Rep. Tim Burchett accuses ‘bully’ Kevin McCarthy of attacking him with ‘clean shot to the kidneys’ in Capitol hallway

Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was accused Tuesday of elbowing one of the eight Republicans who voꦦted to strip him of the gavel last month.

Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) told CNN that McCarthy (R-Calif.) hit him with a “clean shot to the kidneys” as the former speaker walked past Burchett following a House Republican conference meeting.

NPR reporter Claudia Grisales, who 🍌was talking with Burchett at the time, tweeted that the impact almost knocked the 59-year-old Tennessean into her.

“Why’d you elbow me in the back, Kevin?” Burchett🍌 yelled after the former speaker, . “Hey🏅 Kevin, you got any guts!? Jerk.”

Burchett t💝hen chased after the-58-year-old McCarthy, who denied he’d done anything untoward.

“I didn’t elbow you in the back,” McCarthy said, according to Grisales.

“You got no guts, you did so … the reporter said it right there, what kind of chicken move is that?” Burchett said before adding: “You’re pathetic, man, you are so pathetic.”

“What a jerk,” Burchett repeated before telling McCarthy in a parting shot: “You need security, Kevin.”

“H𒊎e’s a bully with $17 million🐟 and a security detail,” Burchett told CNN afterward. “I’m probably not going to do an ethics complaint on him. He’s not worth it.”

McCarthy later strenuously denied maliciously shoving or “kidney-punching” the Tennessee rep.  

“I guess our shoulders hit because Burchett [ran] up to me after — I didn’t know what he was talking about,” McCarthy told reporters. “I didn’t run and hit the guy, I did not kidney-punch him.”

“If I would hit somebody, they would know I hit them,” McCarthy added.

When pressed about Burchett’s claim that he was in pain, the former speaker exclaimed: “Oh, come on now.”

Burchett, seven other Republicans and 208 D🌼emocrats joined forces to declare the speakership vacant Oct. 3, triggering a three-week fight for the gavel that was ultimately won by Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.).

On Tuesday afternoon, far-right Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) who led 👍the mutiny against McCarthy,  to the House Committee on Ethics demanding an investigation.  

“This is wild. McCarthy resorting to pushing people in the halls. What a weak, pathetic, husk of a man,” .

Ironically, McCarthy alleged that Gaetz was motivated to oust him from the speakership because McCarthy refused to intervene in an ethics🎃 investigation revolving aroun♔d the Florida rep. Gaetz has denied that.

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), who also backed Gaetz’s effort to dethrone McCarthy, ripped the former speaker for the alleged roughhousing.

“Kevin, there’s no place for a Mean Girl in the Halls of Congress…,”  on X. 

McCarthy panned Burchett, Gaetz, and Mace in an inter🃏view that aired on Sunday. 

“They care a lot about press, not about policy, and so they seem to just want the press and the personality,” he told CNN’s “Inside Politics.”

Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) alleged in his recent book “Renegade” that McCarthy intentionally shoulder-checked him at least twice while Kinzinger was in Congress. 

When asked about that claim Tuesday, McCarthy said: “Oh no, I don’t know about Kinzinger.”