Tennessee lawmaker claims people should call DC a ‘sewer’ instead of a ‘swamp’

Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) said people should stop referring to Washington, D.C., as a “swamp” on Wednesday, saying the word “sewer” was more fitting.

Burchett said the term, which has been around for decades but gained national attention again during former President Donald Trump’s first bid for the White House, was offensive to real wetlands.

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“I wish people would quit calling it a swamp,” the congressman said during an interview on Real America’s Voice. “A swamp is actually something God created that actually works. It actually filters water. It has an input and an output. … It really is an open sewer is what Washington, D.C., is. And everything that comes out of it is a sewer.”

The phrase “Drain the swamp” regarding Washington politics referred to clearing the district of corrupt and unethical career politicians. However, it stems from the “myth” that Washington was built on a swamp when it was actually built on a firm and dry riverbank, according to the Smithsonian.

Wednesday was not the first time the congressman urged people to use the term. He told Newsline in December that people also needed to start treating the nation’s capital as a sewer.

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“I wish they would quit calling Washington, D.C., the ‘swamp,'” Burchett said. “It is an open sewer, and we better start treating it that way.”

The reference to Washington being a swamp has also been used by Republican presidential hopeful Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), who claimed last August that the “swamp got worse” under Trump despite his promise to drain it.