Monday on Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends,” Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) offered an update on the coronavirus pandemic in his home state of Texas.
Crenshaw acknowledged a spike was underway and that local officials are urging people to adhere to the proper guidance. However, he also noted that Texas was not as bad off as it is being portrayed in the media and that there was still hospital space available or that could be made available if needed.
“We’re definitely concerned, and we’re always going to tell people to keep taking precautions, wear your mask when you’re in confined spaces with other people, always wash your hands and social distance to the extent that you can, but we don’t need to go back to full-on universal lockdowns either,” he said. “You know, it’s important to note something about comparing things in Texas. If you asked average Americans right now, based on media coverage, who do you think is doing better, Germany or Texas, overwhelmingly everybody would say Germany, they’re highlighted as this great success story in the COVID story — in the COVID narrative. The reality is, Texas still has a lower death rate than Germany. In New York, they have 20 times the death rate that Texas does. California has twice the death rate that Texas does.”
“There was also some falsehoods put out about our ICU space, especially in the Houston area,” Crenshaw continued. “We can surge up to a couple thousand more ICU spaces just in the Houston area, and our hospital administrators came out and said, listen, this is not eclipsing our capabilities. People should take precautions. We want them to. But we’re going to get through this. It’s a virus without a vaccine, and we always knew this kind of thing would happen, especially when we had tens of thousands of people in the streets just a couple weeks ago. OK, this should have surprised no one.”
When asked by Brian Kilmeade about the protests and how some are downplaying the impact and attributing the spike to other factors, Crenshaw rejected the notion that protests had nothing to do with it.
“Don’t believe your lying eyes,” Crenshaw replied. “Everybody wants to say it was a few people hanging out at bars that caused this. That’s not true. Listen, Texas has been reopening since May 1. OK, we’ve been getting back to normalcy since May 1, and everything was declining as a result. Cases were declining. This spikes happened after tens of thousands of people got together in close proximity. Again, there’s nothing wrong with saying that. That’s — that’s just the truth, and we’re just dealing with it now. It’s not about blaming anybody. It’s just about being honest with causes and effects.”
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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