Matt Gaetz files ethics complaint against Kevin McCarthy over Tim Burchett's elbowing

U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., filed an ethics complaint against former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., after U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., alleged McCarthy elbowed him in the halls of the U.S. Capitol.

Burchett was talking to National Public Radio reporter Claudia Griseles after a Republican conference meeting when McCarthy is alleged to have walked behind Burchett and elbowed him in the kidney.

Burchett followed McCarthy, demanding an explanation. NPR reported the exchange along with the audio.

Burchett was one of seven other Republicans who joined Gaetz in the fateful vote to oust McCarthy from the speakership in October.

Gaetz filed the complaint against McCarthy, alleging the behavior violated the House's binding code of official conduct.

"Needless to say, this incident deserves immediate and swift investigation by the Ethics Committee," Gaetz wrote to the committee. "This Congress has seen a substantial increase in breaches of decorum unlike anything we have seen since the pre-Civil War era. I myself have been a victim of outrageous conduct on the House floor as well, but nothing like an open and public assault on a Member, committed by another Member. The rot starts at the top."

McCarthy has previously criticized Gaetz over his effort to remove him, alleging Gaetz wanted McCarthy to quash an ongoing Ethics Committee investigation into Gaetz's own conduct.

Gaetz has implied McCarthy used the ethics investigation into him as leverage, which McCarthy denied.

"I am the most investigated man in the United States Congress," Gaetz said in October. "It seems that the Ethics Committee’s interest in me waxes and wanes based on my relationship with the speaker."

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Matt Gaetz files ethics complaint against Kevin McCarthy