Top Tennessee Republican was just faced with a question so incriminating, she ran away [WATCH]

Representative Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) can’t handle the truth.

The Tennessee Republican Congresswoman, who is running to replace retiring Senator Bob Corker in her home state, scurried away in a telling silence rather than answer a simple series of questions that most of her constituents would certainly like to know the answers to.

Blackburn was approached in what appears to be the public lobby of a hotel by a man working for American Bridge 21st Century, which describes itself on its website as a “progressive research and communications organization committed to holding Republicans accountable for their words and actions and helping you ascertain when Republican candidates are pretending to be something they’re not.”

The organization certainly fulfilled that mission in its attempt to get a comment from the Tennessee Republican nominee for Senate.

The Congresswoman was sitting down when the man approaches Blackburn and says “I want to talk about the $700,000 you’ve taken from opioid companies.”

That prompts an aide to step in to try to stop any interaction from taking place, and Representative Blackburn gets up to leave when the man asks, “Is opioid abuse a big deal in Tennessee?

The intrepid would-be interviewer follows Blackburn and her entourage down the hall as he continues to try to get a response from the Senatorial candidate, asking, “As senator, $700,000 from opioid companies, do you think that’s a problem for your election? Do you think it’s a problem for people from Tennessee?,” all while Rep. Blackburn averts her eyes and marches ahead relentlessly trying to escape the questions that she clearly does not want the responsibility of answering.

Frustrated by the congresswoman’s evasive maneuvers, the would-be interlocutor tries another angle.

Look, how many people are dying every year in Tennessee from opioids? Do you even know? Do you care? Is it on your radar or is the $700,000 you’ve taken from opioid manufacturers on your radar?

Rep. Blackburn grits her teeth and pretends that the annoying buzzing in her ears, the words she shuts out from her brain to prevent her head from exploding due to the cognitive dissonance of massively damaging political hypocrisy, isn’t really happening as she walks a step ahead of the pursuing person taping her indifference – no, her active hostility – to the crucially pertinent questions.

Realizing that he’s never going to get a word out of the panicking Congresswoman in retreat, the questioner gets more taunting with his next query.

Which do you care more about? The $700,000 or the thousands of people dying from opioid abuse?

Crickets.

Are you just going to ignore this question?

Even that question didn’t merit a response, much less a head turn from the fleeing would-be Senator. The American Bridge interviewer finally gives up with a polite, but unnecessary under the circumstances, “thank you.”

As a member of the so-called party of personal responsibility, Blackburn’s abdication of her own responsibility to answer questions about the effect of massive contributions from the pharmaceutical industry on her stance on the opioid crisis is all the more reason to work to pass a constitutional amendment barring corporate money from politics and to ensure that the next Senator from Tennessee is part of a massive “blue wave” in November.

You can watch the entire slow-speed congresswoman chase in the video clip below.

Follow Vinnie Longobardo on Twitter.

Vinnie Longobardo

is the Managing Editor of Washington Press and a 35-year veteran of the TV, mobile, & internet industries, specializing in start-ups and the international media business. His passions are politics, music, and art.