House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) on Wednesday called fellow New York Rep. Mike Lawler (R) a “malignant clown” in the wake of a confrontation in a House hallway.

“So, we conclude this press conference, and I hear that Mike Lawler, who’s a complete and total fraud, is waiting outside to step to me, apparently, right, about the Affordable Care Act,” Jeffries said on a Wednesday episode of “The Siren Podcast.”

“And I’m like, ‘This guy?’ So, you know, I think some on my team would have probably preferred that I just ignore him,” he added. “But I’m like, ‘You know what? I’m not the one. Don’t come for me unless I send for you.’ And I did not send for this malignant clown.”

On Wednesday, Jeffries and Lawler traded pointed barbs in the halls of the Capitol when Lawler confronted Jeffries on his objection to a short-term extension of Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies.

Lawler came up to Jeffries when he got out of the House Democratic leadership press conference and repeatedly pressed him to back a proposal that would extend the ACA subsidies by one year, which Jeffries had dismissed as a “nonstarter.”

“Why don’t we sign on right now? Why don’t we sign on right now?” Lawler said to Jeffries. “You can easily extend the ACA right now.”

The discussion quickly went personal, as Jeffries avoided the question and called Lawler an “embarrassment,” also asking whether the New York Republican got “permission from your boss” to approach him as he did.

“Did your boss, Donald Trump, give you permission?” Jeffries asked.

In response to a clip of the Jeffries-Lawler confrontation on the social platform X, Lawler said Wednesday that Jeffries “has once again chosen partisanship over governance.” 

“Instead of coming to the table to work out a bipartisan compromise that extends ACA credits, he’s playing political games with people’s livelihoods,” he continued.

The Hill has reached out to Lawler’s office for comment.