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

Interview

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Here now Republican Congressman Dan Crenshaw of Texas. Congressman, great to have you with us today. You know, first of all your reaction to the back and forth between the Congresswoman and these officers.

REP. DAN CRENSHAW, R-TX: It's sad to see she's getting bolder with her lies on this. And this is what's actually happening. This is what the American people need to understand. People like AOC are operating off of a false premise and it's deliberately designed to misinform the American people for her own political ends, right.

Remember, first there was no crisis at all, OK. Then, it was a manufactured crisis. Then it was a crisis completely created by Trump. Then there were concentration camps. Then people are Nazis. Now she's saying that Border Patrol agents harassed her and forced migrants to drink out of toilets. This is insanity. This is not true.

There's no one else corroborating this kind of -- these kind of reports. And yet she's using it to try and make her case that we shouldn't have any enforcement and that we should have open borders. This is really dishonest behavior from a member of Congress and I honestly can't believe it.

MACCALLUM: I mean, Cory Booker said essentially the same thing today that he wants no holding facilities along the border. So I'm not sure exactly where they think everybody is going to go or how that's going to work.

Joaquin Castro also running for president, he took a video when he was in there. Let's put that up. He said that this moment captures what it's like for the women who are in custody there. I'm sorry -- this is Representative Joaquin Castro who is not running for president but is a Representative and he took this video when he was in there.

Obviously, these are very crowded conditions. Also let's put up now the DHS photos which were released today by the watchdog agency and these are clearly Congressman Crenshaw very overcrowded, very untenable situations.

CRENSHAW: Of course. And these Democrats need to have a reasonable, logical conversation, engage in some problem-solving, and then offer an actual solution. Because what they're really doing is trying to stand on their moral high horse and sling arrows to everybody else while not offering a solution.

Let's not forget, they fought us tooth and nail against that $4.5 billion of humanitarian aid that the President needed, that DHS needed, that HHS needed in order to better conditions at these facilities. They fought us for months on this. They said there was no crisis. We asked for a vote in the House 17 times, they refused to do it.

You know, and it's funny. Castro puts this video about it, AOC talks about these things. I don't see them offering up any other space in their own homes, right? They're not offering a better solution. They're not saying, hey, why don't we put them all up at a hotel. They don't say that. What they really want is no enforcement.

This is -- this is the crux of it. They don't talk about what the actual problem is which is tens of thousands of people coming across and overwhelming our system, OK. And then they have to answer the question should we have a system at all, and they say no.

Well then, what is the point of even having a border? Why even have customs agents at airports, any kind of management over who comes in and out of our country. They don't want to answer these tough questions because in the end, they want open borders.

MACCALLUM: I think you're right. I mean, I asked Bernie Sanders in the Town Hall that we did, you know, where does he think we should put these individuals you know, and she suggested the possibility that had been talked about whether or not they should go to cities that are you know, very open to immigrants, they're sometimes called sanctuary cities. He said that was ridiculous, that it was -- it was a silly question.

I mean, you know, look at these people. This isn't a silly question. They need to go somewhere. You are raising an interesting point. Why don't they allow more private donation and you know, charitable organizations in the country to get involved in this? Can you answer that briefly for me if you could?

CRENSHAW: Yes. And thank you for bringing that up because we just submitted a letter today to DHS with bipartisan co-signers asking this exact question. You know, there are certain laws that get in the way of private donations for government but in the case of humanitarian aid it should be legal and we should be accepting these kinds of donations.

Americans do want to help. We are a generous country and we do want to help so let's make it easier. Let's help get the resources that we need down there and help our -- and instead of demonizing our men and women who work at DHS, let's help them.

MACCALLUM: Yes. And AOC blasted Wayfair, the furniture company because they wanted to you know, do a contract for 1,800 beds which would certainly alleviate some of the problems in terms of where people could sleep so I mean, go figure.

CRENSHAW: It's cognitive dissonance because what, she doesn't want them to have beds?

MACCALLUM: No, she doesn't, apparently.

CRENSHAW: That's her solution, apparently?

MACCALLUM: Exactly, because the corporate -- you know, the company is to blame. So anyway, Congressman, always great to have you with us tonight. Thank you very much for being here, Congressman Dan Crenshaw from Texas tonight.

CRENSHAW: Great to be with you, Martha.

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