Gaetz makes ethics complaint against McCarthy over Burchett elbowing accusation
by Emily Brooks - 11/14/23 3:27 PM ET
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) filed a formal ethics complaint against former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) after Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) accused the ex-House leader of elbowing him in a hallway.
“This incident deserves immediate and swift investigation by the Ethics committee,” Gaetz wrote in a letter to House Ethics Committee Chair Michael Guest (R-Miss.) and ranking member Susan Wild (D-Pa.) on Tuesday.
“Congress has seen a substantial increase in breaches of decorum unlike anything we have ever seen since the pre-Civil War era.”
McCarthy on Tuesday appeared to bump into Burchett as he passed in a Capitol hallway, which Burchett says was a deliberate elbow to his back.
But McCarthy later told reporters the interaction was not deliberate, and that he was simply moving past Burchett in a small hallway.
“I guess our elbows hit as I walked by,” McCarthy later told reporters, including CNN. “If I would hit somebody, they would I know hit them.”
Gaetz took Burchett’s side.
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https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4309550-gaetz-complaint-mccarthy-elbow-accusation/