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Dan Crenshaw Calls Out Bernie Sanders for 'Pandering' to Vets: 'Now It's Personal'

By Joe Setyon September 20, 2019 at 11:01am

Texas Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw, a former U.S. Navy SEAL, blasted 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders this week for “pandering” to military veterans.

It all started Sunday, when the Vermont senator tried to make a point about how veterans are taken care of in the United States.

“If you can’t afford to take care of your veterans, then don’t go to war,” Sanders tweeted.

If you can’t afford to take care of your veterans, then don’t go to war.

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) September 16, 2019

Crenshaw, who lost his eye in a combat injury sustained in 2012 in Afghanistan, wasn’t having it.

This time, he said, Sanders’ pandering is “personal.”

Do you think Bernie Sanders is truly concerned about America's veterans?

“Watching Bernie pander to different groups to get their vote has always disgusted me, but now it’s personal,” Crenshaw tweeted Tuesday.

“I didn’t go to war so that you would take care of me, Bernie,” he added. “I went because I wanted to serve and our country needed it.”

Watching Bernie pander to different groups to get their vote has always disgusted me, but now it’s personal.

I didn’t go to war so that you would take care of me, Bernie. I went because I wanted to serve and our country needed it. https://t.co/ADhxrvtIA9

— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) September 17, 2019

Speaking Thursday on Fox News, Crenshaw expounded on why he hates to see politicians like Sanders “pandering” to veterans.

“I have always disliked it when politicians start pandering to veterans and telling us how bad we have it and that if we just vote for them that they’ll fix all of our problems,” Crenshaw told “Fox & Friends.”

“That’s just not true,” he said.

“It also gets to a really false choice, which is why we went to war in the first place,” the congressman said. “I went there because our country needed it. We went there because it was in the best interest of our country.”

Crenshaw said Sanders is trying to divide Americans on caring for veterans, something he said should be a “bipartisan issue.”

“That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take care of our veterans, but this is also, another, I think, falsehood that Bernie is spreading,” he said.

“He’s trying to rile people up,” Crenshaw added. “He’s trying to make people angry. He’s trying to tell … veterans that they are victims. And that only he can take care of them. I just think that’s such a dishonest way to do politics, and I think he should be called out for it.”

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Tags:

2020 election, Bernie Sanders, Dan Crenshaw, Democratic primary, Military, U.S. News, Veterans

Joe Setyon

Deputy Managing Editor, Editorial

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Joe Setyon was a deputy managing editor for The Western Journal who had spent his entire professional career in editing and reporting. He previously worked in Washington, D.C., as an assistant editor/reporter for Reason magazine.

@JoeSetyon

Joe Setyon was deputy managing editor for The Western Journal with several years of copy editing and reporting experience. He graduated with a degree in communication studies from Grove City College, where he served as managing editor of the student-run newspaper. Joe previously worked as an assistant editor/reporter for Reason magazine, a libertarian publication in Washington, D.C., where he covered politics and wrote about government waste and abuse.

Birthplace

Brooklyn, New York

Topics of Expertise

Sports, Politics