Speaker, McCormick downplay closed-door spat

NASHVILLE — House Speaker Kent Williams and Rep. Gerald McCormick this afternoon are denying reports that the Chattanooga lawmaker sought to boot the speaker out of a closed-door House Republican Caucus meeting Tuesday.

But Rep. McCormick, the House GOP’s assistant leader, today did acknowledge asking the speaker to “sit down and wait his turn” to address the group at one point.

The incident occurred as the GOP Caucus met to discuss the budget, lawmakers said.

Rep. McCormick said the group keeps a list of members wishing to speak. House Republican Leader Jason Mumpower of Bristol was managing the order of speakers, observers said.

“Well, Kent didn’t like something he heard and he hopped up and just started blurting his message out of (the) line,” Rep. McCormick said, downplaying the incident. “And I asked him to sit down and wait his turn. And he took umbrage to that, shouting something at me across the room.”

The Chattanooga lawmaker said he then walked over to hear what the speaker had to say. “And that was about it, really. He apologized to me afterward.”

Speaker Williams, an Elizabethton Republican who infuriated the caucus when he let Democrats elect him speaker over their candidate in January, also played down the episode. He said matters are “always intense in the Republican Caucus meeting.”

“Me and McCormick are great friends, and anytime we have words, it’s for three minutes and we kiss and make up,” said Speaker Williams. “We’re good friends and I’ll just leave it at that. I don’t want to stir anything up.”

He declined to say whether he had called Rep. McCormick “fat boy,” a phrase reported by some participants.

Chuckling, Rep. McCormick said, “He called me something to have to do with fat. If I’d really heard him I probably would have gotten mad at that point.”