Tennessee Democrat Rep. Steve Cohen called tea party congressional Republicans “domestic enemies” against which he must defend the country, describing them as rabid, sophomoric and in ambitious pursuit of their policies.
“I obviously do not have an opportunity to go within the conference, the Republican — we call it a caucus, they call it a conference,” Cohen said on Saturday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Up with Steve Kornacki.” “But I know some of the members there — and a lot of those members — they’re rabid, they’re sophomoric, literally, they’re second term in Congress, never worked in politics before, and they think they are somehow like — it’s all talked in military terms. They think they’re some kind of guerrillas there to strike a blow for freedom.”
The Tennessee Democrat warned the tea party may try to pursue its shutdown strategy once again. But he added that it was his duty as a member of Congress to support the country from all enemies domestic and foreign — portraying the tea party members as domestic enemies.
“I think they may try to pull this off again,” he continued. “What John Boehner is going to have to do is decide that he’s not going to be speaker in 2015 and work with the same crew that gave us the opening-up of government. Nancy Pelosi’s Democratic caucus and give or take 80 reasonable Republicans and pass some bills to avoid another CR problem and shutdown and avoid the debt crisis, protect the country from these people, who really, you got to think, we take an oath to support the country against all enemies foreign and domestic, and these are the domestic enemies.”
Cohen is no stranger to controversy. Back in 2011, the Tennessee Democrat likened attacks on Obamacare to Nazi Germany in a speech on the House floor. Cohen later apologized for those remarks.