GOP Rep. Tim Burchett speaks during a bipartisan press conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on November 30, 2023, to discuss the US’s lack of unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) transparency.
JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images
GOP Rep. Tim Burchett said he thinks it’s likely his coworkers have been “personally compromised.””Why in the world would good conservatives vote for crazy stuff?”Burchett was one of eight Republicans in the House who voted to oust Rep. Kevin McCarthy as speaker.
A Republican member of the House suggested in an interview that Russian spies have compromising tapes of some of his GOP colleagues in bed.
Rep. Tim Burchett, a lawmaker from Tennessee, made the comments in an interview Thursday with podcast host Benny Johnson who asked the congressman to elaborate on previous claims he had made about his coworkers “who are personally compromised.”
“The old honeypot, the Russians do that,” Burchett said. “And I’m sure members of Congress have been caught up. Why in the world would good conservatives vote for crazy stuff?”
He elaborated on how he thinks his colleagues have become compromised by foreign spies, describing a situation where a member of Congress is at a bar and approached by a “very attractive” man or woman who laughs at all their jokes.
“Next thing you know, you’re in the motel room with ’em naked and next thing you know, you’re about to make a key vote,” Burchett said. “And what happens? Some well-dressed person comes up and whispers in your ear, ‘Hey man, there’s tapes out on you.'”
Burchett, who’s finishing up his fifth year in Congress, is well-known on Capitol Hill for his humor — he holds a bipartisan annual 16-minute Christmas Party in his tiny Hill office — as well as comments that tend to go against the grain.
He was also one of the eight Republican representatives who voted in favor of ousting McCarthy in early October.
More than a month later, at the end of November, Burchett was faced with a similar vote over expelling then-Rep. George Santos.
Days before the vote, Burchett told Business Insider that voting in favor of expelling Santos from Congress would be politically advantageous for him in large part due to Santos’ sexuality.
“I mean, people don’t like the fact he’s gay,” Burchett said.
A few short days later, he voted against expelling the embattled former New York legislator.