Tim Burchett
R · U.S. House, TN-2 · Tier 1
Tier 1, “Firmly pro-Israel”
Lead sponsor of H.Res.1323 (Jun 2024), rejecting the UN's listing of the Israeli military among violators of children's rights, which the Foreign Affairs Committee approved by voice vote — “We need to make it clear to the United Nations that the United States completely supports Israel’s efforts to wipe these terrorists off the map” — and of H.Con.Res.88 (Feb 2024), urging an investigation of Hamas cryptocurrency and UNRWA. In House debate he said Hamas is “about to meet their fate and their maker” and “our enemies will die” (Oct 2023) and, backing ICC sanctions, “Hamas chose war, and dadgummit, Hamas got war” (Jan 2025). He was an original cosponsor of the November 2023 Israel-only supplemental and of the bill forcing delivery of the paused bomb shipment, voted for the February 2024 supplemental (“I can't hold up aid to Israel in good conscience”), both ICC sanctions bills, the ban on citing Gaza Health Ministry casualty figures and the September 2026 college anti-boycott bill, and against the Greene and Massie cuts, but voted against the April 2024 package because “it contains billions of dollars in aid that could end up in the hands of Hamas”; AIPAC then shut off donations to him through its site, but endorses him in 2026. On Iran he opposed U.S. entry into the June 2025 war, calling Republicans who pushed it “war pimps” and saying “the Israelis can handle this thing. Let’s let them handle it.” In 2026 he voted against all six House war-powers resolutions to remove U.S. forces from hostilities with Iran. In January 2024 he signed the Smith–Manning letter, whose signers “thoroughly reject” South Africa’s “charge of genocide” against Israel.
A clean 1. Authoring H.Res.1323, which cleared the Foreign Affairs Committee, plus a second Hamas-UNRWA resolution, is leadership through authored legislation, and his rhetoric (“wipe these terrorists off the map,” “our enemies will die”) matches it. His April 2024 Nay is not a step toward withholding weapons: he voted for both Israel-only supplementals and explained the Nay as opposition to the package's Gaza humanitarian aid, and his “war pimps” remark opposed U.S. entry into the June 2025 Iran war while leaving the fight to Israel. There is no concern for Palestinian civilians in his own words — his remark on Gaza’s children (“If it gets to the children that’s great”) came in opposing aid airdrops, and his H.Res.1323 mentions them only to say the UN “halved its count of Palestinian women and children killed in Gaza.” Counter-case: 1/2 if two resolutions are too thin a leadership record beside a fiscal-populist brand and a 2024 aid Nay that cost him AIPAC's donor page.
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elect26 places 2026 midterm candidates on a six-tier spectrum, from 1 (most pro-Israel) to 6 (most critical of Israel).