Democratic Rep: 'Rabid, sophomoric' tea partiers are 'domestic enemies' of the U.S.

In an appearance on "Up with Steve Kornacki" on Saturday morning, Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen (TN) said that after their repeated attempts to interfere with the functioning of the U.S. government, members of the tea party have shown themselves to be the real "domestic enemies" of the American people.

"If we look ahead to the immediate future, these next few months," Kornacki asked Cohen, "these two new deadlines that are now sort of on the calendar, do you think things will play out differently in the next round of budget negotiations, in the next round, when it comes to funding the government? Do you think the Republicans will have a different posture this time?"

"You know, you'd think they would," said Cohen. "If a child puts its finger on a burner, they're not likely to go to that burner again, but I'm not sure if some of these people don't like the heat. They seemed to enjoy shutting down the government, they reveled in it. They got a lot of energy out of it."

"A lot of those members are rabid," he said of the House Republican conference. "They're sophomoric in terms of Congress. They've never worked in politics before," but "they think they're some kind of guerrillas there to strike a blow for freedom. I think they'll try to pull this off again."

As U.S. Representatives, Cohen said, "We take an oath to support the country against all enemies foreign and domestic, and these are the domestic enemies.”

Watch the video, embedded below via Mediaite: