Far-right Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) published a furious video on X Wednesday, calling the GOP caucus a "bunch of losers" after the failure of the Freedom Caucus' bid to censure Virgin Islands Delegate Stacey Plaskett, a nonvoting member of Congress who allegedly received contributions from deceased financier and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and is said to have texted with him during a House committee hearing.
The failure of that motion enraged far-right lawmakers who had hoped to take some of the heat off President Donald Trump for his own Epstein ties and for having withheld the criminal case files for so long after promising to release them — particularly after Plaskett called Trump a "felon" on the House floor.
Freedom Caucus members have accused GOP leadership of cutting a deal with Democrats, letting the Plaskett censure die in return for Democrats' tabling a censure of Rep. Cory Mills (R-FL) for alleged domestic abuse, stolen valor, and financial misconduct.
"It just tells you how corrupt this place is," said Burchett. "And the disgusting thing about it was, four Republicans chose not to vote, three Republicans voted [present], and three Republicans voted no. So it failed. And what it did was they cut a deal, and they cut a deal on another, on an ethics vote on a Republican, and that's just wrong. Everybody ought to stand on their own. If it were truly, we don't care whose party these sex offenders and all this other stuff are in, we're going after them and then we're cutting deals, to me it's really disgusting."
"I get disgused about things, but this is really, really bad," he continued. "You've got some people on there who are chairmen of committees and things like that, and that's the kind of people we put in leadership. It's bogus, and it stinks. And first opportunity I get to speak to our leadership, I will give them a piece of my mind, but I doubt it'll go anywhere."
"They're the most sewer-dwelling people, some of these folks, not all of them, but some of them are," he added. "It's just disgusting, it really is."
