MILWAUKEE — Suburban Republican Richard Porter is going viral over a video of him confronting controversial U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida on the floor of the Republican National Convention.
Gaetz was interrupting former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy during a television interview Tuesday afternoon when Porter, a Winnetka resident and the Illinois Republican national committeeman, stepped in.
“Shut up, Gaetz,” Porter said, adding an expletive.
“Dude, I don’t even know who you are,” Gaetz responded.
“It doesn’t (expletive) matter who I am,” Porter replied as the two men stared each other down. “Don’t be an (expletive.)”
Videos of the confrontation made the rounds later Tuesday and Wednesday. It even appeared on the celebrity gossip website TMZ, which referred to the 64-year-old lawyer as “an older gentleman” and a “senior citizen.”
“This is literally almost right out of a movie … a strong-willed do-gooder telling a bully to buzz off, and as a result — some think the nameless guy here got the better of Matt in the exchange,” TMZ wrote.
A day after his newsworthy confrontation, Porter said Gaetz had burst through a crowd to insert himself into McCarthy’s interview “and was being rude.”
“He was really being over the top, just pushing people aside, the way he was speaking,” Porter said. “So I expressed myself. I thought it was time for him to move along.
“I was happy to have the chance to look him in the eye and tell him what I thought,” he added. “I just wish I hadn’t sworn.”
He said he ran into Gaetz later at the convention and asked, “Are we good?
“He just looked at me blankly.”
As for TMZ’s characterization of his age, Porter said “I guess it’s true.
“It’s not my self image,” he added.