Tennessee Republican accuses McCarthy of elbowing him, chases him in hallway

Rep. Tim Burchett says House Speaker Kevin McCarthy elbowed him Tuesday as he passed by in a Capitol hallway and he responded by chasing down the fellow Republican.

The incident reportedly started when Burchett was talking to reporters in the hallway after leaving a conference meeting. Shortly thereafter, McCarthy walked down the hall and appeared to bump into Burchett as he went by, according to The Hill. Burchett maintains that the contact was deliberate. 

At the time, Burchett called after McCarthy, who continued walking. Burchett acknowledged he ran after the California lawmaker. 

"I was like, 'What the heck, you know, why did you do that?'" he said.

McCarthy denied elbowing Burchett, but the Tennessee congressman refuses to back down. 

"I was standing there and McCarthy elbowed me in the back," he told reporters following the incident. "I said, ‘Hey, what the heck would you do that for?’ And he acted like, ‘Oh, I didn’t do anything,' you know, and he’s just, he needs to go home back to Southern California."

Burchett was one of eight Republicans who voted to oust McCarthy from the position of speaker last month.

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