A year in congressional chaos: The craziest moments from 2023
From falsely activated fire alarms to lunging lawmakers and criminal indictments, here are the moments that defined 2023 in Congress. Ariana Baio reports
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Your support makes all the difference.Congress, particularly the House of Representatives, has had a turbulent 2023.
From the start, members of Congress struggled to find common ground on a speaker of the House, setting the tone for a year filled with near-physical brawls and verbal spats over GOP leadership after Republicans won a narrow majority in the midterm elections last year.
Infighting, especially between the right-wing flank of the GOP and the more establishment wing, led to scowls, cries, screams and – at times – even spit.
The speaker of the House drama continued throughout the year, with the ultra-conservative faction of the House joining Democrats to oust Kevin McCarthy from the role, only to spend weeks trying to decide on another leader.
Ultimately, that dysfunction created massive delays in the legislative branch’s ability to actually legislate. According to The New York Times, only 27 laws were enacted throughout 724 votes.
What the year showed is how the conservative party is slowly being split due to extremism that has arisen in part thanks to former president Donald Trump.
As we reflect on the chaotic year, here are some of the most memorable moments from the 118th US Congress.
Lucky number 15
The House of Representatives kicked off a year of chaos by conducting an unprecedented number of voting cycles to elect a new speaker of the House.
For four painstaking days, the House failed to elect a new speaker – mainly thanks to a group of 20 ultra-conservative Republicans who held out on California Representative Kevin McCarthy.
Mr McCarthy, who had gathered most of his party’s support, was forced to sit through 15 ballots, watching as his colleagues voted for other representatives and at times, people who weren’t even in Congress.
The group of 20 had a list of demands that largely undermined the power of the speaker and they were prepared to dig their heels in the sand to get what they wanted.
Frustrations between Mr McCarthy and the far-right faction were evident from photos of tired faces and crossed arms in the House chambers.
Ultimately, Mr McCarthy was forced to make some tough concessions with the far-right group in order to finally be voted in. One of those concessions was changing a rule to allow just one lawmaker to invoke a motion to vacate the speakership.
In the end, this would lead to Mr McCarthy’s downfall.
The State of the Union peanut gallery
It is well known that during the president’s annual State of the Union address, lawmakers who share the same political ideology as the current president clap while opposing politicians remain stoic.
But in February, President Joe Biden faced an exaggerated objection to his speech when Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene stood up from her seat to boo and heckle him.
Decked out in an all-white outfit complete with a prominent fur collar on her jacket, Ms Greene was captured booing the president and flashing a thumbs-down.
The ultra-conservative lawmaker screamed “Liar!” and “You lie!” at Mr Biden when he criticised Republicans for wanting to scrap Medicare and Social Security.
‘A little b****’
Colorado Representative Lauren Boebert and Ms Greene took a page right out of a middle schooler’s handbook when they clashed on the House floor in June.
The centre of their argument? Who was more entitled to bring forth articles of impeachment against Mr Biden.
Ms Greene, who had introduced articles of impeachment in 2021 and 2023, was upset with Ms Boebert for introducing her own impeachment articles on a privileged resolution – a motion that can expedite a vote straight to the floor.
What transpired was a messy fight that garnered national publicity.
It began on the morning of 21 June, when Ms Greene told reporters that Ms Boebert “copied” her impeachment articles.
Later in the day, Ms Boebert confronted Ms Greene on the House floor – an intense visual captured by CSPAN.
The two lawmakers got into it. Ms Boebert accused Ms Greene of accidentally spitting on her lip. Ms Greene branded Ms Boebert “a little b****”.
According to The Daily Beast, the two walked away from the incident sourly. So much so, that Ms Greene was later kicked out of the ultra-conservative Freedom Caucus she once belonged to with Ms Boebert.
Looming over the incident was the harsh name-calling Ms Greene participated in. Could it be true that a lawmaker used such language to describe another lawmaker?
In short, yes.
Ms Greene later confirmed to Semafor that she did, in fact, call Ms Boebert a “little b****”.
“She has genuinely been a nasty little b**** to me,” an unrepentant Ms Greene told the outlet.
Faux fire
At the end of September, Democratic and Republican lawmakers were rushing to pass a bill that would keep the federal government funded to avoid a shutdown.
But Democrats were urging for more time to read the text of a continuing resolution before voting.
That’s when a fire alarm was set off by New York Representative Jamaal Bowman.
Republicans swiftly accused Mr Bowman of purposefully pulling the alarm to delay the vote. But he insisted it was an accident.
“As I was rushing to make a vote, I came to a door that is usually open for votes but today would not open,” Mr Bowman said. “I am embarrassed to admit that I activated the fire alarm, mistakenly thinking it would open the door. I regret this and sincerely apologise for any confusion this caused.”
CCTV footage captured Mr Bowman pulling the fire alarm.
A few weeks later, Mr Bowman pled guilty to one count of setting off a false fire alarm. In December, he was censured by the House over the incident.
Matt Gaetz incites chaos
At the beginning of October, Florida Representative Matt Gaetz chose to invoke the newfound power of ousting Mr McCarthy by making a single motion to vacate.
It was an act of vengeance after Mr McCarthy circumvented the notorious far-right faction of his party to push through a stopgap spending bill to avert a government shutdown.
With the support of seven other Republicans and every Democrat, Mr McCarthy was removed from his speakership, reigniting the troubling process of electing a new speaker as seen earlier this year.
North Carolina Representative Patrick McHenry was suddenly thrown into the seat as speaker pro tempore – slamming his gavel down in frustration.
Republican infighting leads to screaming and ‘lunging’
Halfway through October, the House was still yet to elect a new speaker as Republicans struggled to rally around one single candidate.
With criticism coming from the public, colleagues and Democrats, the pressure was on for the GOP to pick a candidate and back them.
Then, during a closed-door, four-hour-long meeting, Mr McCarthy reportedly screamed at Mr Gaetz when the Florida lawmaker tried to speak at the mic.
Mr McCarthy demanded Mr Gaetz “sit down” just as another lawmaker, Mike Bost of Illinois, supposedly “lunged” toward Mr Gaetz.
The former speaker later denied screaming at Mr Gaetz but indicated most of the Republican conference was growing frustrated with him.
“I think the entire conference screamed at him,” Mr McCarthy said. “Listen, the whole country, I think would scream at Matt Gaetz right now.”
As for Mr Bost’s supposed “lunge”, Mr Gaetz said that while his actions were “animated” he wouldn’t go as far as to call it lunging.
Senate committee hearing almost turns into a boxing match
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders added “de-escalation expert” to his resume in mid-November after he stopped Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin from physically fighting the president of the Teamsters union, Sean O’Brien, during a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP) hearing.
Mr Mullin and Mr O’Brien had gotten into a spat on X earlier in the year. At the time, Mr O’Brien threatened to physically fight Mr Mullin.
But the Republican senator felt it was appropriate to bring up the old drama by inviting the Teamsters boss to fight him during the official government meeting.
“You want to run your mouth? We can be two consenting adults, we can finish it here,” Mr Mullin said.
Mr O’Brien accepted the invitation, saying he would “love to” fight Mr Mullin.
Both men invited each other to “stand your butt up” leading Mr Mullin to stand up in preparation to fight.
Mr Sanders, seated next to Mr Mullin, quickly intercepted and yelled at Mr Mullin to “Stop it!”
“No, no, sit down!” Mr Sanders said, using his hands to gesture Mr Mullin back into his seat. “You know, you’re a United States senator.”
A shot to the kidneys
As tensions continued to run high during the speaker of the House drama in the fall, an alleged elbowing or shoving incident broke out between Mr McCarthy and Tennessee Representative Tim Burchett.
In November, Mr Burchett accused Mr McCarthy of elbowing him in the back – apparently near the kidneys – when Mr McCarthy passed him in the halls of Congress.
NPR reporter Claudia Grisales said she witnessed Mr McCarthy allegedly shove Mr Burchett as he passed behind him. The moment escalated into a “chase” when Mr Burchett ran after Mr McCarthy to confront him.
“What a jerk,” Mr Burchett told Ms Grisales.
Tensions between the two lawmakers had boiled over after Mr Burchett joined seven other Republicans in ousting Mr McCarthy from his speakership.
Later, Mr Burchett told CNN that he was “elbowed in the back” and it was “a clean shot to the kidneys”.
Mr McCarthy downplayed the severity of the situation, suggesting their “shoulders hit” and denied punching Mr Burchett in the kidneys.
Diva down
The House ended its year by expelling former New York representative George Santos from Congress after months of investigations and controverises caught up with the congressman.
Mr Santos had developed a reputation for allegedly lying to his constituents and the media about his resume, professional background, personal life and more.
In October, prosecutors charged Mr Santos with conspiracy, wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, credit card fraud, falsification of records and more. They alleged Mr Santos filed fraudulent FEC reports and swindled campaign donors out of money.
The House Ethics Committee then released a report that corroborated many of the allegations against Mr Santos.
Mr Santos has denied the allegations and pled not guilty to all counts.
But still, members of the House voted to expel Mr Santos leading to thousands of meme-able reactions on X and other social media platforms.
The phrase “Diva Down” trended on X for hours after Mr Santos left Capitol Hill.
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