Kilmeade’s Brutally Confrontational Interview With McCarthy Rebel: ‘You Feel Good About Your Vote!?’
Fox & Friends host Brian Kilmeade held a brutally hostile interview with Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) for ousting Kevin McCarthy as speaker of the House earlier this week.
Burchett was one of the seven other GOP lawmakers who revolted against the party with Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) to side with Democrats on voting McCarthy out as a speaker on Tuesday.
The chaotic end to McCarthy’s brief tenure came after the House narrowly avoided a government shutdown over the weekend with a 45-day extension.
From the beginning to the end of the Wednesday morning interview, Kilmeade interrogated Burchett to justify why he decided to vote out McCarthy.
KILMEADE: You were one of the eight. Speaker McCarthy had 96% approval rating. But that wasn’t good enough for you. Do you feel good enough about your vote?
BURCHETT: I don’t know about 96%.
KILMEADE: They voted for him.
BURCHETT: Well, I don’t work for the people in Congress. I work for the people of second district of Tennessee. And overwhelmingly, the folks are tired of the fact that we take in $5 trillion and we spend $7 trillion that leadership continues to pass these continuation resolutions. They push us right up against a holiday. Well, guess what? The 45 day one is pushed right up against it. We took off six weeks this summer from August — we usually just take off August. They decided to take over two more weeks. I feel like that’s a failure of leadership. They are the ones that set the schedule. He is the speaker. Ultimately the buck stops where and diverting the attention somewhere else is just wrong.
KILMEADE: You realize this is the first time in history that this has been done. You are upset about six weeks in the summer. Did you call him during the summer and say can we get back to work?
BURCHETT: I’m also upset at the fact we’re $36 trillion in debt.
KILMEADE: Is that Kevin Mccarthy’s fault?
BURCHETT: It could be.
KILMEADE: Didn’t he have an 8% cut offered in that continuing resolution bill?
BURCHETT: In the rate of growth. You are not looking at the 33 trillion. That’s really just peanuts compared to the 33 trillion that we have run up. You know, we continue — if you look at the bills that we did pass, the appropriations, the one that had the cut was the agriculture bill and it didn’t past because Republicans sided with Democrats. Yet, they — the defense bill.
KILMEADE: You think-
BURCHETT: Wait a minute, wait a minute. The defense bill that had 30 billion new dollars in the Pentagon which has never passed an audit which loss at one time 60% of their assets. We award them with $30 billion more dollars so war pimps can spread more war around the globe.
Moreover, Kilmeade continued to grill Burchett claiming he is a “ringleader of a circus led by Matt Gaetz who likes to blow things up but not offer any new ideas.”
“Are you happy following Matt Gaetz,” the Fox host continued. “Is that your leader?”
Burchett responded by claiming he made his own decision and did not consult with Gaetz for his approval. The hostility continued for the remainder of the interview as Kilmeade demanded to know who Burchett wants to take over McCarthy’s position as speaker.
Watch the full clip above via Fox News.
