Republican Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw criticized Democrats on Monday for not being honest about their position on constructing a border wall.
“What I’ve seen first hand is the dysfunction and dishonesty of the debate itself,” Crenshaw said to Dana Perino on ‘The Daily Briefing.’ “For the last few weeks what we’ve seen is the constant rhetoric from the Democrats which say ‘we will negotiate this as long as the government’s open.’”
The Texas congressman commended President Donald Trump for calling Democrats’ bluff by temporarily re-opening the government and forcing lawmakers to follow through and engage in good faith negotiations.
“Walls work. They work as a mitigating factor from someone moving from point A to point B. They work as a funneling option as well so that we can move resources to where we need,” Crenshaw said. “These things work, this is common sense, we all used to agree on it until it got political.”
“It’s become a very polarizing political issue instead of a policy issue and everybody’s become an expert on border security,” he continued. “The reality is that this plan came from the Department of Homeland Security, this didn’t come from the President Trump campaign, this came from experts.”
The former Navy Seal argued that part of the problem with public perception of a border wall can be seen among the polling. Referring to a Monmouth University poll, which said 52 percent of adults believe a border wall is not too important or not at all important, he stated that there’s a misconception about what the wall will actually cover.
“I think those polls reflect this misconception amongst the public that we’re talking about a 2,000 mile wall,” Crenshaw said. “I think when pollsters ask those questions, and I’ve seen how they ask those questions, it’s not very clear what they’re asking.”
“I have talked to so many Democrats. When I show them the plan that their leadership doesn’t show them, by the way, they look at that and they say ‘I’m not really against this … I just can’t agree with you guys while we’re in the midst of a shutdown,’” Crenshaw continued. “Now we’re not in a shutdown and I’d like those same Democrats to come back and say ‘you know what, I’m for that.’ There’s no reason not to, it’s 0.1 percent of the entire federal budget. This isn’t about the money.”
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