Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN), who attended President Joe Biden‘s State of the Union address on Thursday, told former Trump White House advisor Steve Bannon on his podcast a story about trying to delay the President from delivering his speech in the chamber.
As seen and heard below, Burchett tells Bannon he was standing with fellow MAGA representatives Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Lauren Boebert (R-CO) as the President approached before the speech. That’s when Gaetz suggested that Burchett “do one of your endless stories” to delay the POTUS from delivering his speech — “let’s see if you can double the time you delayed him from last year.”
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Burchett said he accepted the challenge and told the President of the United States a rambling story about borrowing his brother’s 1972 Chevy Corvette “with a 350 in it” and driving it, in 1980, to a Sadie Hawkins dance with a girl who’d asked him out. Burchett said he boasted to the President about how he “peeled out” in the parking lot 44 years ago. (Biden owns a Corvette Stingray.)
Tim Burchett was asked what he and Biden were talking about last night. He says Gaetz challenged him to try and delay Biden as much as possible so he got him in a conversation about Corvettes and chocolate chip ice cream. pic.twitter.com/eWlZPxxKv2
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) March 9, 2024
Burchett went on to say he also told Biden that he and his wife, Kelly Burchett, “really like chocolate chip ice cream.”
The Congressman then claimed that Biden asked him for his wife’s phone number. Recounting his story, Burchett laughed and told Bannon: “I thought, you creepy old dude, I’m not gonna swap wives with you.” Burchett laughed again and said, “And then he got away from me.”
After Biden delivered his speech, which was characterized as “feisty” by The New York Times and “commanding” by Axios, Burchett demonstrated a more somber tone.
The State of the Union was a tire fire. pic.twitter.com/eoDrwKUcph
— Tim Burchett (@timburchett) March 8, 2024
In the selfie video above, leaving the Capitol, Burchett called the speech “a tire fire, and it seemed like it was never gonna get put out.” He then mentioned “some things I really wished the President talked about” and then listed a number of things, like the border, that Biden actually did talk about. Burchett concluded “the whole evening was a weird, bizarre event.”
Biden also acknowledged there were bizarre aspects to the evening, as seen in the video below.
When you see a MAGA Cultist in real life and they’re even more ridiculous than you imagined.#SOTU #MarjorieTaylorGreene
pic.twitter.com/wPUpb2vUav
— Asad Y.R. (@AsadYR) March 8, 2024