Representative Tim Burchett has signaled he will move to block New York Democrat Darializa Avila Chevalier from being seated in Congress if she wins her November race, citing her past contemptuous remarks about the American flag.
According to The Post Millennial, Burchetts warning follows resurfaced comments in which Chevalier boasted she would use the US flag as a napkin. In an interview with the New York Post, the Tennessee Republican said he intends to pursue a simple majority vote in January to deny Chevalier her seat should she prevail in New Yorks 13th Congressional District.
You take an oath to uphold the Constitution, and youre pretty much disavowing it right there. I just think weve lost our compass, he said, arguing that such rhetoric is incompatible with service in the House. Burchett grounded his outrage in personal experience, invoking his familys sacrifice in World War II.
Im looking at a 48-star flag that hung on my uncles casket and [he] died fighting the Nazis, and then see somebody going to get elected to Congress in New York who said they use that flag for a napkin, he continued. I thought, man, that same dadgum flag hung on my uncles casket. Its the same flag that men and women fought and died for to free the slaves, and thats what theyre using as a napkin.
Burchett questioned whether any Democrats would join him in refusing to seat Chevalier, pressing the party to show basic respect for the nations symbols. If we vote to seat them, is one Democrat going to say no? Im not going to vote to seat those people. Are they gonna say anything? Democrats died for this country as well as Republicans did, Burchett added.
The congressman further urged Democrats to rediscover their roots with ordinary Americans rather than radical activists. Burchett called on the party to get some guts and to get their rudder back for the working people.
Chevalier, a socialist who ousted incumbent Democrat Adriano Espaillat in the primary, has a record of inflammatory statements that alarm many voters who value patriotism and Western institutions. Her 2019 post on then-Twitter declared, I forgot to get napkins so I just wiped my hand on the American flag behind me, and she has also labeled the United States a f*cking disgrace.
She previously joined the 2024 Columbia University campus takeover, aligning herself with a group calling for the total eradication of Western civilization, a stance that underscores the ideological gulf between far-left activists and traditional American values. While the Constitution grants the House and Senate power to judge the elections and qualifications of their membersand the Supreme Court has previously reined in that authority in the Adam Clayton Powell caseBurchetts challenge highlights a growing conservative insistence that those who openly scorn the nations flag and heritage are unfit to serve in Congress.
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