Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) says he plans to try to block Democratic nominee and New York socialist Darializa Avila Chevalier from taking her seat in Congress if she wins the Nov. 3 election, citing her past remark that she used the American flag as a napkin.
Burchett told The Post that he intends to pursue the unusual parliamentary move when the new Congress convenes in January. Under the procedure, lawmakers could use a simple majority to prevent newly elected members from being seated before taking the oath of office.
“You take an oath to uphold the Constitution, and you’re pretty much disavowing it right there,” Burchett said in an interview. “I just think we’ve lost our compass.”
He pointed to Chevalier’s incendiary comment about the flag, calling it an affront to his family’s military service. Burchett’s father was a Marine who served in World War II, and his uncle served aboard a Navy destroyer.
Yet it is the memory of his maternal uncle—and a family heirloom—that gives Burchett’s connection to the flag its deepest meaning.
“I’m looking at a 48-star flag that hung on my uncle’s casket, and he died fighting the Nazis,” Burchett said. “Then I see somebody going to get elected to Congress in New York who said they used that flag for a napkin.”
“I thought, man, that same dadgum flag hung on my uncle’s casket. It’s the same flag that men and women fought and died for to free the slaves, and that’s what they’re using as a napkin.”
“If we vote to seat them, is one Democrat going to say no? I’m not going to vote to seat those people. Are they going to say anything? Democrats died for this country as well as Republicans did.”
Burchett, who flew with President Trump aboard Air Force One to Tennessee last week, is issuing the threat as an early indication of the partisan battles likely to erupt when the new Congress begins. Democrats are expected to make gains, while a group of left-wing lawmakers—including Chevalier—could pull the party further left after prevailing in safe-seat primaries.
Burchett said he would make the motion regardless of whether Republicans remain in control of the House or move into the minority. “I think the Democrat Party needs to get some guts, and get their rudder back for the working people,” he said angrily.
Burchett’s maternal uncle, Roy Hicks, was wounded soon after D-Day while fighting German forces in the bloody hedgerows near Normandy. Burchett still has Hicks’ Purple Heart and keeps the flag that covered his uncle’s coffin in his congressional office in Knoxville.
Burchett’s gambit could set off a contentious battle over who is permitted to serve in Congress and potentially delay the House’s work.
Contested elections “can muck up the legislative process and take time away from real governing,” said Dr. Jeffery Jenkins, a political scientist at the University of Southern California Price School of Public Policy.
More than 600 elections have been contested throughout the nation’s history, Jenkins said, though such disputes have not been “truly meaningful” since the turn of the 20th century.
“That said, the last decade or so has made me wonder if we’re in a ‘new normal’ for what’s possible,” he said. “And that might include turning back the clock to strategies the parties used a century ago.”
Chevalier, who is set to face Republican Jomo M. Williams in the general election, made the controversial statement in a 2019 Twitter post that has since been deleted: “I forgot to get napkins so I just wiped my hand on the American flag behind me.”
Chevalier later said she regretted the remark. She defeated Rep. Adriano Espaillat in the Democratic primary for New York’s 13th Congressional District, which includes northern Manhattan and the western Bronx.
The flag comment was only one of several controversies surrounding the Mamdani-backed socialist.
She participated in the 2024 campus takeover at Columbia University and was a prominent member of an anti-Israel group that once said it was “fighting for the total eradication of Western civilization.”
She also attended an anti-Israel rally the day after Hamas’ horrific Oct. 7 attack on Israel. In an online post during the 2020 election, she called the United States a “f—ing disgrace” and described President Joe Biden as a “war criminal.” Chevalier’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
On Jan. 3, 2027, she will become a new member of Congress – but not if Burchett can help it.
The Constitution states that “Each House shall be the judge of the elections, returns and qualifications of its own Members,” and there have been contentious floor fights over seating lawmakers.
Rep. Adam Clayton Powell (D-NY) was excluded from representing his Harlem-based district in 1967 — and the Supreme Court ultimately ruled in 1969 that the House had exceeded its authority by excluding him after he had been duly elected and met the constitutional qualifications for office.
Without any election irregularities or constitutional qualifications issues to point to, Burchett’s effort is an uphill battle.
“If we refused to seat folks in Congress who said things that we strongly disagreed with, nobody in the House would be seated,” said GOP operative John Feehery, a former senior House leadership aide.
Despite his fury at Chevalier, Burchett has much warmer feelings for the original “Squad” member, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). He called AOC “my buddy” and has endearingly referred to her as a “friendly neighborhood Marxist.”
