Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw says fellow Republicans still pushing the lie that the 2020 election was rigged know they’re not telling the truth.
“It was always a lie,” he said on his “Hold These Truths” podcast. “The whole thing was always a lie.”
The 38-year-old lawmaker and former Navy SEAL said Wednesday that “political personalities” have continued promoting the big myth first floated by former President Donald Trump, calling it a “lie meant to rile people up.” Behind closed doors, the truth is commonly known, Crenshaw said.
The Lone Star State conservative said he’s told fellow Republicans it’s a problem for influential figures to float conspiracy theories and has been assured, “Trust me, it’ll be fine.”
More than half of the GOP candidates competing in Tuesday’s midterm elections are deniers who won’t admit President Joe Biden trounced the incumbent Trump by more than seven million ballots to become the nation’s 46th president, CBS News reports. Polling shows the Republican Party is poised to gain control of the House of Representatives and compete strongly to win the Senate next week.
Crenshaw accused people in his party of saying “the most extreme things” to get attention and marveled over the degree of absurdities some voters will believe. He also noted the Democratic Party has its share of radicals, too.
According to Crenshaw, Republicans he’s had these private discussions with — not all of whom were politicians — may be giving election-deniers too much credit by assuming they understand the complexities of the “Stop the Steal” hoax.
“Maybe you’re smart enough to know that,” he said he’s told those cynics.
A handful of right-wing media outlets and individuals are being sued by voting technology companies because of unsubstantiated reports about ballot counting equipment being at fault for Trump’s defeat.
While speaking to Texas GOP supporters in June, Crenshaw weathered harassment from right-wing Trump fanatics who called for him to be “hung for treason.”
In 2021, while talking to Republicans in Illinois, Crenshaw was jeered after telling a heckler he was “kidding” himself if he really believes Republicans lost big in 2020 because of impropriety.
“I’m not going to argue with this,” Crenshaw told his agitator. “I’ll say it openly — this is something you’ve got to accept.”
Dozens of courts have rejected challenges to the 2020 election. Attorneys pushing debunked claims have faced professional reprimands.
