Fight Club erupts on Capitol Hill

The former Republican chairman elbowed one of the Republicans who voted to impeach him. A Republican senator stood up to challenge an organized labor leader to a brawl during a hearing. Across the Capitol, the chairman of another panel compared a member of his committee to a cartoon character.

Tensions ran high on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, as the marble halls of Congress turned into a backdrop for heated clashes — some of them physical — between lawmakers rushing to avert a government shutdown at the end of the week and save their Thanksgiving holiday.

The fighting was the latest show of intransigence from a branch of government that has spent much of the year wallowing in its own dysfunction, emerging only long enough to avoid a federal debt default and a shortage of barely avoid government financing. This week appeared to be one such moment — the House of Representatives was set to pass a temporary bill Tuesday afternoon to avoid a shutdown at the end of the week — but lawmakers still behaved badly.

It started early Tuesday morning, when former Speaker Kevin McCarthy met with Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee, one of eight Republicans who voted to oust him from the speakership last month, in the basement of the Capitol. Mr Burchett said he had been speaking to journalists in a corridor after a party talk when Mr McCarthy elbowed him in the back and then walked on.

“It was just a cheap shot from a bully,” Mr. Burchett said later. “And then I went after him. And we had a few words.

A reporter who witnessed the incident posted an account on social media confirm the story. But Mr McCarthy denied there was any altercation, telling reporters he had merely walked past Mr Burchett in a narrow and busy corridor.

Yet the vitriol of the discussion — Mr. Burchett went after Mr. McCarthy, calling him a “son of a bitch,” a “chicken” and “pathetic” — reflects the animosity still simmering within the divided Republican conference. The right-wing anger that led to Mr McCarthy’s ouster continues to rage, as the former chairman and his key allies remain furious over his removal.

But the unraveling of decorum was not limited to the House. Across the Capitol complex, Senator Markwayne Mullin, Republican of Oklahoma, challenged a top labor leader to a physical fight during a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing.

Mr. Mullin and Sean O’Brien, the president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, have feuded on social media. Mr. Mullin read one of Mr. O’Brien’s messages called him a “clown” and a “fraud” and challenged him to an “Anyplace, Anytime cowboy” showdown.

“Sir, this is a time, this is a place,” Mr. Mullin said to Mr. O’Brien from the podium. “We can do it here.”

“Okay, perfect,” Mr. O’Brien replied, adding, “I’d like to do it right away.”

“Well, stand up straight,” said Mr. Mullins, a former mixed martial arts fighter, as he rose from his seat and reached out to remove his wedding ring, apparently in preparation for a punch.

As the two men shouted at each other, Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont and the panel’s chairman, intervened and repeatedly told Mr. Mullin to return to his seat.

“You’re a United States Senator! Sit down, please,” he said, wagging his finger as Mr. Mullin and Mr. O’Brien continued to talk over each other from across the interrogation room. “Hold it!” Mr. Sanders shouted, banging his hammer.

The morning fuss lasted into the afternoon, when Representatives James R. Comer, Republican of Kentucky, and Jared Moskowitz, Democrat of Florida, engaged in an expletive-laden shouting match during an Oversight Committee hearing convened to examine The Son’s personal finances from President Biden, Hunter Biden.

When Mr. Moskowitz pointed out reports of Mr. Comer’s financial dealings with family members, Mr. Comer called the Florida Democrat, who was dressed in a blue suit and blue tie, a liar, adding, “You look like a Smurf.’

Some Capitol Hill veterans attributed the folly to waning patience among lawmakers who have been asked to work for several weeks at a time without a break, an unusual phenomenon in Congress, where recess is common.

“Today is yet another example of why Congress should not be in session for five weeks straight,” said Doug Andres, the spokesman for Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the longtime minority leader. wrote on X. “Strange things happen.”

There are also deeper reasons.

In the weeks since Speaker Mike Johnson was chosen to succeed Mr. McCarthy, a proclaimed moment of unity, the same Republican fissures that led to Mr. McCarthy’s ouster have erupted back into public view. The temporary spending bill that Mr. Johnson is pushing, and that the House will consider, does not bring the cuts or policy changes that far-right Republicans had wanted.

By the end of the day, Representative Matt Gaetz, the Florida Republican who forced the vote to impeach Mr. McCarthy, had spoken out against the spending plan — and also filed an ethics complaint against the former chairman over the alleged attack on Mr Burchett.

The new speaker clearly suffered from flaring tempers during a press conference on Tuesday morning, when he told reporters: “This place is a pressure cooker.”

He said he hoped quick passage of the spending measure, followed by a week away from Washington, would benefit his party.

“This will allow everyone to go home for a few days for Thanksgiving,” he said. “Everyone can cool off.”

Kayla Guo reporting contributed.