House Speaker Kevin McCarthy allegedly threatened to fight Rep. Eric Swalwell last month after the California Democrat insulted him.
Last month, the House voted to censure Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) for his role conducting shoddy investigations into then-President Donald Trump when he was chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Through those investigations, Schiff abused his access to highly classified and sensitive intelligence, his critics argue, ultimately weaponizing it against his political enemies.
After the censure vote, Swalwell turned to McCarthy and said, “This is pathetic. You’re weak. You’re a weak man.”
Video from the House vote shows Swalwell, who was wearing a gray suit, turn toward McCarthy to say something. The audio captures Swalwell screaming at McCarthy that he is “weak.” (Start at the 3:49 mark):
The insult, according to the Daily Beast, enraged McCarthy.
The next day, June 22, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was set to deliver a speech to a joint session of Congress. Just moments before that speech, Swalwell exited the House chamber to use the restroom — and that’s when McCarthy confronted him.
“McCarthy said, ‘If you ever say something like that to me again, I’m gonna kick the shit out of you,'” one lawmaker recounted to the Daily Beast.
Another lawmaker who witnessed the incident said McCarthy and Swalwell “were in each other’s faces. Basically nose-to-nose. And Swalwell said something like, “Are we really gonna do this?'”
Toward the end of their heated back-and-forth, McCarthy, according to witnesses, finally told Swalwell, “Call me a pussy again, and I’ll kick your ass.”
The Daily Beast, which spoke to several lawmakers who witnessed the incident, said its sources had the same memory of how the incident ended: Swalwell insulting McCarthy again.
“You. Are. A. Pussy,” the Democrat allegedly told McCarthy.
McCarthy, according to witnesses, did not make good on his threat, but instead allowed Swalwell to enter the restroom before he returned to the House chamber.
TheBlaze reached out to Speaker McCarthy’s office and Rep. Swalwell’s office for comment. Neither office returned a response. According to the Daily Beast, when reached via phone about the story, Swalwell refused to talk about it but also did not deny that it happened.
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