WATCH: Politicians Break Out In Fist-Fight Over Trump’s Cartel Intervention

A brawl broke out on the floor of Mexico’s Congress of the Union on Thursday as senators physically sparred over the possibility of U.S. military involvement in combating drug cartels.

The dispute began when Alejandro “Alito” Moreno, head of the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), grabbed the jacket of Gerardo Fernández Noroña, the Senate president from the ruling Morena party, after lawmakers concluded their proceedings for the day by singing the national anthem.

“I’m asking you to let me speak,” Moreno says repeatedly in a viral video making the rounds online.

“Don’t touch me,” Fernández Noroña responds.

Noroña attempted to remove himself from the spat but was grabbed by Moreno, who yelled obscenities as the two men began shoving one another. An aide to Noroña attempted to intervene between the two men but was pushed to the floor by Moreno.

But before Noroña could get away, another senator from the opposition party took a swing at him.

“[Moreno] started to provoke me, to touch me, to pull at me,” Fernández Noroña told reporters after the incident. “He hit me on the arms and said: ‘I’m going to beat the s**t out of you, I’m going to kill you.’”

Moreno responded on social media, writing, “When Noroña crossed the line, he knew exactly what he was doing. I will always respond head-on, with character and without fear, to defend Mexico and give it the direction it deserves.”

Tensions escalated following a heated debate where critics accused the PRI and PAN parties of advocating for a U.S. takeover of Mexico’s efforts to rein in its notorious drug cartels. Both parties have denied the allegation.

Earlier this week, a senator from the Pan party appeared on Fox News expressing hope that the U.S. would send “help from the United States to fight the cartels in Mexico is absolutely welcome.”

Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum has repeatedly rebuffed requests by Trump to allow American forces to enter Mexico, stating that her country is capable of governing its own security affairs.

Noroña, who heads the senate, called an emergency session on Friday and suggested colleagues vote to expel Moreno and three other lawmakers as a result of the scuffle, the Guardian reported.

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In a sign of how much pressure she is under, Sheinbaum recently announced a deal to send imprisoned cartel leaders to the U.S. to serve out their sentences under the condition that U.S. authorities do not seek the death penalty. One of the 26 individuals is accused of participating in the execution of a Los Angeles County deputy sheriff in 2008. It is the second transfer of cartel prisoners she has made to the U.S. since President Trump took office.