In Hot Mic Comments, Congressman Says He Might Run One Or Two More Times

Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick is a supporter of term limits and has introduced legislation to enact them during his time in Washington D.C.

The three-term Republican from Middletown Township has held the number of two-year terms he is looking to run for before hanging up his hat in the U.S. House of Representatives close to the vest.

Fitzpatrick, a former FBI special agent, has long called for term limits for members of Congress, but he has not announced how many terms he aims to serve.

However, a series of unguarded comments caught on a hot mic during the Wednesday night C-SPAN broadcast of President Joe Biden’s joint address to Congress may shed some light on how many terms he is considering running for in the district.

When speaking with what sounds to be another lawmaker on the floor of the House while Biden was making his way to address lawmakers and the public, Fitzpatrick talked about how many more times he would run for election.

“I got one or two left in me anyway and then I’m done anyway. On my own accord,” Fitzpatrick said.

A proposal Fitzpatrick supported earlier this year would limit congressional terms to twelve years combined in both chambers, six two-year terms in the House or two six-year terms in the U.S. Senate.

In October during his re-election campaign, the congressman declined to tell LevittownNow.com the maximum number of terms he would serve because he felt it would be “self-defeating” and allow opponents to the plan to wait him out.

Fitzpatrick said at the time he has supporters of term limits from both parties, including California progressive Democrat Ro Khanna, a native of Northampton Township.

During the conversation caught by the TV network Wednesday, the congressman jokingly said his seating location near the doorway where Biden would enter moments later would “probably cost me my primary.” He made the comment after the person he was talking to mentioned he could have the first fist bump with the president due to his proximity.

Footage showed Biden not doing a first bump with Fitzpatrick on the way in for the speech, but the congressman got another shot at the end. The two briefly talked on the president’s way out of the chamber.

In a post-speech interview with C-SPAN, Fitzpatrick said he told the president he will work with him on his goal of eradicating cancer. Fitzpatrick knew Biden’s son Beau when they both worked for the U.S. Department of Justice. Beau died of cancer, and the congressman’s brother, the former congressman, died of cancer in 2020.

Two people who have been close to Republican politics in Bucks County and the congressional races over the years laughed off the comments. One mentioned the optics of the term limits comment for an image-conscious Fitzpatrick and his office.

Fitzpatrick has beat back Republican and Democratic challengers – in many cases easily – over his relatively short political career. He is widely expected to run again in 2022.

Fitzpatrick runs on a strong brand as a Republican willing to work with both parties in a moderate district that covers all of Bucks County and part of eastern Montgomery County. During his time in Congress, he has been criticized during elections by both Democrats and Republicans. Republicans have griped when he has voted with Democrats on key issues and Democrats have tried to frame him as not being as moderate as he claims.

Sources involved in Republican politics have said Fitzpatrick has strong support among key Republicans in Washington D.C. He has received financial backing from national Republicans who consider the First Congressional District an important district for the party to win.

While Fitzpatrick did not vote for Donald Trump in 2016, he said he voted for him last year and received an endorsement from Trump in the final stretch of the 2020 election. He called for Trump to be censured but not impeached after the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Fitzpatrick is co-chair of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus and nabbed one of only 200 seats for Biden’s address Tuesday.

The congressman did not respond to a request for comment, and Communications Director Casey-Lee Waldron did not respond to an email asking to set up an interview with the congressman about the speech.

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