Rep. Rogers Physically Restrained After Moving Toward Rep. Gaetz on House Floor
The January 6, 2023 incident, captured on video and confirmed by CBS News, illustrates the degree of intraparty tension that accompanied the extended Speaker vote, though neither member faced...
On January 6, 2023, Republican Representative Mike Rogers of Alabama was physically restrained by colleagues after moving toward fellow Republican Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida on the House floor, according to video footage reviewed and reported by CBS News. The incident occurred during the protracted Speaker of the House vote, which required 15 rounds of balloting before Representative Kevin McCarthy secured the speakership on January 7, 2023, as documented in the Congressional Record for the 118th Congress, First Session.
The video, as described by CBS News, shows Rogers being pulled back forcefully by another member after he moved in Gaetz's direction. The precise words exchanged between the two members at that moment are not captured clearly in the available footage, and no official transcript of the exchange exists in the public congressional record.
Gaetz was among a bloc of Republican holdouts who repeatedly voted against McCarthy during the Speaker election, a position that placed him in direct conflict with colleagues who supported McCarthy, including Rogers, who served at the time as a senior Republican on the House Armed Services Committee. Rogers's support for McCarthy and opposition to the holdout bloc is documented in the Congressional Record vote tallies for those 15 ballots.
Neither Rogers nor Gaetz faced a formal censure motion or Ethics Committee referral arising from the floor incident, based on a review of House Ethics Committee public records and the Congressional Record through the date of this report. The House did not issue any official statement addressing the exchange.
What remains unknown is the full verbal content of the exchange between the two members. A formal Ethics Committee inquiry, if one were opened, would generate a public record; no such inquiry appears in publicly available Ethics Committee disclosures as of June 19, 2026. Additionally, Rogers did not seek re-election in 2024, and Gaetz resigned from the House in November 2024 after being nominated for Attorney General, as confirmed by official House records.