Tensions are running high on Capitol Hill with House Republicans set to face voters amid an unpopular war, surging prices at the pump and record highs for diesel fuel, hardly an ideal political environment for the majority party.
On Wednesday, Speaker Mike Johnson abruptly cancelled votes until after the midterms, leaving a heap of unfinished business on the table, including the national debt and regulation of artificial intelligence, but not before an ugly exchange in his office between two GOP lawmakers who reportedly ended with one storming out of the meeting.
The dust-up during the late-night Tuesday meeting was first reported by the Washington Sun, formerly NOTUS, which cited “multiple sources describing the session as one of the most contentious this year.”
“This is fucking war!”
A late-night meeting in House Speaker Mike Johnson’s office went off the rails, with multiple sources describing the session as one of the most contentious this year.https://t.co/2PYES2mLVp
— The Washington Sun (@washingtonsun) September 16, 2026
“Everyone was fired up,” one source told the outlet.
The GOP House boss’s meeting included other GOP House leaders, including the heads of the “five ideological caucuses” nicknamed the “five families” along with committee chairs.
According to the Washington Sun, an agenda item for Johnson’s get-together was to discuss a bill promoted by House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris (R-Md.) to suspend the gas tax through the midterms as Republicans grapple with public fall out with skyrocketing gas prices.
“Leaders promised him they would convene a meeting to discuss the possibility of suspending the gas tax,” the outlet reported.
But the meeting went off the rails when House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.) took Harris on a trip down memory lane: a 2022 tweet in which he ripped then-President Joe Biden’s effort to do exactly the same thing as a “stunt to distract from their self-inflicted crisis.”
Suspending the federal gas tax is just another Biden Administration stunt to distract from their self-inflicted crisis. We can lower gas prices by unleashing American energy production.
“Drill, baby, drill” worked the last time we had an energy crisis, and can work again. https://t.co/mhDwsUnOzf
— Rep. Andy Harris, MD (@RepAndyHarrisMD) June 22, 2022
The suggestion that his change of heart on the gas tax was hypocritical triggered Harris, who reportedly blew his stack.
“This is f**king war! This is war!” Harris yelled as he banged on the desk, sources told the outlet.
As Harris was storming out of the room, Johnson reportedly pleaded with him to stay and “talk this out.”
Then Harris ally Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) jumped into the fray.
“Why do you have to come at him personally?” Higgins demanded of Graves. “You disrespectful fool!”
Higgins later took to social media to blame the “establishment elitist” for sabotaging the effort to temporarily suspend the gas tax.
Establishment elitist Sam Graves… lifetime Heritage score of 69… just killed the Freedom Caucus bill that would have canceled the federal fuel tax for 3 months. Our intention was to bring the bill to the House floor tomorrow night. Man wants his taxes.
And he was rude about…— Rep. Clay Higgins (@RepClayHiggins) September 16, 2026
“Republican swamp creatures are obviously tone deaf to Americans’ concerns over fuel costs. They refuse to even let the House have a vote to temporarily suspend the federal fuel tax during this time of conflict. Good luck in November. There really is a uniparty…,” Harris fumed in his own post to X.
Republican swamp creatures are obviously tone deaf to Americans’ concerns over fuel costs. They refuse to even let the House have a vote to temporarily suspend the federal fuel tax during this time of conflict. Good luck in November. There really is a uniparty… https://t.co/30Lfg99wRV
— Rep. Andy Harris, MD (@RepAndyHarrisMD) September 16, 2026
“The room was really tense,” one source told the Washington Sun, stating the obvious.
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