Rep. Dan Crenshaw was confronted by a handful of progressive veterans who bill themselves as “Common Defense,” an anti-Trump group. As you can see in the clip they posted yesterday, their basic strategy was to follow Rep. Crenshaw down the hall as he was on his way to a vote and urge him to turn on the president. The guy doing most of the talking keeps rambling and doesn’t let up.

“We need your leadership right now. How can you be complicit in this man’s crimes? It is immoral. It’s laid out clearly in the Mueller report,” he said.

Rep. Crenshaw tried to get a word in but his pursuer just kept talking over him.

“As a fellow wounded veteran, how can you let him take us into another war?” another member of the group asked.

“What war is he taking us into?” Crenshaw asked while the first guy continued talking over him.

“Iran,” the second guy replied.

Meanwhile, the first guy is getting himself more worked up. His voice is getting louder: “How are you going to just let him lock kids in cages? Like, come on, dude!”

Crenshaw turned, looked directly at him and replied, “You need to calm down.”

“Are you kidding me?!”

“No,” Crenshaw said.

“You need to get your courage back. C’mon,” the first guy said.

“Courage? You’re going to talk to me about courage?” Crenshaw replied as the man kept talking over him.

Finally, Crenshaw reached a members-only elevator. As the first guy kept up the shouting, Crenshaw replied, “You haven’t made one actual point.”

“Read the Meuller report!” the guy shouted back.

“I’ve read the Mueller report. Have you?” Crenshaw replied.

When the elevator opened, Crenshaw got on. The first guy hesitated and then got on with him. Crenshaw pointed out the elevator was reserved for Members of Congress. “You got to make your video. You didn’t come here to have a conversation,” Crenshaw said. The first guy wouldn’t leave so Crenshaw pushed a button to close the door. Another member of the group pulled the door open and got on the elevator with the camera.

“You’re going to let a criminal get away with our democracy,” the first guy continued.

“You repeating things is not a conversation,” Crenshaw replied.

Finally, the doors opened and Crenshaw left the elevator. The first guy continued shouting about democracy at his back.

That’s what happened. You can see it for yourself in the clip below. But here’s how it was “reported” by Newsweek in a story headlined “GOP REP. DAN CRENSHAW TRIES TO HIDE IN ELEVATOR WHILE CONFRONTED BY COMBAT VETERANS OVER HIS SUPPORT FOR TRUMP: ‘DO YOUR DUTY'”

Republican congressman Dan Crenshaw unsuccessfully tried to lose two combat veterans by ducking into a private elevator as they confronted him about his support for President Donald Trump in Washington, D.C. on Thursday…

“You got to make your video. You didn’t come here to have a conversation,” Crenshaw said as he held the elevator open and gestured for Hurd to leave. “As veterans we should be smarter about how we talk about things.”

The congressman attempted to close the elevator door with Hurd still inside, but Pitts quickly reopened it. Crenshaw then left the elevator without riding it and stormed away.

First of all, Crenshaw didn’t try to “hide” in the elevator and he didn’t leave the elevator without riding it as Newsweek claims. Crenshaw clearly gets off on a different floor than the one he got on and continues to where he was going. But I guess that doesn’t make for as juicy a headline.

What I see in this clip is one loud guy shouting at Crenshaw and talking over him (and his buddies) while another guy shoots a video. Crenshaw, not surprisingly, wasn’t interested in being shouted at by someone who clearly didn’t want to have a dialogue and continued on his way. This elevator stunt may have worked on Jeff Flake but it didn’t work on Dan Crenshaw.

GOP Rep @DanCrenshawTX hid in an elevator today when combat vets confronted him about his support for Donald Trump.

We’re standing up for our democracy and holding Trump's cronies accountable. Join us: https://t.co/1pTmoYMH1d pic.twitter.com/5VKiPN8mpa

— Common Defense (@commondefense) September 20, 2019

Fortunately, some people are able to see what happened here even if Newsweek isn’t:

So you have video of Crenshaw in the elevator with the camera on him (that's hiding?) while he remained calm and took a raft of crap from a Trump hater.

Crenshaw was right. You guys simply wanted to make a video.

Nice try.

— Rich Weinstein (@phillyrich1) September 20, 2019

This is exactly what the video shows. You all did not want to talk but to hurl crafted accusations to try to force a response to paint him in a bad light. I am surprised Dan have you the time that he did.

— Ordo Incendium (@ordoincendium) September 20, 2019

https://twitter.com/IKeepStandingUp/status/1174880540580864002