KSMU: Welcome, Mr. Burlison and thank you for joining us.
Burlison: "Great to be on."
KSMU: If you are re-elected to represent southwest Missouri in the United States House of Representatives, what will your top agenda items be?
Burlison: "It will depend on who is in the White House, largely. But in general, I would say what folks can expect is more of the way that I've operated before. I've ran on a platform of being a conservative that represents the values of southwest Missouri. And I think those values include smaller government, being responsible with taxpayer dollars, not wasting it, trying to reduce the deficit and reduce the debt and making sure that government stays out of people's lives. And so I if — I have been successful in that. And when you look at my voting record, I have been exactly what I said I was going to be. And so I ran as being a conservative for Congress. And when you at, objectively, the different groups that rate members of Congress, I fall into that as being one of the most conservative members in the way in which I vote in Washington, D.C.
KSMU: Abortion is a hot button issue right now, with several states looking at potential ballot issues on the subject. What are your views on abortion and whether women have a right to choose?
Burlison: "Yeah, for me, I am a — I'm pro-life. I believe that life begins at conception. Now, that being said, I think that we, as I'm also personally a Christian, and I think that we have a Christian responsibility to take care of widows and orphans. What that means is that my goal, my goal politically and the goal I think we should pursue as a country isn't to just say, you know, and that you cannot, 'you know, that we're going to deny you access. We're going to deny you these things,' it's to say, it's to create an environment where aborting a child is the most inconvenient and most absurd solution to the situation and create as many opportunities and support for women who might be in that situation as possible. Because, look, there are so many people that are looking to have a child. There's so many opportunities that I think that we have today, medically and other — and otherwise, that we need to keep, we need to pursue a a win win solution and not one that causes the life of that potential child, that child's life to be destroyed."
KSMU: The voting process has been a key topic of discussion both at the federal and state level. How do you think the U.S. can ensure fair elections, while also ensuring that everyone has an equal chance to cast a ballot?
Burlison: "Yeah, I think that it's pretty common sense that states, national — and I would caution that we get involved too much from the federal level into the inner workings of the states. But I do think that we need to address the fact that some municipalities, some localities, are allowing people that are not here legally to vote, people that are not U.S. citizens to vote, and I, and so when you look at that situation, for example, the law particularly says that it's illegal for people that are not here legally to vote. And yet we don't, we make it illegal for states to ask that question whenever people are registering to vote. That's a simple solution. In fact, I would, what I support is reversing that and saying that when registering someone to vote, you must, every state must ask the question, 'are you a, you know, U.S. citizen?' And I think that...addressing that is a pretty common sense thing, but it's not going to make it one iota more difficult for a law-abiding citizen to be able to vote."
KSMU: What do you think should be done to address illegal immigration issues in the United States?
Burlison: "Yeah, so the Biden administration has changed the policy in such a way that no previous president has ever had. The Biden administration allows citizens to remain in the United States while they're waiting for their asylum hearing. They're, and so what that means is, and their docket is pushed out, you know, five years into the future. And then in the meantime, we enable them to get into the interior of the United States. That's never happened before. President Trump had a policy that was the 'remain in Mexico' policy that you could not enter in. You had to return to the neighboring nation. And I think that that's something that we need to return to. I don't— look, when Trump was in office and he instituted the 'remain in Mexico' policy, it cut down illegal immigration crossings by nearly 80 to 90%. So that's a simple no brainer that we could return to. And then, in addition, I think that by doing that and not having our Customs and Border Patrol agents inundated at the open border crossings, then they are able to address and focus on all of the elite, like in the dark secret crossings that are occurring at night by people who are camouflaged and whatnot. If they can focus on those kind of things, that's what we want our Customs and Border Patrol agents to be focused on."
KSMU: Do you think the United States should continue to fund the war in Ukraine? Why or why not?
Burlison: "I would, I think that Ukraine — well, I hate Russia and what they're doing, I think it's, they're — what they're doing is horrific. I don't want to be wasteful with taxpayer dollars. And I want to make sure that the money that we're sending is funding that's going to actually fund and end this war. What's ironic is that we send money, but then we tell them, we limit what they can do. And these limitations are basically going to create a forever war in Ukraine. So it's my hope that President Trump comes in and that we release Ukraine's ability to fully utilize the munitions that they have in their possession and allow them to put the war to bed, you know, to end this war. Because until we allow Ukraine to do what it needs to do to end it, it's just going to be a forever war. And I sadly think that this has become just a way of funding the military industrial complex. But if we care about the citizens of Ukraine, then we will do everything we can to just allow them to do what's necessary to end the war."
KSMU: What are your views on the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas?
Burlison: "Yeah, I visited, I visited that conflict firsthand and got to see firsthand the impact of the Palestinian people and how, not just Hamas and the elite guard of Hamas, but how the Palestinian civilians, came in and wreaked havoc. They murdered innocent people. They murdered children. They brutally murdered children. They raped women. And they did it, they killed family members in front of each other on purpose. These were barbaric acts. And the truth is, we just, this has no place in this modern day society anywhere on the planet. And so I, Israel is an ally of the United States. It is a solid ally of the United States. You know, Israel being safe keeps America safe. And so we need to ensure that Israel has everything that it needs and allow them to finish this job and to create, because at the end of the day, Israel wants a safe and free Middle East. I think what Israel wants is that there's an opportunity to create alliances with Saudi Arabia and to further the Abraham Accords and create an environment where there, where everyone is able to live there peacefully. Iran does not want this. Iran is fighting tooth and nail through Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis to use these proxies to try to create these conflicts and create these wars. And they know, to me, this is the last and primal scream of the Iranian regime to try to stop what they see as inevitable, which is peace in the Middle East and that the alliance between Saudi Arabia and Israel, and we need to we need to fully support Israel in these efforts because I think that what's best for the United States of America is to have a peace — is to have an ally like Israel in the Middle East."
KSMU: If your political party wins a majority in the US House, what should voters expect?
Burlison: "I think that we can expect a return to sanity. You know, look, this administration (Biden) and their policies on the border are absolutely insane. Allowing in 10 million people plus in the United States. Look, the state of Missouri, our entire population is 6 million people. We've allowed more than the entire population of the beautiful state that we live in and every citizen that lives in Missouri, we have allowed more people to come across the border than live here. And that insanity has to end. It's insane what they've done to the justice system, so when you have a justice system that's weaponized against American citizens, that is investigating parents who go and speak at school board meetings, investigating Catholics for being too Catholic, there's something wrong with our justice system, and we need to we need to address it. We need to correct it. And I think that, when it comes to our policies on energy, these policies are insane. We have, for example, fuel emission policies that are set to go into motion that will eliminate gasoline powered engines in the near future. And in some cases — look, we don't have the charging structure in place. We already have an energy crisis in America when it comes to electricity generation. We have data centers that are trying to pop up all over the country who utilize a lot of electricity. We cannot exacerbate this problem by adding more electrified vehicles into the same grid. It's not possible. It just physically is not possible. And so this administration's policy is detrimental to our future and our growth and the safety and security of the United States. His (Biden's) policies towards our fossil fuels is what is empowering and fueling and funding all of these hostile actors like Iran and Russia. We have to reverse these kind of absurd and insane policies if we're going to have a safe world, and we're going to have a prosperous growth in the United States."
KSMU: In your opinion, what makes Missouri's 7th Congressional District a unique place, and what can our elected representatives contribute to leadership discussions in the nation's capital?
Burlison: "We live, I think we live in God's country. This is the most beautiful place in the world to live. And the people that live here don't take anything for granted. The people that live in southwest Missouri, they have the values of hard work that — and the, and understanding that you gain off of the sweat and toil of your work. And then they have the values of taking care of the neighbor in need, you know, donating to their community, being civically, civilly, civically active. This, these are the values of people of southwest Missouri. I mean, these are the friendly values. When you talk about people that come in from other states and they visit this area, they talk about how friendly and kind and warm hearted the people in this area are, and that those are the values that need to be reflected in Washington, D.C., and D.C. needs to be reminded that they don't want government to interfere in every aspect of their life They want to be able to take care of their neighbor. They want to be able to raise a family and build wealth for themselves without government interference. And so those are the values that I have campaigned on. Those are the values that I've voted with. And that's the way I will conduct should I be honored to be elected, re-elected to represent this area."
KSMU: Thank you very much again for joining us today.
Burlison: "Thank you. It's an honor."
