Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) said Washington should no longer be called a “swamp” because it gives real wetlands a bad name.
“I wish people would stop calling this a swamp,” the Tennessee Republican said during his speech. Wednesday interview On Real America's Voice.
“The swamp is actually something that God created and it actually works,” Burchett told conservative media.
“It actually filters water. It has an input and an output,” Burchett added of the real-life swamp.
The term “draining the swamp” has long been used by lawmakers to refer to the nation's capital. Former President Trump further popularized the phrase in 2016, when he made it one of his campaign promises during his candidacy for the White House.
In August, Republican presidential candidate and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said that “things have gotten worse” during Trump's presidency.
The idea that Washington was built on a swamp is a “myth” that will “never go away.” According to Smithsonian Magazine. The newspaper reported that the city did not have its origins in wetlands, but was actually “built on a solid, dry riverbank.”
Burchett said Wednesday there was a better word than “swamp” to describe cleaning Washington of corruption and politicians with lifelong ethical problems.
“It's really an open sewer, and that's what Washington, D.C. is. Everything that comes out of there is a sewer,” Burchett said.
But Mr. Burchett's preference for calling D.C. a “sewer” rather than a swamp appears to be more recent — his congressional campaign store sells “Drain the Swamp.” ing bumper sticker It depicts an image of a Bigfoot-like creature descending on the Capitol.
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