Fox News "The Story" - Transcript: Interview with Rep. Dan Crenshaw

Interview

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MACCALLUM: Thank you, gentlemen.

My next guest is a freshman congressman along with about 70 other lawmakers he is foregoing. His congressional salary until they figure this whole thing out and reopen that part of the government. Republican congressman Dan Crenshaw joins me now. Good to see you, sir. Thank you very much for being here.

REP. DAN CRENSHAW, R-TEXAS: It's great to be here with you.

MACCALLUM: What's your reaction to this Puerto Rico trip? Big deal or not a big deal?

CRENSHAW: Well, it sounds like they had a lot of fun, you know. But they've also been talking a lot about the plight that federal workers see themselves in. And now, they're not wrong about that, but if we're going to talk about that, then, I don't know if these excursions to Puerto Rico are really the right way to handle that.

We should be negotiating. OK, Democrats, said $0 for any kind of barriers on the border, you know, weeks ago. And there's still at $0. That's not negotiating.

The president's plan has -- it was initially a long border wall. He's come down to about 234 miles of border wall. All right, we've gotten it from $25 billion to about $5.7 billion for any kind of physical barrier on the border. This is very reasonable. This is a mixed holistic approach to border security and it's what we need to be doing.

MACCALLUM: I mean, you're the one of the new guys on the block there. Are people pressuring the rest of your party to the rest of the Democrat Party and the rest of the members on the Hill to say, come on, let's come together, let's all work. Let's show up every day. Let's work on this until we can find some sort of deal.

CRENSHAW: Absolutely. I mean, I think that's a -- that's fundamentally what the American people want. And it's certainly what a lot of federal workers want who are not getting paid right now.

Especially, that -- you know, I've been an airport right near my district and a lot of TSA folks are not getting paid. It's why I wanted to forego my pay and withhold it until they get paid, as well. And I understand what that's like. We need to negotiate on this.

And we've -- as a freshman class, we've started to reach out to our freshmen on the -- on the Democrat side, and say, you know, what are you willing to give on this? Because I mean, you guys you know, behind closed doors, we notice --

(CROSSTALK)

MACCALLUM: And what's their response, what do they say?

CRENSHAW: We're not hearing much a whole -- a whole lot yet. You know, it's the word "wall" that, that triggers them. They're like -- you know, well, then, let's call it physical barriers. Let's call it fencing.

MACCALLUM: You said you think that that's very -- it's silly.

CRENSHAW: Right, it's semantics, you know. And any security expert will look at this and say, you really need a holistic approach, and physical barriers are very obvious part of that, all right? They mitigate the flow of people from point A to point B.

And, of course, you need more Border Patrol agents, you need technology, you need drones, you need the sensors. And in some places, you simply can't put a physical barrier. We realize that. We're very reasonable about this.

(CROSSTALK)

MACCALLUM: Things like (INAUDIBLE). I mean, everybody agrees on all that stuff. I mean -- I mean, you know which makes it more apparent than ever to the American people that it's ridiculous, that they can't come together on it.

Lindsey Graham suggested that maybe the president should float a deal to reopen the government for a few weeks, but make it a short period of time. And if it -- if you can't work it out in that period of time, then, you know, it's another shutdown.

The president is holding firm, though. He doesn't want to do that. Do you agree with the president or with Lindsey Graham?

CRENSHAW: Well, I just have to live in the reality that I live in. If the president's not wanted to budge on that but he's not on the budge. And he has a good reason.

You know, there's no indication that the Democrats have been willing to negotiate at all. There is no indication that if we -- if we had another continuing resolution that we would somehow get to an agreement, and be able to negotiate some kind of funding for physical barriers. So, you know, the president has a good point here.

MACCALLUM: So, the president -- there's also been a suggestion that he might use some of the money that was allocated for Puerto Rico to build the wall. Because they're -- you know, beating the bushes to find the money that's already been allocated in a way that they can move it over. Would you approve of that?

CRENSHAW: It's definitely not what I want to see. Because it -- listen, if you can use Puerto Rico money, you can also use Hurricane Harvey relief funding, which is very important to us in my district in Houston. So, what we would like to see again, is Democrats coming to the table. This is a highly reasonable solution and there's no reason why we can't solve this from Congress. That should not be something that the executive himself has to solve.

MACCALLUM: And I'm curious what it's like for you to see how all the sausage is made now. You've been there a few weeks, right? I mean are you just illusion already, or are you hopeful? You know, how do you take all this in given you know, you were a Navy SEAL. I mean, you don't mess around.

CRENSHAW: Yes.

MACCALLUM: You get stuff done. Everybody chips in, and you complete your mission.

CRENSHAW: Right, and that's how this should be too. Now, I don't think I came up here so idealistic that I thought it was going to be easy. And I was mentally prepared for this. I knew what I was getting into. And you know what? It tells me every day that this is exactly why I came here in the first place because we're making the right argument, we are on the right side of this, and we would like our colleagues on the other side of the aisle to just work with us. We're just asking you to work with us. Let's hear some proposals, and we will counter back and that's how good government should run.

MACCALLUM: Good luck with that. No, I mean it. I mean it.

CRENSHAW: Thank you.

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