dan.crenshaw
Rep. Dan Crenshaw, a Republican from Texas.
Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call
  • Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw was harassed at a fundraiser for insisting the election wasn't stolen.
  • A man at the event promoted the conspiracy theory that Trump actually won several key states, including Arizona.
  • "Five different states? Hundreds of thousands of votes? You're kidding yourself," Crenshaw said.
  • See more stories on Insider's business page.

Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw, an ally of former President Donald Trump, was harassed at a fundraiser for insisting that the 2020 presidential election wasn't "rigged," as Trump and many Republicans falsely claim.

"There's certain states with problems, but don't kid yourself into believing that's why we lost," the Texas Republican told the crowd of supporters at a donor event in Illinois. "It's not. I'll tell you openly."

"You're wrong," Bobby Piton, a GOP activist and Illinois-based financial planner, called out.

"No, I'm not," Crenshaw replied.

"I have plenty of proof. I have proof in Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Georgia," Piton went on, before claiming the controversial right-wing effort to "audit" Arizona's vote count would "flip" the state's presidential outcome. On Twitter, he took credit later for exposing "yet another corrupt politician."

Crenshaw insisted that Arizona and the other states wouldn't flip.

"I'm not going to argue with this. You gotta accept this," he said. "Was there a lot of voter fraud? Yeah, there probably is. Enough that Trump won? No, absolutely not," Crenshaw said. "Five different states? Hundreds of thousands of votes? You're kidding yourself."

Arizona election officials have found just 182 cases of potential voter fraud out of more than 3 million ballots cast in a state Biden won by 10,000 votes.

Crenshaw, who voted to certify the election in January, has argued that the country should "move on" from his party's election lies and has repeatedly downplayed the GOP's ongoing efforts to undermine democratic norms and institutions. In a heated exchange on "Meet the Press" earlier this year, Crenshaw accused the "largely liberal" press of insisting on relitigating the 2020 election.

"We're five months into President Biden's presidency, and there is a time to move on," Crenshaw told host Chuck Todd in May. "And look, the - you guys in the press love doing this and I - and I get it, right? The press is largely liberal."

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