Fox News "The Story" - Transcript: Crenshaw: There is a far left wing of the Democratic Party that truly do not like Israel

Interview

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MACCALLUM: We appreciate it. Here now, Republican Congressman Dan Crenshaw of Texas. Good to have you with us this evening. What do you think about all that?

REP. DAN CRENSHAW, R-TX: Well, I think there's a lot of agreement there. There are still a lot of Democrats who do believe in supporting Israel, who do believe that anti-Semitic comments are wrong. And I feel bad for them. Honestly, because there is a far left wing of their party that is in true disagreement with them. They truly do not like Israel.

They truly believe all the things that Omar has been saying. She believes it. That, that should be really clear to everybody by now. She's been trying to tell us for a long time, and it's been explained away multiple times now.

MACCALLUM: Yes.

CRENSHAW: There's been apologies made for her. They said, "Well, we just need to have dialogues. You need to help her understand what she's talking about so that she understands how much its hurting people.

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MACCALLUM: But Congressman, let me ask you this. She was elected by the people of her district. She count -- she comes to Washington -- just to play the other side of this for a moment.

CRENSHAW: Yes.

MACCALLUM: She comes to Washington. They know who she is. She's been campaigning, she's been talking about what she believes in for a long time. So, shouldn't she have the freedom of speech to say what she wants to say and represent her people? And if they decide that they don't like the way they're being represented, they'll change their mind in a year and a half.

MACCALLUM: Oh, yes. I don't disagree with that. I mean, every member here has the right of freedom of speech, OK? And they have the right to represent their own views. Just like we have the right to criticize it and to condemn it.

Now, it is something different when we're talking about what committee she's on, because the real problem here is that she has a platform on the Foreign Affairs Committee to condemn Israel.

OK, so that tells us that the Democratic leadership also supports that. Because here is the thing. This is how we are assigned to committees here in Congress. Our leadership tells us what committees we can be on.

MACCALLUM: Right.

CRENSHAW: OK. So, when there is something that the party is against, they will not put you on that committee. And we've done that in our party, and I think they should do that in theirs. Unless they actually believe in what she's saying with respect to Israel.

MACCALLUM: Well, that's an excellent point. With regard to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, she said this in a tweet about the concern she says about implied tropes. And she's sort of making the bridge between what Omar is talking about and people who are concerned about -- you know, these anti- Semitic tropes that said they're sometimes called.

She says, "If we're so concerned about implied tropes, why aren't we concerned about this one? Where was the concern last week when 26 Democrats voted for a GOP amendment to expand ICE powers rooted in the racist and false trope that Latino immigrants are more dangerous than U.S. born citizens?"

CRENSHAW: Wow. There's a lot there. So, even if she actually believes what she's saying, that has nothing to do with condemning anti-Semitism. Right? Like two things can be true once. OK, even if she believes this craziness.

But, the reality is, is that enforcing the law is not racist. OK? Asking ICE to report when an illegal immigrant is trying to buy a weapon is not racist. That's enforcing our laws. And I think most Americans want. Want us to enforce our laws. We want to feel like our rule of law is working out. That we are a sovereign country and that we can protect our borders.

MACCALLUM: In terms of -- you know, I know, you are -- you are very passionate today in the homeland security hearing with the head of homeland security, Kirstjen Nielsen.

You talked about someone who came to your office that really sort of brought home the message of the border as you see it. Tell me about that before I -- before I let you go.

CRENSHAW: Sue. Well, you know, I was making a point about the humanity of this entire thing. You know, the Democrats keep talking about the children coming across and how we need to help them. And I agree.

The thing is that we have very different ideas on what helping them looks like. What we don't want to do is allow them to be used as tokens to get across our border. And that's what our laws incentivize right now.

So, the young lady who came into my office, she was kidnapped years ago of around 2013. They tried to cross the border with her twice. Both times, they were refuted, but the third time they made it across.

Nothing to stop them, no wall, no agents, plenty of open territory. She was brought to New York and she was raped for five years. About 30 times a day. This was a heartbreaking story I've ever heard. All right? And she told me the story, she was -- she was almost emotionless about it. I mean, it was -- it was really something to see.

This is what our laws incentivize. Because they incentivize children to be brought across. That is your ticket. To come across as an adult, our system still works, we can send you right back. But adults with children - -

MACCALLUM: Yes.

CRENSHAW: It's incentivizing them. And that's why this is a humanitarian crisis. Those numbers of children coming across have increased drastically.

MACCALLUM: Yes, they have.

CRENSHAW: You know, just last month, 76,000 people. 76,000 people just apprehended. This is truly an emergency.

MACCALLUM: Congressman Crenshaw, thank you. Good to see you tonight.

CRENSHAW: Thank you.

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