CNN host threatens to cut off heated interview on border security with GOP lawmaker: 'May I speak?'
CNN anchor Brianna Keilar and Rep. Beth Van Duyne, R-Texas, got into a heated exchange over U.S. southern border security this week that had the anchor threatening to cut the interview out of frustration.
Texas Republican Rep. Beth Van Duyne reflected on her heated interview with CNN this week, calling anchor Brianna Keilar's comments about the border crisis "shocking."
"I'm happy to debate, but it didn't seem as if she wanted to debate, it seemed like she wanted to lecture," Van Duyne told Fox News Digital about their viral daytime interview. "She invited me on the show. If she didn't want to have a debate or conversation next time just put my picture up and don't waste my time."
Keilar sparred with Van Duyne on Tuesday over the lawmaker's efforts to compel President Biden to enforce existing border law. Tensions flared when Van Duyne insisted that the Biden administration was ignoring border security and that tens of thousands of Americans had died because of the large amounts of fentanyl coming across the border.
The CNN host pushed back against the GOP lawmaker's comments, telling her that data shows illegal immigrants commit fewer crimes than U.S. citizens and they are not the ones bringing fentanyl across the border.
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CNN anchor Brianna Keilar sparred with Rep. Beth Van Duyne, R-Texas, about U.S. southern border security on Tuesday. (Screenshot/CNN)
As Van Duyne tried to respond to Keilar's claim about illegal immigrants committing fewer violent crimes than U.S. citizens, the journalist hurriedly attempted to change the topic.
"You brought up the question. I just want to make sure we’re responding," the Republican said as the two talked over each other. Keilar retorted she was just "fact-checking" her guest.
During another part of the thirteen-minute interview, the CNN host pushed back on Van Duyne blaming the border crisis for why fentanyl overdoses have spiked in cities across the United States.
Keilar repeatedly claimed "American citizens" were bringing fentanyl into the United States. She was citing a study based on data from the U.S. Sentencing Commission which found 88 percent of convicted federal fentanyl traffickers were U.S. citizens in the 2022 fiscal year.
In a Wednesday phone interview, Van Duyne said Keilar did not give her a chance to respond to her "outlandish statements."
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Rep. Beth Van Duyne, R-Texas, said over 110,000 Americans have died from Fentanyl in the U.S. because of the lack of border security. (Photo by Paul Bersebach/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images)
"She wanted to throw out some outlandish statements and then expected me not to respond back, didn't even want to give me the time to respond back," she said.
Her argument "completely ignored the fact" that Mexican cartels are responsible for the fentanyl that's coming in across the border, which has resulted in at least 110,000 overdose deaths, Van Duyne argued.
"But she didn't even want to talk about that," she said. "We started talking about some of the crime that was being created in these cities, the people who are here illegally that are committing rapes, that are committing murders, that are killing families through DUIs," she continued. "Again, her point, was not on having those people here, it was specifically, 'Well don't you know that more Americans commit crimes than illegal immigrants?' And that seemed to be her argument, which was just shocking to me," she continued.
When reached for comment, CNN responded to the Republican's claims, "Brianna’s nearly 13 minute interview with Rep. Van Duyne speaks for itself."
Van Duyne relayed to Fox News Digital that she regularly meets with law enforcement officials in Texas who tell her that violent crimes and fentanyl overdoses have skyrocketed in the past few years.
Border patrol agents at the southern border arrested two men with child sex offenses and another with a murder conviction attempting to cross into the country. (Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens and Border patrol Chief Agent for Tucson John Modlin)
"And they will tell you that when they're looking at fentanyl, fentanyl deaths, sex trafficking, gang activities and violent crimes, they will tell you that there are up in all of those categories, and up in some cases by triple digits. When they're looking at the amount of fentanyl that they have come in contact with, the number of overdoses that they have seen, those are up in some cases, over 1,000%," she said.
The Biden administration's catch-and-release policy has allowed unvetted migrants to enter the country and endanger American citizens, she argued.
"We don't know who's in our country. We don't know where they're from. We don't know if they want to do us harm. But those are the policies that have been instilled by this administration, and they've completely ignored the policies that were working before, such as the Remain in Mexico policy and Title 42," Van Duyne said.
The House of Representatives voted Tuesday to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, accusing him of deliberately flaunting existing immigration law and worsening the crisis at the border. His impeachment trial will begin later this month.
Fox News' Gabriel Hays, Elizabeth Elkind and Bradford Betz contributed to this report.
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