Uncomfortable Congressional Moments Caught On Camera

It's nice to think that the people in charge of things on a federal level are somehow, well, "adultier" than the rest of us. They're the ones who knew that when they grew up, they wanted to be in positions where they could make laws, help those who were struggling the most, and change the world for the better. Sounds great, right?

Instead, Americans got whatever the heck has been going on in Washington, D.C. for many years, and let's be honest: Watch the Congressional outtakes that make it to the news and social media, and it's clear that many of them are far from being the adultiest of adults. There's kindergarten-level bickering, grade school-level spite, and high school-level cliques. And then, there's the people who have been in office since the Civil War. (Approximately.) Throw that all together, and sometimes, it all just ends in tears.

Everyone makes mistakes, sure, and everyone has those moments in life where you just want to rewind time a few minutes, and maybe give things another go. When you're in Congress, things are a little more high-stakes than that time you told a waitress, "You, too!" when she said to enjoy your meal. Want to feel better about those moments? Congress has you covered.

When 81-year-old Ike Skelton died in 2013, he'd been in Congress for more than three decades, and in a formal statement, Husch Blackwell chairman Maurice Watson lauded his devotion (via The New York Times): "He led an exemplary life of honor, courage, and public service." Skelton was well-known for his support of the military, gun rights, and national defense — and that only helped make one 2009 moment even more uncomfortable.

Skelton was the Armed Services Committee Chairman when he got into a heated debate over whether or not hate crimes against LBGTQ+ people should be included in federal defense policy bills. Things got heated, and when Skelton finished a series of comments directed toward fellow Missouri Congressman Todd Akin, he paused and — quietly yet deliberately — declared: "So stick it up your a**."

Yikes? Like... what's the proper response here? Skelton's a military supporter, after all, does he want to throw down after this? What's he going to do if someone does what they probably really wanted to do... which was to laugh? His comments didn't go unnoticed, and although his team said (via CBS) that it was "said out of frustration in the heat of the debate," others made it clear that sort of thing wasn't acceptable behavior for anyone in Congress. The remark wasn't included in the official records.

For every person who scrambles to get concert tickets ASAP, there are countless more who just can't be bothered to wade into the fray and fight for the relatively few available tickets that cost an exorbitant amount of money. The practices of Ticketmaster and Live Nation were called into question early on in 2023, and for some reason, multiple senators — including Connecticut's Richard Blumenthal, Minnesota's Amy Klobuchar, and Utah's Mike Lee — decided that the best way to get their point across was via Taylor Swift quotes.

CNN's Don Lemon called it "cringe," after hiding laughter during a broadcast covering the hearing, while the Los Angeles Times faithfully reprinted all the quotes ... along with an apology, and an explanation: "Because we heard them, (so now you have to hear them too)."

Lee explained more to The Washington Post and confirmed that it was his daughter who had been texting him lyrics throughout the meeting. (Blumenthal, too, collaborated with his children to find his lyrics.) That moment when Grandpa brings dinnertime conversation to a halt by reciting the latest pop lyrics while clearly not understanding what they mean, then waiting for applause? Yeah, it's that. (But at least it wasn't "Watermelon Sugar.")

There's a time and a place for fighting. Marvel movies, for instance, or anything with Jason Statham. On the floor of the Senate? Not so much... unless, that is, you're Oklahoma's Markwayne Mullin — who, incidentally, is an ex-MMA fighter. In late 2023, a bizarre scene unfolded as he read from a prepared statement that called International Brotherhood of Teamsters Sean O'Brien out on a lot of things: "Pretends like he's self-made," Mullin began. "What a clown. Fraud. Always has been, always will be." That descended into an invitation to settle things once and for all: O'Brien accepted and exchanged some "Stand your butt up then!" back-and-forth with the senator.

Bernie Sanders intervened like the most disappointed geometry teacher ever, and after reminding Mullin that he was, in fact, a senator, pointed out that it was bizarre behavior like that which was responsible for America's ever-dwindling faith in their government. Fingers were pointed, threats were made, Sanders completely failed to get the room under control, and afterward, the response was, well ... not as one might expect.

The Associated Press reported that Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said that keeping his party's senators from trying to turn the Capitol into a wrestling ring wasn't part of his job description, while North Dakota's Kevin Cramer volunteered, "It's a dynamic place." Mullin later claimed that it would all just be better if that's the way things were still done, saying (in an interview on CNN) that he had no regrets.

What was the problem with Dianne Feinstein's speech? She wasn't supposed to give one: They were in the middle of voting when she started to give a speech in support of a defense bill and had to be told by two other people that it was only time to vote, and she just needed to say, "Aye."

NBC News later reported that her office stated she had been distracted by the chaotic floor that day, and hadn't heard the call to move from statements to voting on the matter of a $823 billion military budget. Acceptable and understandable, or an excuse? No one wants to think about the consequences of getting older, but as CBS pointed out, she was 89 years old when she was forced to step away from the Senate for three months while recovering from shingles and complications that included encephalitis (which can result in things like memory loss).

Coverage of the incident also brought up the question of whether or not she was capable of continuing in her position, and it was also announced that she planned on retiring at the end of her term. As a side note — and, in all fairness — Feinstein's uncomfortable moment isn't only a reflection on her. According to the Pew Research Center, an overwhelming majority of Americans are in favor of putting maximum age limits in place for elected officials and judges.

Oh, the heady, innocent times that were 2015, a year that seems to be — at exactly the same time — both just last year, and about 75 years ago. That's also when Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe decided that the best way to dispute climate scientists who were saying that 2014 was the hottest year on record was to bring a snowball into the Senate, and then throw it. And honestly? The sound it makes when it hits the floor and the complete look of disappointed pride on his face make this one toe the line between uncomfortable and uncomfortably hilarious.

Inhofe claimed that the mere presence of the snowball proved that it was not, as climate science would say, hot outside, but cold ... and let's also stress that this was in February. A Democratic senator from Rhode Island, Sheldon Whitehouse, went on to say (via CNN) that he "want[ed] to respond to the presentation by one of the Republican senators suggesting that the continued existence of snow disapproves climate change," but it's unclear whether or not that was before or after the (one imagines) collective sound of foreheads hitting desks.

Three years later, Mother Jones looked back on the incident and said not only was it weird then, but it hadn't aged well. Temperatures had continued to rise, and denial continued, too: Snowballs, after all, had continued to exist ... at least, sometimes.

Obamacare was one of the hot-button topics back in 2013, and it's entirely possible that more people are familiar with Ted Cruz's 21-hour marathon speech than they are with the actual contents of Obamacare. Outtakes from the speech famously include thoughts on the importance of a good pair of shoes, and — of course — a reading of Dr. Seuss's "Green Eggs and Ham." The idea was that it was a bedtime story for his daughters, but let's talk about why that was a weird choice, with help from New York Senator Chuck Schumer.

Schumer explained at a conference following the stunt (via NBC News) that there was something deeply flawed about the whole thing: "I don't know if he read it. Because 'Green Eggs and Ham' has a moral: don't criticize something, don't reject something until you actually try it." Whoops! Others weighed in, too, with even a Kansas State University professor and Seuss biographer saying that what he was reading was pretty much precisely the opposite of the message he was trying to spread.

Should federal lawmakers be able to grasp the basic meaning of a children's book that famously includes less than 50 unique words? Probably. Dartmouth University professor Donald Pease also chimed in, saying, "Dr. Seuss would find the Senate and the Congress much in need of reading and understanding his entire corpus of children's books." Perhaps Cruz later asked a toddler to translate: He ultimately voted in favor of the thing he'd spent 21 hours protesting.