Security has to separate Gaetz and McCarthy during live interview verbal fight

Security had to step in front of Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) after he approached former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy during a live interview.

While conducting an interview with CNN during the Republican National Convention, McCarthy was interrupted by Gaetz, who began heckling him. Security was forced to intervene to keep the two rivals separate.

"What night are you speaking? Are you speaking tonight?" Gaetz asked mockingly.

"He's got an ethics complaint about paying, sleeping with a 17-year-old," McCarthy told Kaitlan Collins without looking at Gaetz, then pivoted back to his answer in the interview.

"If you took that stage, you would be booed off of it," Gaetz retorted. Gaetz has denied ever having had any sexual involvement with a minor.

Another video showed Illinois Republican National Committeeman Richard Porter speaking harshly with Gaetz after the security's intervention.

"Shut up, Gaetz. ... You don't have to be an a**hole," Porter said.

"I don't know who you are," Gaetz responded.

"It doesn't f***ing matter who I am. Don't be an a**hole," he retorted . "You're an a**hole."

McCarthy later alleged to NBC News's Tom Llamas that Gaetz asked McCarthy to stop the ethics investigation into him four years ago, saying, "And he came to me to try to leverage me to stop the ethics investigation. That's illegal. I'm not doing that.”

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He then went a step further, saying of Gaetz being in Congress, "Unfortunately, Matt happens to be here. I think at the end of the day, he probably shouldn't be on the streets.”

Gaetz was instrumental in dethroning McCarthy from the House speakership, igniting the biggest rivalry between Republican House members last fall. The two have repeatedly taken verbal jabs at each other, but Monday's encounter was one of the first widely seen physical encounters between the two since the feud began.