Crenshaw, Maher clash over Trump: Is goal to make president 'look bad' or 'get to the truth'?

Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, had a fierce debate with "Real Time" host Bill Maher on Friday over President Trump's handling of the coronavirus outbreak -- one that examined the president's "style" of communicating versus the substance of his policies.
During the discussion, Crenshaw said some fundamental questions need to be asked whenever anyone criticizes the president.
"When people make these accusations," Crenshaw said, "I have to ask them: Is the goal to make Trump look bad or is the goal to get to the truth? Because there are two separate sets of answers for that."

"Is the goal to make Trump look bad or is the goal to get to the truth? Because there are two separate sets of answers for that." 
— U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas

Maher began by pressing Crenshaw, who served as a Navy SEAL, to defend his support for Trump, a president who Maher said has "pass-the-buck, lie, finger-point, and shirk-responsibility" tendencies.
Crenshaw responded by expressing his support for the country and acknowledging that, "the president's success is certainly tied to the success of the country."
The congressman added that he and other GOP lawmakers are frequently asked by the media to defend their support of the president.
"Republicans always get asked this question and this demand where we have to answer, 'What do we feel about him? Don't you want to comment about his latest tweet and the way he lashed out? And no, I don't," Crenshaw said. "I can't defend everything. He doesn't have the same style as I do. I don't consider him to be my spiritual guide by any means."
The "Real Time" host then grilled Crenshaw on Trump's actions instead of his "style," pointing to reports that the president "was warned" by various aides about the severity of the coronavirus outbreak weeks before it became a global crisis. Crenshaw pushed back, pointing to Trump's travel ban on China.
Maher then challenged Crenshaw on the travel ban, accusing Trump of "lying" about it since people "are still coming in" from China and said Trump's order affected only "foreign nationals."
"The reality is about 40,000 people came in after that," Crenshaw said. "These were U.S. citizens and green-card holders and passport holders being repatriated. U.S. citizens. So you have to make the argument then that we shouldn't allow them in.
"It sounds to me that you're fully agreeing with President Trump on this one and everybody else disagreed with him," he told Maher. "And if you're saying that the travel restriction should have been more extreme, then fine. You clearly had the foresight back then but nobody else did."

"If you're saying that the travel restriction should have been more extreme, then fine. You clearly had the foresight back then but nobody else did."
— U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas

Crenshaw then knocked former Vice President Joe Biden, who disapproved of Trump's travel ban at the time, as well as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., for posing legislation to stop it. He also pushed back at Maher's "timeline" critical of the president's alleged inaction, citing a House vote Pelosi oversaw for banning flavored tobacco instead of prioritizing the growing pandemic.
"Your criticism appears to be based on one thing -- that Trump was overly optimistic," Crenshaw said. "That's his style. You can criticize it, that's fine, but it's not connected to the actions that were actually taken."
The GOP lawmaker also asked Maher whether the American people "would have accepted" a lockdown of the country sooner -- when there were "only 102 cases" of coronavirus in the U.S. on March 3.
"I provide all of that context as we try to basically accuse this man of ... he's being accused of having blood on his hands," Crenshaw said. "And context is so important here. If we're going to criticize somebody's actions, we have to do it with the facts they knew at the time. So I'm just trying to be fair here. I don't really care about defending him or his actions. I just care about letting people know the truth. And when people make these accusations, I have to ask them: Is the goal to make Trump look bad or is the goal to get to the truth? Because there are two separate sets of answers for that."