House Freedom Caucus member Tim Burchett (R-TN) gave an interview on Wednesday that is likely to give House Republican leadership heartburn.
Burchett is a member of the notoriously rebellious caucus whose antics have helped render House Republicans’ slim majority the past two years extremely dysfunctional at best, and, more often, simply paralyzed. He is known for getting elbowed in the hallway by ousted-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) in the wake of the speakership fight last year. He’s also spent the last two years picking and choosing when to get in line behind Republican leadership’s agenda and when to help blow the legislative process up in ways that have repeatedly forced Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) into the humiliating (for him) position of working with Democrats to pass basic stopgap funding bills.
In other words, the far-right lawmaker is a loyal ally to Donald Trump, but a known thorn in Johnson’s side.
During an interview on CNN Wednesday morning, Burchett told the network that his morals will be guiding his votes — whether its on legislation to prevent a shutdown before the end of the year or when it comes to passing elements of Trump’s agenda in the next Congress.
“If it’s morally correct, if it’s something that I really believe in. If it’s, you know, if we continue down this path of economic destruction, spending our great-grandchildren’s money, yes, I will, and I have,” Burchett said Wednesday on “CNN This Morning.”
“And we’ll continue on that path until we regain some sanity,” he continued.
While the remarks resemble political platitudes on their face, Burchett and his House Freedom Caucus pals are known disrupters who have been highly critical of Johnson’s work with Democrats over the course of the past year, when the party enjoyed a razor-thin majority.
While a Republican trifecta may put some of the angst among far-right members to rest come January, House Republicans’ slim majority is set to be slimmer still in the 119th Congress, especially in the the first few weeks and months.
On Tuesday night, Republicans lost one seat when Rep. John Duarte (R-CA) conceded to Rep.-elect Adam Gray, a Democrat, meaning that all the 2024 House races have been decided (besides some that will now need special elections, coming next year, that I’ll get into below). That means the makeup of the House will be 220 Republicans and 215 Democrats. According to a deep-dive by the Washington Post’s Aaron Blake, Republicans’ majority in the 119th Congress will be the second smallest in history, percentage-wise.
The 220-215 majority is down two seats from the 222-213 majority Republicans’ secured in the 2022 midterms.
However, because Trump selected at least three members of Congress to serve in various posts in his incoming administration, that majority may actually look more like 217-215, at least until special elections are held to replace the members who resigned or will soon resign. Those margins would mean that Republicans can’t lose even one vote if all Democrats are present and vote together. (In order for a measure to pass, it must have the support of a simple majority of those present who voted, so if 432 people voted, a measure would need 217 votes at the very least to pass. RIP our braincells after the 15 rounds of voting during the speaker’s race in 2022.)
Obviously, Trump tapped former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) to serve as his attorney general last month, but Gaetz withdrew himself from consideration when it became clear he wouldn’t have the Senate Republican votes needed to be confirmed — but not before he resigned from Congress. Gaetz also announced shortly after withdrawing his name from consideration that he wouldn’t be joining the 119th Congress. There will be a special election to fill his seat, as well as Rep. Michael Waltz’s (R-FL) seat — whom Trump picked to serve as his national security adviser — on April 1.
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) has been tapped to serve as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and a special election would take place between 70 and 80 days after she resigns, which she has not done yet. Gaetz’s and Waltz’s Florida seats are in safely red districts, and while its not quite as red, Trump won Stefanik’s district by 12 points in 2020, according to WaPo.
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I’m probably being naive, but I wonder why we Dems can’t persuade 2,3 Rs to switch parties or at least vote with our guys or abstain.
His? What about his district?
Burchett, like all Republicans, believes he now knows what’s best for everybody – before he was elected, somebody else thought he knew best for Burchett. Burchett didn’t like that, so he ran propaganda to lie himself into the House.
Representative, my ass. Every Republican is a wannabe dictator.
If only a couple of them would come down with something on the day the speaker is chosen!
And the day after, and the day after, and the day after…
Suspect of shooting the UHC CEO looks like a white guy, must have been someone that lost a loved one because UHC refused to cover treatment and he decided to apply 2nd amendment solutions.