Ken Buck sounds off, says Kevin McCarthy and lying go together 'like peanut butter and jelly'
Lawmakers continue to debate the incident, which McCarthy denies. "He's mean and he knows it," Burchett said. "It was uncool."
WASHINGTON – Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., accused former House Speaker Rep. Kevin McCarthy of lying after McCarthy denied an allegation that he elbowed Rep. Tim Burchett in the kidneys.
“Kevin McCarthy and lying are like peanut butter and jelly,” Buck said in a CNN interview Tuesday. Burchett and Buck were two of the eight Republicans who voted to oust McCarthy as House Speaker last month.
“I don’t know what goes through the mind of Kevin McCarthy," he said. "I think that Kevin McCarthy is, you know, obviously very upset still that he is not speaker and, you know, he doesn’t hold any leadership position now. He is a rank-and-file congressman like me. And it’s got to be upsetting to him, so he took it out.”
After the incident, Burchett called McCarthy a “bully” and said it was done intentionally.
“He’s mean and he knows it,” Burchett said. “It’s not very surprising. It was uncool. A guy throws a rock over the fence when he was a kid and runs home and hides behind his momma’s skirt. He’s got his security detail around, he knows nobody’s gonna do anything to him.”
Meanwhile, McCarthy denied Burchett’s accusation and told reporters that the hallway was crowded and he accidentally bumped into Burchett.
“I did not run and hit the guy,” McCarthy said. “I did not kidney punch him.”
Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., filed a formal ethics complaint against McCarthy, accusing him of assaulting Burchett and violating lawmakers' code of conduct.
Contributing: Marina Pitofsky and Ken Tran