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'Maybe Twitter Is Real Life': Grab Your Popcorn for This Fight Between Two Wisconsin Lawmakers

Leah Barkoukis
Leah Barkoukis  |  July 18, 2025 8:00 AM

The rise of social media has given the world a front row seat to skirmishes between lawmakers, who are all too happy to publicly air their grievances to their followers. Less common do we see those moments come to a head in front of rolling cameras, but that’s exactly what happened Wednesday when two Wisconsin lawmakers traded barbs during a Spectrum News interview.

The clash between Reps. Mark Pocan, a Democrat, and Republican Derrick Van Orden started on X, after Pocan praised a cartoon of a man in a hospital bed with a doctor telling him “You no longer have Medicaid, so you have a big beautiful bill.”

“Wisconsin is getting $1,000,000,000 a year plus up to Medicade [sic] per year," Van Orden replied. "If any Wisconsinite loses coverage it will be due to incompetence, mismanagement, and malice by @GovEvers Seek mental health counseling."

But things heated up when Van Orden spotted Pocan giving an interview to Spectrum News. The Republican congressman revved his motorcycle engine and came over. 

“Hey Derrick, classy as always, man. We love it. Thank you,” Pocan said to him.  

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“Have you lost your mind? You know, people read this stuff,” Van Orden replied.  

“I saw your drunken tweet at 1:30 in the morning last night,” Pocan shot back.

“No, I got done with the NDAA, you jerk,” the Republican told him. “Listen, Mark, you’ve got a problem, and I don’t know what it is, but I encourage you to seek mental health counseling. It’s absolutely disgusting.” 

Pocan then tells his Republican colleague to debate him right there in front of the cameras, to which Van Orden turns to the interviewer and claims Pocan has never had a job outside of politics. 

The Democrat countered that he’s owned a small business for nearly four decades. 

And that’s when it must’ve gotten awkward for Pocan, because Van Orden called him out for funneling campaign money to his business.