First posted on Instagram · @profilopolitics
Representative Tim Burchett of Tennessee has publicly blamed Republican leadership for the party’s midterm losses, saying Washington should stop blaming President Donald Trump and start blaming itself for failing to pass a ban on members of Congress trading stocks — a bill he says he pushed for two years while Democrats turned the issue into a winning campaign message.
“I think Washington needs to quit blaming TRUMP and start blaming THEMSELVES for the mess we’re in right now,” Burchett said in remarks shared after the election. “We had SEVERAL opportunities to fix things. The stock-trading ban, I had a really strong bill that just said, no stock trading!” He added: “We got to get some GUTS we got to start doing what’s right and quit lying to the public and we need to message better.”
Burchett said Republicans lost voters’ trust because Congress failed to deliver on its own proposal. “Why did Republicans lose? Two reasons, really. One’s affordability,” he said. “The other reason was you don’t trust Congress, and it’s for good reason, because it’s infinitely broken and crooked — both parties.” He added: “We are crooked as a dog’s leg.”
The bill at the centre of his complaint is the Restore Trust in Congress Act, which Burchett put forward with Representative Anna Paulina Luna of Florida. It would bar members of Congress, their spouses and dependent children from owning, buying or selling individual stocks. The House passed a bill banning congressional stock trading in July 2026 by 232 votes to 198, but the Senate failed to advance it on September 30, 2026, falling short 53 to 47. Burchett had pressed for a vote since late 2025, warning he would file a discharge petition to force the issue if Speaker Mike Johnson did not act.
Burchett also pointed to a second bill he says would have cut fuel prices, arguing his export-controls measure would have dropped the price of fuel by more than a dollar a gallon overnight, according to oil experts. And he said the stock-trading issue cost Republicans at the ballot box: Democrats campaigned on it, including in Pennsylvania, where Democratic Representative-elect Paige Cognetti attacked incumbent Representative Rob Bresnahan over his trading activity, saying in a campaign video that he had made 600 trades this year.
Burchett’s criticism comes as Republicans choose new leaders in Congress after the midterm defeat, and as the stock-trading ban looks set to return: Democrats, who take control of Congress in January, have signalled they will pass a tougher ban. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has also blamed congressional insider trading for the scale of the Republican losses, calling the result “close to an extinction-level event” for the party.