House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) reportedly had nothing nice to say to one another on the House floor back in June.
According to The Daily Beast, McCarthy and Swalwell engaged in a heated conversation that turned ugly, including name-calling and “vein-popping” that neither congressman’s office denies.
“This is pathetic,” Swalwell allegedly told McCarthy. “You’re weak. You’re a weak man.”
The tense moment, captured by C-SPAN, caught McCarthy and Swalwell in a stare-down that lasted roughly 10 seconds before they both walked away.
McCarthy “had a vein popping out of his forehead,” one member told The Daily Beast.
The following day, the congressmen’s anger toward one another intensified after McCarthy reportedly passed Swalwell on the Republican side of the floor.
“McCarthy said, ‘If you ever say something like that to me again, I’m gonna kick the s*** out of you,’” another member claimed.
Another member who witnessed the exchange said, “They were in each other’s faces. Basically nose-to-nose. And Swalwell said something like, ‘Are we really gonna do this?’”
“Call me a pu*** again, and I’ll kick your ass,” McCarthy allegedly told Swalwell.
“You. Are. A. Pu***,” Swalwell reportedly hit back at McCarthy.
When asked for a comment on the heated exchange, neither Swalwell nor McCarthy’s office denied the argument happened.
The tense moment stemmed from the events of June 21, when Republicans voted to censor Democratic California Rep. Adam Schiff.
The two congressmen’s bad blood seemed to begin shortly after McCarthy became Speaker of the House, where he would go on to kick Swalwell from the House Intelligence Committee over his alleged affair with a Chinese spy.
McCarthy booted Schiff from the committee as well.