Conservative Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) summoned folksy shtick to describe his relationship with progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on Wednesday ― and some viewers weren’t laughing.
“I can respect a liberal,” Burchett said at NewsNation’s town hall at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. “I respect Cortez. She’s my buddy. I mean, she’s a Marxist. She’s a friendly neighborhood Marxist, as I always call her. I say stuff to her. She’ll get on one of my videos while I’m walking off the floor of the House, and I’ll say, ‘Hey, Cortez’ and she’ll go, ‘Hey Burchett.’ And I tell people, ‘Don’t look at her too long. She’ll steal your soul.’ We have that kind of relationship, and we can joke about it.”
While the progressive and Trump sycophant are rarely on the same side of an issue, both have backed legislation to prevent congressional members from trading stocks. And both at one point agreed that the Jeffrey Epstein files should be released. Burchett, however, softened his stance because he said flight logs to the late sex offender’s island would also include the names of innocent people.
Signs of chumminess between the two House members angered some.
“Just say no to Marxists, Tim,” one critic wrote. Another slammed him for “normalizing” Marxism.
