U.S.
Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Senate minority leader, is responding to violence and threats of violence in the U.S. Capitol itself.
And that violence involves members of Congress.
A Republican congressman from Tennessee accuses former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a fellow Republican, of punching him in the kidney.
A Republican U.S. senator from Oklahoma threatened to fight the Teamsters Union president during a hearing yesterday.
A reporter asked Senator McConnell about all this.
As a leader, what responsibility do you have to try to lower the temperature in the building right now?
We have a senator on your side challenging a witness to fight in a hearing.
And we know former Speaker of the House Paul Volcker.
I mean, what is your responsibility as leader to lower the temperature in this part?
Frankly, I haven't heard you just indicated one another.
Very difficult to control the behavior of everybody who's in the building.
I don't view that as my responsibility that not the Capitol Police want to deal with.
Well, Congressman McCarthy denies punching anybody.
He says if he touched Congressman Tim Burchett, it was an accident.