Rep.-elect Dan Crenshaw (R., Texas) praised President Donald Trump's wall proposal on Wednesday, calling it a "crucial part of any kind of border security."
Crenshaw, a former Navy SEAL who will be sworn in with the 116th Congress on Thursday, appeared on "Fox and Friends" where he talked about the importance of the wall and pushed back against Democrats who criticized the wall and its effectiveness.
"Fox and Friends" co-host Brian Kilmeade asked Crenshaw whether the wall was effective or medieval, appearing to mock Democrats who criticize the wall.
"The wall is effective. It's a crucial part of any kind of border security. I spent a whole career infiltrating places, and you know what? When we come up upon a wall, it matters. We have to plan around it. It's a mitigating factor if you're trying to enter or cross from point A to point B, so that typical argument we hear from Democrats that 'it doesn't make sense, it's too expensive, it's medieval,' I would like to hear some reasoning behind that," Crenshaw said.
He said it's not really about the money for Democrats–like some have argued–and that the requested funding for the border wall is 0.1 percent of the budget.
"Democrats are refusing to budge on this. For them it's about semantics. They hate the word 'wall.' They just hate it, right? And for some reason they don't value this idea of border security. They don't value the sanctity of our borders, and that's really problematic, especially for a border state like Texas. We're on the front lines down there," Crenshaw said.
When asked whether Democrats would budge on negotiations regarding the funding of the wall, he said it was hard to tell, going on to say he thinks Democrats are attempting to score political points against Trump at the expense of the country's security.