A meeting with Republicans got "personal" overnight as members fought with Speaker Mike Johnson over his last-minute fixes to help the economy.
The Washington Sun (formerly NOTUS) reported Wednesday that at one point a shouting match broke out between the members, with curse words flying.
At one point, a source in the room conveyed, Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris (R), the lone Republican in the Maryland delegation, was so livid he began banging on the desk and yelling, “This is f—— war! This is war!”
At issue was Johnson's support for Harris' bill to kill the federal gas tax ahead of the election. AAA put the national average fuel price at $4.37 on Wednesday, but diesel has now climbed to $6.31 per gallon. It comes as farmers are starting fall harvest season and problems in the Middle East persist.
"Harris leveraged his vote on a rule earlier in the day to get a concession that leaders would consider moving the legislation," TheSun reported. "Leaders promised him on the floor earlier in the day that they would convene a meeting to discuss the possibility of suspending the gas tax."
That didn't go well, however, and quickly collapsed into "chaos," the report said, citing five sources in the room.
The instigator was Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.), who chairs the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. He had a printout of a tweet from Graves from 2022 criticizing President Joe Biden for a similar effort to suspend the gas tax when Russia invaded Ukraine and drove up fuel prices. Harris said at the time that the only solution was "drill, baby, drill."
“Suspending the federal gas tax is just another Biden Administration stunt to distract from their self-inflicted crisis,” Harris claimed. Now, Graves implied, Harris wanted to do the same and he's against it.
After promising "war," Harris reportedly stormed out as Johnson begged him to stay and "talk this out."
Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) took off after Graves in Harris' absence.
“Why do you have to come at him personally?” Higgins asked. “You disrespectful fool!”
He then stormed out too.
Sources told The Sun it was "one of the craziest meetings they had ever been part of."
Higgins kept the fight going, attacking Graves on X, saying he was an “Establishment elitist” with a “lifetime Heritage score of 69.”
The inside baseball attack refers to the Heritage Foundation's political scorecard. Graves' score this session is 50 percent. On Wednesday morning, the House leadership announced that it would end the session early after returning from a month-long recess. Instead of moving forward, the House's final day will be Sept. 16 and they won't return until after the Nov. 3 election.