‘The press is largely liberal’: Dan Crenshaw Calls Out Media Bias In Contentious Interview On NBC

Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) clearly called out the legacy media’s bias during a tense exchange with “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd over the weekend. Todd invited Crenshaw to discuss Liz Cheney’s removal as House Republican Conference Chair, but then accused the GOP of “trying to appease” former President Donald Trump by “rallying around this bizarre lie and mythology” that the 2020 presidential election may have been marked by voter irregularities.

“You guys in the press love doing this, and I, and I get it, right?” Crenshaw said. “The press is largely liberal. They’re largely pro-Democrat.” The media, he said, had “lots of reasons to keep this alive.”

“There’s a lot of people in my party that take the bait. I’m not going to take the bait,” Crenshaw concluded.

“No, no, no, no. Don’t start that,” said a clearly triggered Todd. “There’s nothing lazier than that.”

Crenshaw, who is not known as a particularly combative partisan, said he was “a little surprised” to be invited to address the issue, “because I’ve been so detached” from Cheney’s leadership vote.

He began by saying in a roundabout way that media bias caused reporters to focus on inside-the-Beltway “drama” and ignore issues that matter to the American people. “I’m always meeting with people. I never get asked about this,” Crenshaw said:

I get asked about: Why is there rising inflation? Why is there a border crisis? What is going on in the Middle East? Why can’t we get gas? What is happening to our energy infrastructure? Why can’t I hire people? Why are they getting paid by the government to stay at home instead of come to work? These are things that really affect people, not this internal drama.

“One of the reasons I agreed to come on your show is basically to say that this isn’t that important to people,” he said.

Todd interpreted this as questioning the legacy media’s objectivity and responded accordingly.

“Well, why should anybody believe a word you say if the Republican Party itself doesn’t have credibility?” Todd retorted. “Do any of your critiques come across as credible if you can’t accept the fundamental fact that our democracy held a free and fair election?”

A bemused Crenshaw couldn’t believe the question. In the past, he had called Trump’s call for Congress to reject slates of pro-Biden electors “demonstrably unconstitutional” and said that the “pressure campaign … contributed, in part, to the assault on the Capitol.”

But Todd pivoted to Crenshaw signing an amicus brief in support of Texas’ Supreme Court case, which accused four states of “ignoring both state and federal law” in setting 2020 presidential voting guidelines. Crenshaw then alluded more directly to media bias:

You guys in the press painted that as some extreme action, and of course it wasn’t. That amicus brief was a simple question of the Supreme Court in saying, “Can you please speak to this question of whether, 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 I said — and then I said it’s unconstitutional for us to overturn the election in Congress. So, I did not vote to object. I voted to certify [the 2020 presidential election].

When Todd claimed that the entire Republican Party tries to “appease” the former president, Crenshaw replied, “I already debunked the notion that there’s no space in the party for” opposition to Trump by noting that Liz Cheney won a vote to retain her House leadership position in February.

After Todd tried to get Crenshaw to call Trump “the legitimate leader of the Republican Party,” Crenshaw called the former president “one of many leaders in our party.” Determining which politician has the legitimacy to act as the leader of a political movement depends on “complex human relationships that involve millions of people,” he said.

“I do not think Trump is the devil,” Crenshaw said. “I don’t think he’s Jesus, either.” He instead promised to evaluate former President Trump’s statements on an issue-by-issue basis. “I’m going to agree where I agree, and I’m going to disagree where I disagree.”

Todd objected to the idea that “somehow we in the press are bringing that up,” when President Trump regularly discusses the 2020 election.

While the former president continues to discuss the 2020 election, there’s no doubt that the legacy media do more to keep the issue at the forefront of its viewers’ minds. President Trump’s favorite means of communication, Twitter, has permanently banned both his personal and new website’s accounts, and he has rarely made media appearances since leaving office before Joe Biden’s inauguration on January 20.

On the other hand, MSNBC and CNN’s number-one story last week was Liz Cheney’s ouster from the third-most-important position in the second-most-important chamber of Congress. CNN spent just four minutes on the Israel-Gaza conflict in its entire prime time lineup last week. Last Wednesday, CNN devoted 151 minutes to Cheney’s removal and 55 minutes on all the unfolding, Carter-era economic crises, including hour-long lines to purchase gasoline and the highest inflationin 13 years.

Todd, too, has made extreme and polarizing statements about anyone who raises any question about the 2020 election. When Cornell Belcher said on last week’s “Meet the Press”  that the Cheney voted signaled that America may be dividing into “two parties” of “traitors and patriots,” Todd replied, “I fear, Cornell, that myself.”

Yet as Todd badgered Crenshaw for “putting this on the press,” Crenshaw replied that he wished Republicans would focus on winning issues:

If former President Trump asked me, I would say, “Mr. President, please keep talking about the border. Please keep talking about these issues.” That’s what I would say to him, for sure. … You’ve got a great show. You’ve got a lot of listeners. Let’s debate environmental policy. Let’s debate healthcare policy, border policy. I’ll go toe to toe with you on all of those.

“We would love to see that,” Todd said, as though his show’s content and lineup were out of his hands.

Crenshaw’s “Meet the Press” appearance came just days after the Afghanistan veteran detailed the struggles that required him to get another surgery to prevent him from losing the use of his functioning eye, in a video interview with the Washington Examiner.

The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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