Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX), who is on the House’s Homeland Security Committee, said on Friday that the U.S. military’s strike on Iranian terrorist leader Qasem Soleimani was a “good day for America” and that those who sign up to be in the U.S. military do not do so to be safe, but to keep Americans safe.
Crenshaw made the remarks during an interview on MSNBC with host Ali Velshi during a segment about the rising tensions between the United States and Iran.
“I understand the cost of war – I’ve lived it. I’ve deployed to Iraq twice,” Crenshaw said. “I will say I did not join the SEAL team so I could remain safe. I joined the SEAL team so I could keep the American people safe. And I still view that as the role of the military. I view this as a good day for America. We rid ourselves of one of the world’s most preeminent terrorists from the IRGC’s Quds Force.”
“This organization is responsible for countless American deaths – actually not countless American deaths, we can actually count them – over 600 American deaths in Iraq because they exported specialized IEDs to Iraq. The Quds Force, obviously they – he orchestrated the recent attack on our embassy,” Crenshaw continued. “Before that, being direct rocket attacks against our base. The takedown of American drones before that. Seizing oil tankers. Before that, attacking Saudi oil facilities. So, there’s been a long escalation that has occurred. And we have to ask ourselves how long will we let that happen? When are we going to disrupt the escalation ladder that Soleimani was creating, and force them to recalculate their escalation against us?”
At what point does America disrupt the continued escalation in violence from the Iranian regime? Where is the red line?
That’s the fundamental question naysayers have to answer if they are to be taken seriously at all. pic.twitter.com/uzpD6OdBhx
— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) January 4, 2020
Full transcript of Rep. Dan Crenshaw’s (R-TX) interview on MSNBC:
Velshi: I want to bring in Republican Congressman from Texas, Dan Crenshaw. Dan is a member of the Homeland Security Committee, he’s also retired Lieutenant Commander and former Navy SEAL He was deployed five times and served in both Iran and Afghanistan. Congressman Crenshaw, thank you for being with us.
Crenshaw: Thanks for having me.
Velshi: You are one of a small group of people on Capitol Hill who understand the costs and the dangers of war. I want to get your – your sense of what has happened here, this attack on Qasem Soleimani and you’re processing it.
Crenshaw: Yeah. Of course, I understand the cost of war – I’ve lived it. I’ve deployed to Iraq twice. I will say I did not join the SEAL team so I could remain safe. I joined the SEAL team so I could keep the American people safe. And I still view that as the role of the military. I view this as a good day for America. We rid ourselves of one of the world’s most preeminent terrorists from the IRGC’s Quds Force. This organization is responsible for countless American deaths, actually not countless American deaths, we can actually count them, over 600 American deaths in Iraq because they exported specialized IEDs to Iraq. The Quds Force, obviously they – he orchestrated the recent attack on our embassy. Before that, being direct rocket attacks against our base. The takedown of American drones before that. Seizing oil tankers. Before that, attacking Saudi oil facilities. So, there’s been a long escalation that has occurred. And we have to ask ourselves how long will we let that happen? When are we going to disrupt the escalation ladder that Soleimani was creating, and force them to recalculate their escalation against us?
Velshi: You have interesting hats. One is the hat that you wear as a SEAL. The other one is the hat that you wear as a member of Congress. Give me your thought on these comments that we are getting from some members of Congress. And by the way, this happens with all presidents. With all members of Congress. That the president did not consult with relevant committees or congressional leadership about these attacks.
Crenshaw: Right. There’s a couple things to note here. You know, I don’t know the details of how we got the intelligence that Soleimani was coming into Baghdad International Airport. But I do know, just from my own experience, that these things are often times sensitive targets. It’s highly likely that intelligence came in rather quickly and a decision had to be made. We should also note the audacity of Soleimani coming into Baghdad after he just orchestrated an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, to meet with Kata’ib Hezbollah, the Shia militia they support who attacked U.S. interests. The audacity of that is interesting in and of itself. As far as authorization on this specific air strike, I think it clearly falls under the War Powers Resolution, which does say the president can act in the defense of American forces abroad or simply U.S. Personnel abroad, or domestically in case of emergency. And I really do think that this clearly falls into that category considering the facts we know and considering what we’ve been told by Secretary Pompeo that further attacks were imminent. And again, talking about the escalation ladder, we can intuit that there were other attacks coming.
Velshi: Let me give you some news we have right now from the State Department. A senior State Department official has now said the imminent attacks by Soleimani targeted U.S. Diplomats, U.S. Military personnel, and facilities that house Americans in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and other regions in the Middle East. Congressman Crenshaw, I just want to push this issue a little bit with you because there may be a day when you as a Republican are facing a Democratic president and we have had this sort of discussion no matter who the president is, right? The president takes the advice that they’ve got. They order attacks. People die. And there are consequences to them. Do you think that there is an amount of time in which the administration has got to provide you, us, or at least congressional leadership with a solid justification for something that will escalate tensions between the United States and Iran?
Crenshaw: Yes. I definitely want to live in that world where there’s a close working relationship between the Executive Branch and Congress and unfortunately, as you know, that relationship has been strained as of late. And I want to push back a little bit. I don’t remember anybody wringing their hands when President Obama ordered a strike on our sovereign territory of our ally, Pakistan, to kill Osama Bin Laden. All right. I think we cheered that.
Velshi: I definitely do, congressman. I definitely do. I think there was hearty conversation, as there should have been. I think you would agree with that, right? There should always be hearty conversation, criticism, and analysis of a strike in which people are killed using American forces.
Crenshaw: Yeah. Again, I don’t disagree with that. Again, I just want to point out I think we were pretty unified under President Obama when he made that strike. And there were consequences to that, we got kicked out of Pakistan. Our relationship with them were highly strained. It set off a whole bunch of other consequences.
Velshi: That’s true.
Crenshaw: I want us to be unified on this one too because I think that’s really important. And I understand the concern. We should all take those seriously. And we should ask the administration to deliver those classified briefings to both the House and the Senate. I fully support that. And then I think we should be unified in supporting what comes next. And it’s not going to be easy. And as I’ve said before, I think there will be a tit-for-tat retaliation. I think it was already going to happen, as you just noted. The State Department said there was intelligence saying there was going to be more attacks. And, again, I think we could intuit that that was going to happen. There was a very deliberate escalation of violence against the United States from Iran that we’ve seen over the past year or couple years. And I think that was just going to continue. And it was time that we drew that red line and made them recalculate how they thought about attacking us. And so I think we should then – we should now unify in how we’re going to confront what comes next.
Velshi: Congressman, I appreciate your time. I’m always cautious when I – when I push back with you because of the very specific experience you have had both in Congress and in the military. And often, when I talk to you, you’re on TV so our viewers can see you. But if they can’t see you, it is always worth remembering you have paid quite a price for deploying in our nation’s service to keep Americans safe. You lost an eye because of it. But I appreciate your willingness to come on and have the very, very important conversation that has to be had when we employ force in what we say to be the nation’s interest. Congressman Dan Crenshaw of Texas is a retired lieutenant commander and a former Navy SEAL whose deployments have included Iraq and Afghanistan.