Congressman Eric Burlison: In the Biden administration, 'the inmates are running the prison'

U.S. Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., sat down with Fox News Digital at FreedomFest in Las Vegas to discuss the 2024 election, immigration, Second Amendment rights, and the government response to the COVID pandemic. 

As former President Trump and the GOP brand have expanded throughout the American heartland in many areas that were once swing states, Burlison said he believes that the Democratic Party has abandoned his home state ideologically.

"When I was first elected in the Missouri House, I sat across the aisle from people that were friends of mine that were part of the Democratic Party who were pro-life…There were members who were part of the pro-Second Amendment caucus…and that's not an option today and I think that people that that once held, that still hold those values that once found a place in the Democratic Party, there's no place for them anymore…It's not that Missouri has moved ideologically, I think it's the Democratic Party has left them."

U.S. Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., participates in the Republican Study Committee news conference to unveil their FY2025 budget proposal in March.  (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

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Burlison has been a tireless critic of the Biden administration's immigration policies, and said the issue will pay dividends for the GOP in 2024.

"This is unprecedented levels of illegal immigration and I think that his [Biden's] executive orders directly undermined the authority of Customs and Border Patrol, and now we have this crisis situation … over 10 million people that we know of have come across the southern border illegally, and then we have over 2 million people that are known got-aways," he said. "When the Biden administration talks about job numbers, and he's taking credit for this surge in jobs…the fact is that more than half of those jobs are occupied by someone who was not living in the United States before Joe Biden became president. And so, that is a disturbing factor."

Energy production and independence are also issues that Burlison is championing in Congress, and he said will resonate with the American electorate come November. 

"I think we need to return to an America that was energy independent, that was the America of abundance and that was what we were on track for that under the previous administration under President Trump. Look, in my lifetime I've heard so many people running for president claim that they were going to make America energy independent: we would be a net exporter of electricity, net exporter of fuels, and natural resources. That didn't happen until President Donald Trump," Burlison said. "The one nexus [for the economy] is energy independence and having abundant energy in the future. If America can go back to being a net exporter, and we reduce our costs for oil…natural gas, and other things, then I think we're going to solve a lot of our problems."

While Biden pledged to govern as a moderate after defeating democratic socialist Bernie Sanders in the 2020 primary, Burlison argues that Biden reneged on that promise.

President Joe Biden speaks during a campaign in Philadelphia. (Hannah Beier/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

"I would love to have a moderate Joe Biden as president, but that's not who we have. I think that his office…the inmates are running the prison I think that the staff are running the show, and those staff are a lot more progressive than Joe Biden has ever been as an elected official, so it's a disturbing trend, and I hope that we change course," Burlison said. 

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One of the most important issues for Burlison is Second Amendment rights. He said he believes that Republicans have work to do to fine-tune their messaging on the issue.

"I think that we need to do a better job of communicating the value of people having the right to carry a firearm. The FBI numbers, even under the Obama administration, they did a report that showed that two and a half million times a year someone uses a firearm to save a life or stop a rape, stop a violent act, and those are amazing numbers and there's anecdotes for every one of the two and a half million stories like that," he said. "But what ends up being covered in the media are the horrific shootings that occur and while they are absolutely horrible, and we should do everything we can to try to stop those, we can't ignore the fact that firearms overwhelmingly save lives."

The U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. (llison Robbert/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Burlison is a vehement critic of both parties on spending.

"It's not only a financial crisis, but it is a security crisis. We are at a debt to GDP level that we have not seen since World War Two, and we didn't just complete a war. In fact, we're looking at wars that the United States may have to get into in the future, and we can't afford it, so we have to fix this, and we don't…we have a spending problem in D.C. and, the thing that I'm most disappointed in is my Republican colleagues who are not willing to make the necessary cuts," he said. "They're not willing to do what's important and necessary for the future of America, and look, cutting is difficult, but it's something that we're going to have to do if we want to save this country."

During the COVID pandemic, Burlison emerged as a champion of civil liberties, and an opponent of government overreach, and pledged that another attempt to enact policies, such as shutdowns and lockdowns, would not take place without a fight.

"This [the government reaction to COVID] was a horrific situation. We saw what a totalitarian regime might look like in America," he said. "We got a taste of that and, I hope, I think that there's a lot of patriots who are not going to let that happen again, and I think that there's a lot of legislators that are trying to pass bills to make sure that…we don't see those losses of liberty again."

David Unsworth reports on Latin America. You can follow David Unsworth on Twitter @LatinAmerUpdate