Congressman Tim Burchett (R-TN) called out fellow Republicans for being “war pimps” for attempting to provoke the United States to aid in the Israel-Iran conflict during an appearance on CNN Wednesday Morning.
“How involved would you like to see the U.S. here?” Anchor John Berman asked.
“Very little,” Burchett said, adding, “We give Israel about $4 billion a year and other military assets. I think we should allow them to fight this thing. I fear basically a three-front war. You know, we're involved with Ukraine, and then we pull out from around Taiwan, and that exposes them to China. That's something that China would love to see.”
“We don't need another endless war in the Middle East.” The congressman added, “I would warn folks, though, that we need to vote about what we need to do about what's right and not what our stock portfolios say. Because a lot of these military assets are a lot of people vote for these things because they have jobs in their districts, and that's just the cold, hard facts of warfare.”
“So you say you would like to see very little U.S. involvement,” Berman said. “There are Republicans, [Senator] Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and others, who say that Iran's nuclear capabilities are a threat to the United States, not just Israel, but to the U.S., and that the U.S. is the only country with the capability to take out the nuclear enrichment facility in Fordow. What do you say to that?"
“Well,” Burchett replied, “They can't get past Greece with their missiles. I think if they had, they would have already launched them. That's pretty evident in their last missile strike.”
“They put two of their missiles in the air. That tells me they're just about out.” Burchett went on to say, “Your previous expert talked about their apparatus was inoperable. that means the Israelis blew the hell out of it on the ground. Again, I think we need to take a deep breath and slow down this thing and let the Israelis do their thing.”
Berman noted there is a divide in the GOP about how involved the United States should be in this conflict, then played Burchett a heated interaction between Tucker Carlson and Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) on whether we should be going to war.
“Congressman, where do you come down on this?” Berman asked, “Tucker Carlson has called some members of your own party warmongers.”
“Yeah, well, I call them war pimps,” Burchett said. “You know, Lindsey Graham's a friend of mine. Ted Cruz is a friend of mine. I look, I got a daughter just turned 18 last week on the same day as the president did, and the United States Army. I don't want to see her go to war."
He later said, “I just don't see American boys and girls going to a faraway land, that many of us can't even find on a map. Again, it's Israeli. The Israelis can handle this thing. let's let them handle it.”
Watch the full interaction below or click the link here.
- YouTube youtu.be
