Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) claimed on Wednesday that Democrats blocked his motion to bring the Jeffrey Epstein files to the floor. The congressman made the revelation in a video posted to his social media as he was leaving the Capitol late Wednesday afternoon.
“Just left the House floor and I tried to do a UC, unanimous consent, tried to get the Epstein files, get it straight to the floor, cut out all this nonsense,” said Burchett. “And, you know, and the Democrats blocked it oddly enough. Now, here they’ve had it for four years, and obviously, if there’s something there about Trump, they would have released it. And now they’re all ‘let’s get it out, let’s get it out.’”
“Well, I just made a motion to bring it straight to the daggum floor, and they blocked it,” he said. “They blocked it. So, this is politics. It has nothing to do with doing what’s right. It’s Washington, D.C. to a T.”
“They ought to be ashamed of themselves,” Burchett added. “But they’re probably not.”
Burchett’s comments about the Democrats blocking his motion came just hours after House Oversight Committee Democrats published emails between Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, and author Michael Wolff. In the exchange, Epstein said that Trump “spent hours at my house” and “of course he knew about the girls.”
Burchett also spoke to Bloomberg TV about the Epstein files and whether Trump is mentioned in them. He dismissed such concerns and said the things that are being released are “little pieces” that fit narratives and are “out of context.” Burchett did not speak on the emails released earlier in the day but expressed overall skepticism about anything that would be released.
“The Democrats have had this thing for four years, and let’s be honest, if there was something in there detrimental to President Trump, Joe Biden would have released it,” Burchett said in an interview with Bloomberg’s Joe Mathieu. “He’s the anti-Christ to the Democrats. They want to bury him as soon as they could.”
Burchett also said that Republicans “had it for nine months” and that he expressed frustration over the contents of the emails and files associated with Epstein.
“I’m just tired of it. I’m tired of all the pontificating back and forth, what’s in there, what isn’t in there,” Burchett said. “I think what you’re seeing right now is both sides are taking out little pieces that fit their narrative, out of context, maybe, or something that’s been discharged, is not legitimate, maybe.”
He also blasted the Democrats for trying to manipulate public opinion about the Epstein files. He claimed they were weaponizing the emails to humiliate Trump and influence public opinion, and doing all of this while being dishonest about their genuine concerns over Epstein’s victims.
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“I think that shows what’s really going on in the Democratic Party. They’re not concerned about the people that are involved,” Burchett said. “Some of them, clearly, they just hate Trump, and they think they’re going to embarrass him. They’ll release a few emails that are taken out of context or something that’s not been verified, or worse, something that’s been thrown out as negligible or that’s inaccurate. And they’ll take it as fact, and then you’ll have to rehear all of that. And that’s what it’ll be. It’ll be we’ll hear that for the next however many years.”
When asked if the president should be worried, Burchett said no.
“I don’t think so. Like I said, if there was something in there on Trump, I’m sure Biden would’ve released it. He had those files for four daggum years,” Burchett said. “I’ve talked to legal experts, a guy back home, Teddy Davis, we’ve gone over this thing a thousand times, over the backwards and forwards, and things that could be in there and might not be in there.”
“I don’t have a lot of faith in what’s in there and what isn’t in there right now,” the congressman added. “I think they should have released the files a long time ago because right now it’s just all politics.”