WASHINGTON — A squabble broke out on the House floor Thursday between two Republicans, Rep. Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin and Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida.
After Gaetz reportedly called Van Orden “squish,” Van Orden snapped back and called Gaetz “tubby.”
The tiff started after Van Orden said he was trying to call Gaetz’s bluff on a motion to oust Rep. Mike Johnson as House Speaker. A few hard-right House Republicans have been threatening to seek his removal, in part over his work with Democrats to keep the government open and his desire to move ahead with legislation to provide wartime aid to Ukraine.
Johnson has said he will not resign.
Van Orden, who said he does not support the effort to remove Johnson, challenged Gaetz to bring the motion to vacate the chair to the floor for a vote, believing it would fail. That’s when Van Orden said Gaetz called him “squish.”
Some news outlets incorrectly reported that Van Orden called Johnson “tubby.” Van Orden clarified that the comments were directed at Gaetz after Gaetz called Van Orden “squish,” a term meant to imply he was not firmly committed to hardcore Republican positions.
“I said something like, ‘Kick rocks, tubby,’ something to Matt Gaetz. It would make absolutely no sense to call the Speaker of the House ‘tubby.’ It doesn’t make any sense. Guy’s in great shape,” Van Orden said.
“And why would I do that? Does that seem immature? In a way, it does. But Matt Gaetz is a bully, and they have been bullying the Republican conference since they got Kevin McCarthy — since they kicked him out. The eight Republicans — let’s never forget, eight Republicans only — voted with 208 Democrats to get rid of Kevin McCarthy. If you’re a Republican, how does that seem like a good idea?”
Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green of Georgia filed a motion to remove Johnson from his post almost a month ago.
Van Orden dared Gaetz to pull the trigger and call it up for a vote.
“I told him to put up or shut up,” Van Orden said. “The American public can’t see these talks that we have. They can’t see that the Freedom Caucus members have been exercising coercion to get what they want … ‘If you don’t do this, we’re going to vacate you.’ That’s called blackmail, OK? And we’re over it. Simply over it,” he said. “So if you’re going to do a motion to vacate, do it now, because that’s what the American public can see. They can see the destructive nature of what these people are doing, because that’s a big deal. So put up or shut up. It is time for us to legislate.”
Gaetz spoke with reporters after the two bickered and explained his side of the story.
“He kept demanding that we file a motion to vacate and demanding that we do it in a privileged way,” Gaetz said. “The only thing I gleaned from it is that Mr. Van Orden is not a particularly intelligent individual.”
Van Orden told Spectrum News removing Johnson would only set the House back. It was only October of last year that Kevin McCarthy was removed as House Speaker, the first such ouster in history.
“I think it’s foolish,” Van Orden said. “We just did this. We have to have a memory longer than a gnat does. And if we get rid of Mike Johnson right now, it’s just going to set us back, back, back and back. It’s not helpful.”