Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) recently denied that he struck Trump supporting Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) in a House office building hallway Tuesday, cracking, “If I would hit somebody, they would know I hit them” via Media Ite.
It has been noted that McCarthy gave reporters his side of the story Tuesday afternoon after Burchett told CNN’s Manu Raju that McCarthy elbowed him in the back, in “a clean shot at the kidneys.”
“I would not hit him in the kidney,” McCarthy began. “HC5, you’re all down there, right? Not a very big hallway. So I’m walking out, and you can talk to Bruce Westerman, ’cause I actually called him after you guys reported something and said, ‘Did I hit somebody?’ Bruce Westerman and I were walking out. I guess a reporter was interviewing Burchett or something, I guess our shoulders hit because Burchett runs up to me after. I didn’t know what he was talking about. Some reporters asked me. I did not run and hit the guy, I did not kidney punch him, or anything like that.”
“You didn’t shove him?” asked a reporter.
“No! We were walking through. You were at HC5, right?” McCarthy asked the reporter. “You guys line up along the way there, it was Bruce Westerman and I walking out, he must have been interviewing with someone, I didn’t know it was him or someone. I guess our elbows hit as I walked by. I didn’t punch anybody.”
McCarthy continued, “I guess it happened, because when I was walking back further, someone was interviewing me or talking to me, and he comes running up like, ‘Why did you hit me?’ Or something like that. I said, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ I didn’t even know something transpired.”
“But reporters and witnesses said it looked like there was plenty of room for you to walk and that you intentionally hit him,” Manu Raju said.
“There is, Ok, not a place — show me a reporter who saw that!” McCarthy exclaimed. “Call Bruce Westerman! No, ask Bruce Westerman. I did not go up — If I would hit somebody, they would know I hit them.”
NPR reporter Claudia Grisales first posted about the incident on X (formerly Twitter), claiming “McCarthy shoved Burchett.”
