Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN), one of the seven Republicans who voted to oust House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) in a shocking and historic vote on Tuesday, claimed in an interview on CNN that McCarthy “belittled” his faith in a phone conversation the morning of the vote.
Burchett appeared on The Lead with Jake Tapper Tuesday and was asked who he thinks has the votes to replace McCarthy as speaker of the House. The Tennessee Republican said Tom Cole, Tom Emmer and Steve Scalise are all “excellent choices” who would “do an excellent job,” before turning his ire on McCarthy.
“They’re honorable men, to me at least, and they’ve never openly mocked me, anyway,” he said. “They sure as heck have always kept their word to me. There’s several others that have whispered in my ear during all of this. And of course I don’t want to out them, I understand that they have to keep their secrecy about them. But there are several milling around that are very interested in doing this. Mark Green from Tennessee is somebody that people have been talking about. So there’s several out there that people are talking about.”
“I’m sorry, but I just find this so shocking,” Tapper replied. “What exactly did he say to mock your faith, sir?”
Burchett declined to reveal details of their
“It really doesn’t matter,” Burchett said. “It was just the fact that I publicly stated on your station, I think, this morning that I was praying about it and I had two paths to go, either go with my friend or go with my conscience, and I was praying that God would tell me what to do, which he does.
“I pray for my wife, I pray for my daughter, I pray for my enemies, I pray for the speaker, I pray for this president. When things come up, I pray for his son. As a Christian, that’s what I’m supposed to do. But when someone mocks me like that and mocks my religion, honestly, the bible is pretty clear about God being mocked, so that’s what sealed it right there for me. I said, this is not the quality or the character of person that I want as speaker of the United States.”
“Yeah, I can’t understand that at all,” Tapper replied.
After their interview, CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins noted that when Burchett made his comments about his faith in an interview with her on Monday night, he said he was leaning towards ousting McCarthy but had not fully decided on his vote.
Watch above, via CNN.