Matt Gaetz has been a congressman since 2017 but hasn't made many friends within the House of Representatives, even among fellow Republicans. Many GOP Reps were particularly angered when the Florida congressman helped push Kevin McCarthy out of the speakership.
While he hasn't called for a motion to vacate yet, Gaetz is now holding the procedure over the head of Mike Johnson. This angered Derrick Van Orden, a Republican from Wisconsin who attempted to call Gaetz's bluff on Thursday and reportedly called him 'tubby.'
Gaetz was asked about Van Orden by CNN's Manu Raju and responded, "The only thing I gleaned from it is that Mr. Van Orden is not a particularly intelligent individual."
When he was asked about the conversation, Van Orden said that Gaetz had started the name-calling by referring to him as a squish. The Wisconsin Congressman, a retired Navy SEAL, explained:
"I said people who have not been to combat and been shot at, who’ve not held one of their friends’ hands as they died, probably shouldn’t be calling other people squishes. And then he did it again and I said something along the lines of, ‘Stow it, Tubby.’"
Van Orden also had a message for Republicans like Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Tim Burchett and Thomas Massie, saying, "They’ve been trying to blackmail the Republican conference now for a long time. Just do it. Show the American people who you really are."