Brianna Keilar Spars With GOP Congresswoman on Border Crisis Facts: ‘I’m Going to Have to Cut You Off’

CNN anchor Brianna Keilar nearly had to cut off Rep. Beth Van Duyne (R-TX) after a fiery interview over the GOP’s border policy.

The interview was interrupted when President Joe Biden spoke live on Tuesday, but between the two segments, Keilar found herself factchecking Van Duyne repeatedly while unable to get anything resembling a response that wasn’t a talking point. Van Duyne seemed content to just talk over Keilar, who at one point threatened to end the interview.

The conversation took a turn early when Van Duyne claimed that a border-related law passed by the House, HR 2, was not actually a law, but a “mechanism.” After that, Keilar continued to try to ask Van Duyne what specific law was broken by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. The House failed to impeach Mayorkas last week but vowed to hold another vote despite little evidence that he committed a high crime or misdemeanor:

Keilar: So if you don’t need new laws, why did you vote for HR 2, which would be a new law and call on the Senate to consider it?

Van Duyne: Actually, HR 2 wasn’t a new law. What HR 2 was is a mechanism that the House could use to force this administration to stop ignoring the laws and having the agency actually have to enforce the laws. That was our whole purpose of — it was ridiculous that we even had to pass HR 2. But the purpose was, is that the agency is specifically ignoring the laws, creating their own laws, not enforcing the laws.

Keilar: It’s a bill which, if it passes, becomes a law. You’re saying that was never the intention? Are you saying it was a memo or something?

Van Duyne: Oh no, I’m saying the intention… No, it was codifying, again, laws that this administration has been completely ignoring, starting with Mayorkas, which is why I’m confident that tonight we’re going to be able to fulfill our commitment to impeach Mayorkas because he’s done untold damage by ignoring the law, circumventing the law, creating his own law, specifically with his catch and release program. We have seen damage not only to our national security, but the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans.

This “tens of thousands” was another point that Keilar wanted more information about:

Van Duyne: [W]e have seen damage untold to our country and again, the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans.

Keilar: How so?

Van Duyne: I’m sorry?

Keilar: The deaths of tens of thousands of Americans.

Van Duyne: Yeah, we’ve had over 110,000 Americans who have died as a result of fentanyl poisoning that has come in over our borders.

At this point, Keilar tried to remind Van Duyne that the majority of the fentanyl coming across the southern border is actually being brought over by American citizens who are crossing at legal border crossings:

Keilar: Those are U.S. citizens bringing the fentanyl in. Aren’t you aware of this? It’s more than, it’s overwhelming. The vast majority, like the vast majority of fentanyl, is coming in with American citizens.

Van Duyne: I know that fentanyl in our borders right now —

Keilar: If you are serious —

Van Dyne: Because the Mexican cartel —

Keilar: American citizens —

Van Duyne: Mexican cartels are the best friends of Mayorkas, are the ones who want to keep them in power, because the Mexican cartel right now are in charge of our southern border, and they’re making billions of dollars from bringing in drugs, sex trafficking, human trafficking, and child trafficking.

Keilar: Using American citizens.

Van Duyne: If we were enforcing our laws at the border, this would not happen. Unfortunately, what we have is an administration, we’ve got a secretary who’s completely creating their own laws —

Keilar: Which law specifically, ma’am? Which law specifically is not being enforced such that fentanyl —

Van Duyne: So catch and release was an example —

Keilar: Ma’am, American citizens! American citizens, bringing fentanyl.

Van Duyne: It is coming in from our southern border.

Keilar: American citizens are bringing it in.

That was when Biden spoke, so Keilar cut out with the intention to continue the conversation — which it did, and it got so heated between the two that Keilar warned Van Duyne, “If you won’t let me speak, I’m going to cute the interview off.”

Here’s the rest of the interview:

Their conversation ended with Keilar reminding Van Duyne that the House of Representatives failed to pass a border law that would have provided some solutions to the border crisis she’s complaining about.

Watch the videos above via CNN.