'What disgusts you?' GOP lawmaker put on the spot over seeming Trump criticism
CNN's Dana Bash put a Republican lawmaker on the spot after he seemingly criticized President Donald Trump's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case.
Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN), who serves on the House Oversight Committee, appeared Wednesday afternoon on "Inside Politics," where he told Bash the panel did intend to release Department of Justice files on the late financier's sex trafficking network after redacting the identities of his underage victims.
"Nobody trusts Washington, D.C., and for good reason," Burchett said. "Nobody thinks Lee Harvey Oswald shot John F. Kennedy from the front and the back, and they found a bullet in the Parkland Hospital basically unscathed, yet that's what we've been told for years, and so, you know, we have a history of lying to the public, and it's and it just continues through this thing, and it's just we've got to get to the bottom of this."
"But my major concern, of course, is those thousand or so who are young girls at the time who were raped and protecting their, you know, their identities," the lawmaker added, "without them getting any into the media spotlight and also protecting the innocent people that may be mentioned casually in these files that flew on a plane, didn't go to the island or what have you, that could be brought into this. So those are the two areas I want to protect the innocent, but I want to hang the guilty."
Bash admitted she didn't have JFK conspiracy theories on her bingo card for this interview, and then she asked Burchett why Congress had to order the Epstein files released instead of the Department of Justice.
"I don't know, I don't trust anybody in Washington," Burchett said. "Dana, as you know, you know, I've passed some of the toughest laws in the country, and it's like pulling teeth in Tennessee. We're very conservative people, but it always seems to be anytime this is involved in it, and it disgusts me, really, because you've got people whose lives have been ruined and they will never, ever regain a sense of of community because of these dirtbags, and I would hope that we could punish them as quickly as possible and get to the bottom."
Bash was struck by his remarks and followed up for clarification.
"It disgusts you that Trump's Justice Department isn't releasing it?" she asked. "What disgusts you?"
Burchett demurred, and pinned the blame on both sides of the aisle.
"No, ma'am – well, we didn't under Joe Biden, either," Burchett said. "He had it for four years, and that's why I really don't think there's much about Trump in there, because President Biden would have released it, as well, if it had. But I just think the whole thing is just been mishandled from front to back. It just, when it first broke, they should have put a special prosecutor, attorneys in charge to make sure that this stuff was released, and yet he was allowed to, allegedly commit suicide, and I still don't think he committed suicide, but that's just me. I just think this goes too deep. It affects too many powerful people in this country, and it crosses over party lines, and I honestly don't think we'll ever really get to the bottom of it."
Bash paused for a quick fact check.
"Pretty sure that the the Trump administration has said that they've looked at it and they believe he has committed suicide," Bash said. "But let's move on."
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