During a weekend edition of NBC’s Meet the Press, host Chuck Todd pointedly dismantled shoddy arguments from Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas), who attempted to dismiss the ongoing relevance of the lies from former President Donald Trump and some of his top allies about the integrity of the 2020 presidential election. Crenshaw at one point suggested that Todd was asking about Trump’s election lies because the press is “largely liberal” and “pro-Democrat,” which Todd promptly shut down as a “lazy” excuse.
Todd pointed out that Crenshaw expressed support for a lawsuit from Texas state Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) that sought to throw out the presidential election outcome in four states where Biden won. Crenshaw deceptively represented the scope of that legal action, insisting that an amicus brief involved in the effort merely asked the U.S. Supreme Court to answer a procedural question, although in reality — Paxton’s original lawsuit sought the nullification of Biden’s wins in four states. That was a profoundly anti-democratic initiative.
As Todd put it, addressing Crenshaw:
‘In December, you signed onto that lawsuit that the Texas Attorney General filed to question the elections of other states, which seemed to be a pretty anti-federalist thing to do. Why did you sign onto that?’
Crenshaw replied as follows:
‘You guys in the press painted that as some extreme action. And of course it wasn’t. That amicus brief was a simple question to the Supreme Court and saying, Can you please speak to this question of whether process changes in the election last minute not approved by the legislature can be deemed Constitutional? It was a question. Now they didn’t want to answer that question, and then I said it’s un-Constitutional for us to overturn the election in Congress.’
Todd subsequently pointed out that Crenshaw’s action in support of the Texas lawsuit is part of what has been “weaponized by the former president.” Trump continues to actively spread the falsehood that the 2020 election was somehow rigged for Biden — it’s not a merely theoretical issue or an issue of the past. Just in recent days, Trump referred to the 2020 election as “THE CRIME OF THE CENTURY,” which is just disconnected from basic reality.
Crenshaw subsequently commented as follows:
‘He’s one of many leaders in the party. He’s a former president. We’re five months into President Biden’s presidency, and there is a time to move on. You guys in the press love doing this, and I get it, right? The press is largely liberal. They’re largely pro-Democrat.’
That’s about when Todd cut the Congressman off, insisting that there’s “nothing lazier than that excuse.” Check out the interaction below:
Dan Crenshaw doesn't like Chuck Todd bringing up the fact that he signed onto the Texas lawsuit to toss out swing state votes, then says "you guys in the press" like doing this because they're "largely liberal."
Todd: "Don’t start that. There’s nothing lazier than that excuse." pic.twitter.com/FGRS7tF8UL
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) May 16, 2021
