CNN’s Boris Sanchez was visibly shocked Thursday after Tennessee Republican Rep. Tim Burchett made a comment about “slave labor.”
Burchett told CNN that the national debt just “doesn’t work” and Congress needs to get control of the budget. Burchett said “We have to look” at ousting House Speaker Mike Johnson if he doesn’t deliver on “conservative” based budget principles like he said he would. The congressman added it’s “always an option” to oust the speaker, who he claimed isn’t carrying out his duties.
“If we don’t like our boss … we have the ability to remove him,” Burchett said.
“Don’t you think that will hurt Republicans going into an election year?” Sanchez asked.
“I think we better stop worrying about political expediency and we better start worrying about our country. You know it’s these folks that are more worried about their portfolios than the people in this country that have gotten us into this mess. We want to blame the left and Congress … The reality, Boris, is that we’ve got our national chambers of commerce to blame for this thing. They pushed for this. They want the cheap slave labor in our country, they don’t care how they get it,” Burchett said.
“They don’t give a rip about this country. When the country is doing great, they’ll wave the flag. But the reality is, the deep state is real. It’s both parties. They don’t see black or white, they see the color green. And they will wreck this country to get it and they do not care. Because they’ll still have it. They’ll be in great shape. Their money will be overseas somewhere, in offshore accounts, somewhere, and they’ll survive and the rest of us will not and they really don’t care. So to me, the fight is much bigger than the Republicans or the Democrats, because, in the history of this world, I doubt that there will be a footnote. But I’ll tell you, this great country, if we let it fall, we will be at fault for it. Mainly for our own greed,” Burchett added. (RELATED: House Conservatives Tank Key Rule Vote In Blow To Mike Johnson’s Speakership)
“Uh, Congressman, I will put a pin on your reference to cheap slave labor. I’m not sure if that was a reference to immigration, but I want to move on to something else, and we could pick that up some other time,” Sanchez said.
Republican Texas Rep. Chip Roy has raised the possibility of moving to rid Johnson of his role as Speaker over a new deal to fund the government. The deal has been opposed by several House Republicans. The deal brings discretionary spending to $1.59 trillion, a nearly 20% jump from government spending during fiscal year 2019, the last full year of spending before the pandemic.
Roy said he would leave the possibility to bring the motion “on the table” so that Johnson knows “we’re angry about [the deal].”
Johnson would not categorically say on Wednesday whether border wall funding would be included in the final immigration security deal Congress is currently negotiating, another point of tension amongst Roy and other Republicans. Republicans have said they would not approve funding to Ukraine and Israel unless there was border funding.