During a recent interview with Fox News, U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) said that Americans who question the narrative on Ukraine are “repeating Putin’s talking points.” Crenshaw criticized what he called a “tiny minority” and attributed questions over Ukrainian biolabs to them.
Fox and Friends host Rachel Campos-Duffy asked Crenshaw for his thoughts on an ever-growing segment of the country who are skeptical of any foreign intervention. Campos-Duffy pointed to the Iraq war and the recent Afghanistan withdrawal as two primary factors, with the latter being compounded by the country’s lack of trust in Biden’s capabilities.
“People are being called Putin supporters or they’re traitorous, I mean my Twitter is full of that,” Campos-Duffy said. “What can you talk to us about the need for Americans to be able to have these discussions?”
Crenshaw immediately threw cold water on Campos-Duffy’s assertion that a sizable segment of the GOP base is opposed to escalation in Ukraine. “I don’t think it’s as evenly split as you make it seem on the Republican side. I think it’s a very small minority that believe we shouldn’t care about anything that goes on in the world.”
“That’s not what I said,” the Fox News host pushed back. “I know but that’s what a-lot of people say, and they do repeat Putin’s talking points,” Crenshaw continued. “And that’s a problem, when they start repeating Putin’s talking points and repeating lies about Ukrainians, that’s a problem. And unfortunately, it gives the left something to latch on to.”
Good for @RCamposDuffy for pushing back on Rep. @DanCrenshawTX's ridiculous claim that people on the right asking important questions about Ukraine are pushing "Russian Talking Points." pic.twitter.com/gASA7v2jhQ
— The Columbia Bugle 🇺🇸 (@ColumbiaBugle) March 17, 2022
The Texas congressman then said that “alliances matter” and argued that the GOP base is largely in favor of an active foreign policy. “Alliances do matter, what we do actually does matter, what happens around the world actually affects us at home. It is naive to believe otherwise,” Crenshaw said. “It is not America first to watch around the world as Russia and China take over and destroy our allies. That’s America last.”
After that, Campos-Duffy again pushed back on Crenshaw’s “Putin talking points” comment. “I think on the Republican side when you start saying they’re repeating Russian talking points, I think that shuts down conversation,” she said.
“When you call the Ukrainian president a thug, that’s repeating Russian talking points,” Crenshaw replied in what was a shot at U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC). “When you claim that the money is going to neo-Nazis, and only neo Nazis, that’s a Putin talking point.”
Crenshaw then again claimed that Russians were “spreading Putin’s talking points”, pointing to mounting concern over a handful of Ukrainian bio labs, which he referred to as a “conspiracy.”
“And what do the Russians do? They take this biolab conspiracy and they run with it. If you actually analyze social media, that wasn’t a story for Russians until people domestically started making that a conspiracy. That’s a problem.”
