U.S. Rep. Eric Burleson (R-MO) spoke with Fox News Digital at Freedom Fest in Las Vegas to discuss the 2024 election, immigration, Second Amendment rights and the government’s response to the COVID pandemic.
With former President Trump and the Republican brand spreading across America’s heartland in many former battleground states, Burleson said he believes Democrats have abandoned their home states ideologically.
“When I was first elected to the Missouri House of Representatives, I sat across the aisle from friends who were Democrats and anti-abortion… some of us were part of the pro-Second Amendment caucus… but that’s no longer an option. I don’t think there’s a place for those who still hold the values that once found a home in the Democratic Party… I don’t think Missouri has changed ideologically, I think the Democratic Party has abandoned them.”
Rep. Eric Burleson (R-Missouri) appeared at a Republican Study Committee press conference in March to announce his proposed fiscal year 2025 budget. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
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Burleson has been a sharp critic of the Biden administration’s immigration policies and said the issue will benefit Republicans in 2024.
“This is an unprecedented level of illegal immigration, and I think he [Biden’s] “The executive order directly weakens the authority of Customs and Border Protection, and we’re now in a crisis situation where we know that over 10 million people have crossed our southern border illegally and over 2 million more have fled,” he said. “The Biden administration talks about jobs numbers and they’re boasting about this hiring surge, but the fact is that over half of those jobs are filled by people who were not living in the United States before Joe Biden became president. So that’s cause for concern.”
Energy production and independence are also issues Burleson has championed in Congress that he said will resonate with American voters in November.
“I think we need to get back to an energy independent America, a prosperous America. We were moving in that direction under the previous administration of President Trump. A lot of candidates running for president in the past have said they would make America energy independent. That America would be a net exporter of electricity, a net exporter of fuel, a net exporter of natural resources. But it didn’t happen until Donald Trump was president,” Burlison said. “The only link between energy independence and energy is energy independence. [for the economy] “It’s about energy independence and ensuring abundant energy in the future. If America could go back to being a net exporter and reduce the costs of oil, natural gas, etc., I think that would solve a lot of our problems.”
Biden promised to govern as a moderate after defeating democratic socialist Bernie Sanders in the 2020 primary, but Burleson argues Biden has broken that promise.
President Joe Biden speaks during a campaign rally in Philadelphia. (Hannah Beyer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“I would love to see a moderate Joe Biden as president, but that’s not the case right now. His office … I think the prisons are run by inmates, they’re run by staff, and those staff are much more progressive than when Joe Biden came into elected office. This is a disturbing trend, and I would love to see a reversal,” Burleson said.
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One of the issues most important to Burleson is Second Amendment rights, and he said he thinks Republicans have some work to do to fine-tune their messaging on the issue.
“I think we need to do more to communicate the value of the right to bear firearms. Even under the Obama administration, FBI figures show that firearms are used 2.5 million times a year to save lives or stop rapes or other violent acts. Those are staggering numbers, and those 2.5 million incidents all have their own anecdotes,” he said. “But what ends up getting covered in the media are the horrific mass shootings that do happen. While mass shootings are absolutely horrific and we should do everything we can to stop them, we cannot ignore the fact that firearms overwhelmingly save lives.”
United States Capitol Building in Washington DC (Rison Robert/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Burleson has been a fierce critic of both parties over spending.
“This is not only a financial crisis, it’s a security crisis. We’re at debt-to-GDP levels we haven’t seen since World War II, and we didn’t just get out of a war. In fact, the United States could be involved in a war in the future and we can’t afford it. So this has to be solved, and it hasn’t been solved…We have a spending problem in Washington, and what disappoints me most is my Republican colleagues’ unwillingness to make the cuts that are necessary,” he said. “They’re not willing to do the things that are important and necessary for the future of America. Cuts are hard, but they’re what we have to do if we want to save this country.”
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During the COVID-19 pandemic, Burleson has emerged as a champion of civil rights and an opponent of expanding government power, vowing that any attempts to implement shutdowns, lockdowns and other policies would not go without a fight.
“this [the government reaction to COVID] “It was a horrific situation. We saw what a totalitarian regime would look like in America,” he said. “We got a taste of that. And I think there are a lot of patriots out there who want to make sure that never happens again, and I think there are a lot of lawmakers who are going to pass legislation to make sure that loss of freedom never happens again.”
