McConnell Says Not His Job to Police Other GOP Members

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Tuesday that it's not his job to control the behavior of other Republican members of Congress, especially physically aggressive behavior.

McConnell said he was unaware of two incidents from earlier in the day in which GOP lawmakers got into aggressive confrontations.

"It's very difficult to control the behavior of everybody who's in the building," he told reporters, according to The Hill. "I don't view that as my responsibility. That's something the Capitol Police will have to deal with."

During an intense Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing, Chair Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., had to verbally restrain Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., from coming to physical blows with the president of the Teamsters union.

Mullin reportedly sprang to his feet during the committee hearing and invited International Brotherhood of Teamsters General President Sean O'Brien to turn their social media sparring into the real thing.

"You want to do it now?" Mullin asked, challenging the labor leader. "Stand your butt up then."

"You stand your butt up," O'Brien shot back at the Oklahoma senator.

In settling the strife, Sanders reminded Mullin that he is a United States senator.

Elsewhere on Capitol Hill, Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., accused former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., of delivering a kidney shot by elbowing him in the back while he was speaking with reporters.

Burchett was one of the eight Republicans who voted with Democrats to oust McCarthy from the speakership last month.

"I was standing there and McCarthy elbowed me in the back," Burchett told reporters after the incident.

"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.

• Rep. Burchett: McCarthy Was Condescending About My Faith
• Sen. Mullin to Newsmax: Teamsters' O'Brien 'a Thug in Every Way'