Hot Mic: Democratic Whip Calls Republican Majority Leader ‘Coward’ During DHS Debate

A debate over a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security devolved into name-calling Thursday when House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer was caught on an open microphone calling House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy a “coward.”

Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, and McCarthy, a Republican from California, were hammering out a schedule to vote on a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security for three weeks.

DHS will run out of money by midnight Friday if a bill isn’t passed. Democrats want to vote on a clean bill to fund the agency for the entire year. Many Republicans hope to block the bill because they do not want to fund President Obama’s executive amnesty action.

“Mr. Leader, we have been now, you’re correct, six weeks leaving the Department of Homeland Security twisting in the wind. We’ve done that, as the gentleman knows…” Hoyer said to heckling from House members.

At that point, McCarthy jumped in to reclaim the time he yielded to Hoyer.

“I’ve been very clear about the schedule for tomorrow. We will end our work by tomorrow evening. This house has taken action to make sure the DHS was fully funded. We did our part and I yield back.”

“You coward,” Hoyer is heard saying.

Hoyer told CNN after the exchange that he regretted making the comment.

“He’s not a coward. I just apologized to him,” Hoyer told a CNN reporter as he left the floor of the House.

“I said something I shouldn’t have said,” he said, adding that McCarthy accepted the apology.

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