“Drop Him Like a Bag of Dirt”: Rep. Who Lunged at Matt Gaetz on the House Floor Accused of Being Drunk

Reps. Matt Gaetz and Mike Rodgers, both Republicans, were involved in an altercation when tensions in the GOP House Caucus reached a boiling point on Friday night, with Rep. Rodgers’ colleagues having to hold him back as he lunged at Gaetz, one of the GOP holdouts that delayed Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s Speaker of the House bid.

Now, new details about the incident have emerged. Particularly, it appears that Rep. Rodgers was threatening to end political careers when he lunged at Rep. Gaetz, with one of the Representatives between Rodgers and Gaetz during the attack saying that he shouldn’t be drunk on the House floor and saying that he could have dropped Rodgers “like a bag of dirt.”

Those details come from Kate Sullivan, a CNN journalist. She posted about it on Twitter, saying, in a Twitter thread:

Tim Burchett, who was in between Matt Gaetz and Mike Rogers during their confrontation on the House floor, tells me Rogers was making threats about ending careers.

“People shouldn’t be drinking, especially when you’re a redneck, on the House floor,” Burchett said.

“I would drop him like a bag of dirt,” Burchett said of Rogers. “Nobody’s gonna put their hands on me. Nobody’s gonna threaten me.”

“It’s just one of those things — you’ve been around fights before, you’ve seen it. Some guy gets in your face and then it’s just an unfortunate moment is all it was. It shouldn’t have happened. He shouldn’t have crossed that line,” Burchett said.

Here’s the CSPAN video of the incident, with Rep. McCarthy’s confrontation with Rep. Gaetz turning into Rep. Rodgers attacking Rep. Gaetz. Blooberg News’ Eric Wasson said, in a comment on it, “Most extraordinary CSpan floor video I have ever seen”.

Kevin McCarthy confronts Matt Gaetz during 14th House Speaker vote. #118thCongress pic.twitter.com/nMa9bm0KSN

— CSPAN (@cspan) January 7, 2023

Alejandra Caraballo of Slate and Wired tweeted out the video as well, saying “Rep. Hudson grabbed Rep. Mike Rogers by the face after he confronted Matt Gaetz. This happened right after Kevin McCarty Kevin McCarthy also confronted Matt Gaetz. First physical altercation on the floor of the House sknce 1985. Complete meltdown.”

She also added that a similar confrontation happened in the 80s, saying “The altercation in 1985 happened when Democratic Rep. Thomas Downey confronted Republican Rep. Robert Dornan and Dornan grabbed Downey’s tie in response. This was because Dornan called Downey a “draft dodging wimp.”

Newsweek, adding a bit more context to the attack on Gaetz and squabble among members of the GOP contingent in the House of Representatives, reported that:

McCarthy had implored Gaetz to vote for him instead of “present,” but the Florida lawmaker declined.

At that, the would-be House speaker trudged by himself back down the aisle, his gaze cast downward. He reversed course, however, after hearing commotion behind him

Rogers, who is one of McCarthy’s allies, had approached Gaetz to warn that he would regret the move, the AP reported. Representative Richard Hudson, a North Carolina Republican, tried to hold Rogers back after he stepped toward his stubborn colleague.

Hudson put his hand over Rogers’ face and pulled the congressman backward. The heated moments prompted lawmakers to yell out, astonished.