'You're a disgrace': Dramatic scene as House avoids Rep. Cory Mills censure vote
The House Ethics Committee voted Wednesday to establish an investigative subcommittee to examine allegations that Florida Republican Rep. Cory Mills broke campaign finance law and engaged in sexual misconduct and dating violence.
The significant step by the panel came ahead of a vote Wednesday night on GOP Rep. Nancy Mace's measure that would have censured Mills and removed him from his House committee assignments.
Ultimately, the House voted 310-103 to refer the censure resolution against Mills to the House Ethics Committee -- preventing the lower chamber from having to weigh in on publicly rebuking the congressman.
A dramatic scene played out on the House floor when the clerk read Mace's censure resolution out loud on the floor.
Mace -- who was standing just a few feet away from Mills -- stared down the Florida congressman.
The two lawmakers appeared to get in a back and forth on the floor. "You're a disgrace," Mace said to Mills.
The vote tally was all over the map. Democrats were split on the vote and a dozen lawmakers voted present.
Mills brought forward the motion to refer the resolution to the Ethics Committee once the clerk finished reading the Mace censure resolution.
ABC News has reached out to Mills' office about the ethics committee's earlier move to investigate the allegations.
Mills was elected to the House to represent Florida's 7th District in 2022 and reelected in 2024. He serves on the House Armed Services and Intelligence committees.
In October, a Florida judge issued a protective order against Mills after he was accused by a former girlfriend of threatening to release sexually explicit videos of her, according to court documents.
The judge ordered the congressman to refrain from contacting Lindsey Langston, who was named Miss United States in 2024 and is a Florida Republican state committeewoman from Columbia County.
Langston alleged in July that Mills threatened to release videos of her after their breakup earlier this year and that he threatened to harm any future partners, according to a report obtained from the Columbia County Sheriff's Office in Florida.
In a statement to ABC News before the order was issued, Mills said, "These claims are false and misrepresent the nature of my interactions," and accused a former Florida primary opponent of "weaponizing the legal system to launch a political attack against the man who beat him."
In the order, the judge said he did not find Mills' testimony to be "truthful."
ABC News' Will Steakin contributed to this report.
