CNN’s Jim Acosta Confronts House Republican Defending Trump: ‘Are You Concerned We Could Have Another January 6?’

CNN’s Jim Acosta had a lot of questions for Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) on Friday about former President Donald Trump’s meetings on Capitol Hill, and grilled him on the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol by Trump’s supporters.

Burchett was in one of the meetings with Trump on Thursday, during which the ex-president aired his grievances and told strange stories about Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). But Trump’s return to Washington, DC, wasn’t the only thing Trump and his re-election campaign did this week. Acosta, after reporting on GOP lawmakers capitulating to Trump, confronted Burchett on the “HAUL OUT THE GUILLOTINE” campaign email as well as the subject of “another January 6.”

First, on Trump calling Milwaukee, Wisconsin — the host of the impending Republican National Convention — a “horrible city”:

Acosta: I did want to ask you, there have been these reports about Trump calling Milwaukee a “horrible city.” I know the Trump campaign has said that that’s not true. What did you hear? Did you hear it?

Burchett: Well, Jim, before I came on, I already called the burn unit. So I suspect one of us is going to it. But I heard what you said. He mentioned several other cities in that point and that he was talking about the crime in those areas, such as, I mean, we’ve had something like 17 shootings in Memphis, Tennessee over the past week. So, yeah, that’s what he was talking about, crime in those cities. And I think that’s undeniable, even by y’all. It is a complete fact that there’s crime in these major cities. And that’s what he was alluding to.

Acosta: Congressman, I do want to point out and we do have a graphic to show our viewers that crime is actually down in Milwaukee this year. It’s down 22 percent in terms of homicides, rapes, 19 percent down. Robbery is up one percent, but aggravated assault, down 12 percent. So crime, in fact, is down in Milwaukee.

Burchett: I can assure you if one of those homicides is a member of your family, those are just statistics. And when you reclassify statistics as what we’ve seen, the Department of Justice should do time and time again, that’s exactly what happens.

Acosta: So you’re saying that the former president was referring to crime in Milwaukee, not the city itself?

Burchett: From what I understood, yeah, I was in there. I mean, I appreciate the media, but none of y’all were in there. It was just from folks like, like myself who would casually text you all what was going on. But that’s what I that’s honestly what I thought he was talking about.

Burchett told Acosta that among other subjects brought up at the meeting was Trump’s border policies, and how he told Trump, “you do a much better job of telling us how to fix those things.” Acosta then questioned Burchett on Trump directing Republican lawmakers to kill the bipartisan border bill.

Acosta: You and I have talked about immigration before, and I do want to point out that I, and you and I have discussed this, that there was a bipartisan effort to crack down on the border, and it was the former president who told Republicans in the House of the Senate to kill it.

Burchett: Well, if you look back at the records, I had tweeted about that weeks before that and I said, this is a bad deal. That was a “lawyer employment” bill. All it said was when they get to the point of 5,000 people a day, Jim, now 4,999 illegals a day–

Acosta: But why not do something if you have a bipartisan effort?

Burchett: It wasn’t a bipartisan effort.

Acosta: [Sen.] James Lankford, very conservative senator from Oklahoma was a big part of that, as you recall.

Burchett: And he’s a good guy, but, you know good and well, that it was catch and release. It was, and look what it would have done, it would have just employed more attorneys to allow illegals to get into the country and, you know good and well when they get a court date two years out, dadgum it, they’re not coming back to court, Jim. Come on. This thing was a that was a disaster waiting to happen, and it was a terrible piece of legislation. It would not have done anything but hired more lawyers, and that would have just put it into law that we’re going to allow 5,000 illegals a day over the border. That’s all that bill would have done.

Finally, Acosta brought up the proverbial elephant in the room:

Acosta: I did want to ask you about something: Did January 6th come up at the meeting? Did anybody bring that up?

Burchett: It might have while I was in the bathroom, but honestly, you know, the way I get elected is, you know, I knock on doors. I’m not. I don’t come for money, like a lot of my colleagues do on both sides of the aisle.

Acosta: So nobody challenged the former president on on his actions before, during and after January 6th?

Burchett: Absolutely not. And a lot of people are concerned of the fact that innocent people, there’s constituents of mine who came up and left before all the nonsense happened, and the FBI even went to their houses in Knoxville, Tennessee, to ask them what they were doing. And that kind of intimidation needs to stop.

Acosta: Well, the reason–

Burchett: January 6th was an awful thing. The people that crossed over those borders, those barriers were breaking the law. No question. But you still have to ask yourself why the riots that preceded that during the summer from Black Lives Matters and all those other groups, there were no arrests. Millions of dollars were taken.

Acosta: Well, there were arrests.

Burchett: Lives were lost, and federal courthouses were ransacked, and nothing was done about it.

Burchett: I was at the White House when they tear-gassed protesters outside of the White House. But anyway, let me ask you about something else. The reason why I ask about him being confronted on January 6th is that earlier this week, his campaign put out a fundraising email, and I don’t know if we have that available to put up on screen to our viewers. And in that email, it says, there it is right there, “Haul out the guillotine.” Now, I know you were saying just a few moments ago it was an awful day, what took place on January 6th. Shouldn’t the Trump campaign avoid putting out emails that say things like “Haul out the guillotine”? After all, there were people trying to hang Mike Pence. They were chanting “Hang Mike Pence” on January 6th. Shouldn’t they knock that off?

Burchett: Absolutely. I don’t I don’t go for that stuff. You know, I don’t do that kind of garbage. You have these people, they just going to push buttons and that’s how they raise money. It’s clickbait. It’s they’re not going to… They get a cut off everything that’s done, and they want to appeal to the lowest common denominator. And that is the lowest common denominator. I don’t stand for that garbage. You know that.

Acosta: And I know that. So that’s why I’m wondering, why aren’t more members of your party saying to the former president, “You really should cut this stuff out,” ratcheting up the violent rhetoric out on the campaign trail, doing it in campaign emails. There are some other emails from the campaign earlier this week, we can put those up on screen as well. They continue to do this over and over again. And I’m just wondering, where does it all lead? Are you concerned that we could have another January 6th in this country?

Burchett: No, I’m not. I think, when Speaker Pelosi and the rest understand the significance of that now and how they should have called out the National Guard. And again, I don’t ever see those things. I’ve never seen one of those pieces of mail. I have no way to verify that. And so, you know, I don’t know what’s on them. Because honestly, I don’t have the money to give away. So I doubt I would ever be getting anything in the mail from them.

Watch the video above via CNN.