’s also up in arms that Johnson, after opposing aid to Ukraine for most of last year, reversed course since taking the gavel to champion another massive round of military aid — $61 billion — for Kyiv.
The combination of factors has led Greene to accuse Johnson — publicly, repeatedly — of being a turncoat who favors Democratic priorities over those of his own party.
Johnson, soft-spoken and mild mannered, has largely avoided the mudslinging. But even his characteristic restraint reached its limits in recent days. As Greene escalated her attacks, he fired back, saying she has not “proven to be” a serious lawmaker.
Rick Scott versus Mitch McConnell
Sen. Rick Scott’s (R-Fla.) feud with Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) has been bubbling away for more than two years and culminated in Scott’s surprise decision to challenge McConnell for the top leadership spot after the 2022 midterm election.
It was a short and nasty leadership race in which McConnell and his allies accused Scott, who was the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) chair, of bungling the effort to take back the Senate, while Scott and his allies argued McConnell was to blame for the political disappointment by failing to lay out a clear vision and agenda.
McConnell later made it clear that he wasn’t a Scott fan by pulling him off the Senate Commerce Committee, along with Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who backed Scott’s leadership challenge.
“McConnell got to pick. He kicked me off; he kicked Lee off,” Scott told The Hill with a tone of disbelief last year when he learned of his punishment.
One person familiar with the episode described the Florida senator at the time as “furious.”
McConnell, however, insisted publicly that he was “not in any way offended by having an opponent or having a few votes in opposition” after he won election as leader by a vote of 37-10.
The sparring between Scott and McConnell goes back to the 2022 campaign, when McConnell scolded Scott for putting together his “Rescue America” plan, which the GOP leader worried would muddle Senate Republican messaging because Scott was the NRSC chair.
In a rebuke to his colleague, McConnell declared at a March 22 press conference that if Republicans regained the majority, he as majority leader would decide what to put on the Senate floor and that Scott’s proposal to sunset all federal legislation after five years “will not be part of a Republican Senate agenda.
Marjorie Taylor Greene versus Lauren Boebert
Greene’s clash with Speaker Johnson might be more public, but the bad blood between her and Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) has been at least as bitter — and a good deal more colorful.
Both lawmakers were first elected in 2020; both are loud and loyal supporters of Trump; and both have adopted a gloves-off approach on Capitol Hill that’s made them national figures able to grab headlines, influence policy debates and rake in sums of campaign cash typically unheard of for lawmakers with their thin experience.
The similarities made them allies — for a time.
Tension between the two, however, spilled into the public eye in December 2022, as McCarthy prepared his Speakership bid — which pitted Greene, a McCarthy supporter, against Boebert, a staunch opponent.
“I’ve been aligned with Marjorie and accused of believing a lot of the things that she believes in,” Boebert told conservative commentator Charlie Kirk at the time. “I don’t believe in this, just like I don’t believe in Russian space lasers — Jewish space lasers and all of this.”
The comment was a mocking reference to Greene’s infamous 2018 Facebook post proposing that a “laser beam or light beam” from “space solar generators” could be responsible for wildfires in California, while also mentioning “Rothschild Inc.,” which has been used as part of antisemitic tropes in the past. Greene said she was not aware of the phrase’s history.
Greene shot back on X, dinging her colleague for recent election results: “She just barely came through by 500 votes,” she wrote.
But the feud did not end there.
During the Speaker’s race in January 2023 — which McCarthy won despite Boebert’s opposition — the conservative firebrands got into a “shouting match” in a Capitol Hill bathroom, The Daily Beast reported. Boebert, who later confirmed the exchange, said she told Greene “don’t be ugly.”
And in June of last year, Greene called Boebert a “little bitch” on the House floor hours after the Colorado Republican moved to force a vote impeaching President Biden over his handling of the U.S.-Mexico border. Greene accused Boebert of copying her own articles of impeachment.
The profane comment had far-reaching implications for Greene. The House Freedom Caucus moved quickly to boot her from their ranks, with a member of the group’s board calling it “the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
Jared Moskowitz versus James Comer
The feud between Reps. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) and James Comer (R-Ky.) has been one of the most headline-grabbing — and colorful — clashes in the House, largely playing out on the public stage of the Oversight and Accountability Committee as it leads the floundering impeachment inquiry into President Biden.
The brawl between Comer, the panel chair, and Moskowitz, a first-year member, has largely been rooted in the GOP’s quest to impeach Biden, with Moskowitz relentlessly pushing Comer for evidence to back the Republicans’ explosive claims of corruption.
But the rivalry has devolved into something of a middle school playground spat, filled with petty name-calling, personal attacks and even cartoon characters.
During a November hearing, Comer and Moskowitz got into a tense discussion after the Florida Democrat accused the Kentucky Republican of making a loan to his brother, similar to the allegations lodged at Biden.
“You look like a Smurf, here, just going around and all this stuff,” Comer said to Moskowitz, who was sporting a blue suit and tie at the hearing.
“Gargamel was very angry today,” Moskowitz wrote on X after the exchange, referencing the name of the evil antagonist of “The Smurfs” show.
Asked about the nickname by CNN the next day, Moskowitz offered a mocking medical diagnosis of the panel leader, saying Comer “clearly needs a mental health day, so I hope he gets that.”
Months later — when the House held a markup for a resolution to hold Hunter Biden, the president’s son, in contempt of Congress — Moskowitz wore a blue tie with a Smurf on it.
In another rancorous back-and-forth, Comer called his Democratic colleague “little Moskowitz” during an interview on Newsmax, an apparent jab at his short stature.
“This is the first true thing Comer has said all year, it’s been hard for me to grow,” Moskowitz responded on X. “But why is the Chairman scared of tiny, mini, itsy-bitsy Moskowitz.”
Moskowitz, for his part, has picked his fair share of fights with Comer. Days before the Smurf saga, Moskowitz mocked Comer after the chair posted a video on X of himself signing subpoenas for the president’s son and brother.
The Florida Democrat filmed his own video that featured him signing a subpoena for Comer, pointing to the allegations surrounding a loan he allegedly sent to his brother.
And most recently, after CNN published a report on the flailing impeachment inquiry, Moskowitz trolled Comer in response.
“I was hoping our breakup would never become public. We had such a great thing while it lasted James,” he wrote on X. “I will miss the time we spent together. I will miss our conversations. I will miss the pet names you gave me.
“I only wish you the best and hope you find happiness.”
Steve Daines versus Jon Tester
Sometimes senators from different parties who represent the same state work well together, and sometimes they don’t, but the beef between Montana Sens. Steve Daines (R) and Jon Tester (D) has reached a new level now that Daines has made it his mission to knock Tester out of his job.
Daines, who was elected after the 2022 election to serve as NRSC chair, pitched his GOP colleagues on his knowledge of Montana politics and his ability to finally beat Tester, a strong incumbent who survived tough challenges in 2012 and 2018, in a solidly Republican state.
Daines and Tester have teamed up occasionally on small issues, such as the bipartisan letter they recently sent to the U.S. Postal Service’s board of governors to stop the relocation of a mail processing center from Missoula, Mont., to Spokane, Wash.
But that’s small potatoes compared to the bigger drama going on between the two Montanans.
Daines, who has been mentioned as a potential candidate to become the next Senate GOP leader, has staked his political ambition on winning back control of the Senate, and his quest for a GOP majority runs right through Tester’s seat.
The NRSC is hitting Tester for taking contributions from lobbyists, calling him “two-faced.”
And Daines in a statement last year compared Tester to former Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, a Democrat who lost his race to knock off Daines in 2020 after an ill-fated presidential bid, predicting “each will have their careers ended by Montana voters.”
“Jon’s support for Joe Biden’s disastrous agenda of open borders, reckless spending and massive tax hikes is a fireable offense,” Daines declared when Tester announced his plan to run for reelection.
Asked about the strained relationship, Tester told The New York Times: “You’ve got to compartmentalize.”
Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Regular the hill posts
Video/Hill.TV
The Hill Podcasts
