Appearing Thursday on Hugh Hewitt’s nationally syndicated radio show, Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) tampered down expectations of mounting a possible campaign for the White House in 2024.
A partial transcript is as follows:
HUGH HEWITT: So Congressman, before I go to your anti-lockdown act, which is overdue and very timely, and I want to talk about it, Mike Pompeo got asked by Sean Hannity last night if he’s running in 2024. So I’ve got to ask you. Have you ruled out a presidential run in 2024?
CRENSHAW: I’d say yeah, pretty much. It doesn’t seem very tempting.
HEWITT: You’re kidding me. People are expecting you to run.
CRENSHAW: Yeah. I don’t think so. I don’t know. It’s not tempting. It’s also four years away. I don’t think, I think we’re tripping all over ourselves trying to figure out who’s going to be on the ticket in four years. And it’s a lot, a lot…
HEWITT: Do you know why that is? It has the feel, Congressman, of an end, it has the feel of W. after two terms and Obama after two terms where you know that the incumbent won’t be in the race. And so the race starts very early, because you’re not running against an incumbent with the uphill that it matters. It’s not 2012, and it’s not 2004. People assume Joe Biden won’t be running again. That’s why there’s speculation.
CRENSHAW: Yeah, that’s a pretty fair assessment. You know, I think there could still be speculation, but I think you’re right. I mean, I think Joe Biden would probably agree with you, too. It certainly seems that way. You know, I just don’t put a bunch of thought into it. We’re all getting asked this a lot, like who’s the leader now, who do we follow. Follow yourself.
HEWITT: Yeah, I always frame it this way. Have you ruled it out? Because if you’ve ruled it out, that’s great, and if you haven’t ruled it out, that’s fine, too, but it keeps people without saying who’s the leader, because I think it’s silly to predict leaders at this point. I mean, a meteor could hit the United States by 2024.
REP. CRENSHAW: Yeah. Well, right, but you see a lot of people, like, is Trump still the leader. I mean, that’s the real question, right? Is Trump still the leader? And I say well, I mean not technically, no. Who’s the leader of the Democrats before Biden was president? Was it Pelosi? Was it Schumer? You know, it’s not clear. It’s not meant to be clear. I think there’s a lot of pushing and pulling from either side of the party. And I think everybody needs to chill just a little bit and let it happen as it will, because then something will emerge. But yeah, I would say pretty much, pretty much ruled it out.