GOP Rep. Dan Crenshaw Defends Downplaying Coronavirus to Bill Maher, Compares Trump to Navy SEAL Commander
Texas Republican Congressman Dan Crenshaw defended President Donald Trump’s weeks of downplaying of the coronavirus pandemic by telling HBO host Bill Maher that “That’s just style,” and compared Trump’s attitude to that of a Navy SEAL commander.
On Friday night’s edition of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, the host pressed Crenshaw to reconcile his support of Trump with his experience as a war veteran.
Help me understand how someone who calls out the outward assignment of blame can be such a supporter of the president who does nothing but pass the buck, lie, fingerpoint, shirk responsibility, tell me how you can support, someone with your background, someone like that,” Maher asked.
“It didn’t take long for Trump to come up,” Crenshaw said with a slight, forced laugh. “You know, I would say I support the country, and the president’s success is certainly tied in the success of the country. I support his policy agenda, when I disagree with his policy agenda I openly disagree with it.”
“Republicans always get asked this question, and there’s this demand that we always have to answer, what do you feel about him? Don’t you want to comment on his latest tweet and his latest, the way he lashed out, and no I don’t,” Crenshaw continued. “I can’t defend everything, he doesn’t have the same style as I do. I don’t consider him my spiritual guide by any means.”
He then told the story of having been proud to shake President Barack Obama’s hand during a hospital visit when Crenshaw was wounded, and said he hopes people will feel the same way about Trump.
“You talk about his tweets in his style, I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about the person who is the leader of the country at a time of crisis,” Maher said, and confronted Crenshaw with the fact that Trump was repeatedly warned in January about the potential disaster in store from the coronavirus.
Crenshaw touted Trump’s travel ban, and he and Maher went on a several-minute digression about that ban that included multiple falsehoods.
Then Maher confronted Crenshaw with just a few of the weeks of statements Trump made downplaying the pandemic.
“He says it’s going to go away in April with the heat. Because he had a hunch,” Maher said. “He said… 15 people have it and it’s soon going to be close to zero. March 6, he said anyone who wants a test can get it, which is still completely wrong.”
Crenshaw first tried to slam Democrats by claiming they delayed $2.5 billion in supplemental coronavirus funding, when in reality, Democrats were trying to get quadruple the amount that Trump requested — and succeeded.
He then told Maher “Your criticism appears to be based in one thing. That Trump was overly optimistic. That’s just style. Again you can criticize it, that’s fine. But it doesn’t, it’s not connected to the actions that were actually taken.”
Crenshaw then tried to refute the lost month of February by citing a CDC announcement of an action, a coronavirus surveillance program — that still hasn’t been implemented.
Maher went on to ask “Is that someone you would want to have served with? I mean my God, I don’t understand again why someone with your resume, you were in Fallujah for God’s sakes, would you want somebody, a commander to say that to you, to blame everybody else if something goes wrong, and then to say, you know, I have a hunch the enemy’s not going to be in there. Let’s attack.”
“So here’s how I describe my answer to that. When bullets are flying past my head, I don’t need to raise my voice. Calm breeds calm, panic breeds panic. Being an optimistic positive, exuding positivity and calmness in crisis is exactly how we ask our SEALs to lead,” Crenshaw said, then claimed ” I’m not sure I see a lot of evidence for blaming others.”
Watch the interview above via HBO.
