Texas Republican says CNN anchor ‘wanted to lecture’ her in contentious interview

Texas Republican Rep. Beth Van Duyne claimed CNN anchor Brianna Keilar ‘wanted to lecture’ her, following a heated back-and-forth about border security provisions between the two.

“I’m happy to debate, but it didn’t seem as if [Keilar] wanted to debate, it seemed like she wanted to lecture,” Van Duyne told Fox News Digital about her recent interview with Keilar. “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 — in an interview Tuesday with Van Duyne on “CNN News Central” — pressed Van Duyne on the House GOP’s efforts to secure the U.S. southern border. She specifically asked the lawmaker about her vote last spring for the House’s Secure the Border Act — or H.R. 2 — after she said earlier this week the U.S. does not need “new laws,” but rather the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, to address the border situation.

H.R. 2 would’ve significantly restricted the asylum process and established a new surveillance system to curb regional migration and crack down on the existing undocumented population, according to the bill text. The bill passed in the GOP-controlled House last year with no Democratic support.

Van Duyne pushed back that H.R. 2 was not a new law, but rather a “mechanism” to “force” the Biden administration to stop “ignoring” the country’s existing laws on immigration.

Keilar later pressed Van Duyne on House Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) rejection of the Senate’s latest emergency defense funding bill that notably does not include any border security provisions, and argued Johnson’s request would actually need new laws.

The Texas Republican said H.R. 2 would have removed “catch and release,” or the humanitarian parole of migrants, and spoke about her experience as mayor of Irving, Texas, and her previous partnership with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Keilar interrupted Van Duyne then, saying, “First off, illegal immigrants’ criminal conviction rate is 45 percent below that of native-born Americans in your state, just to be clear. When you raise the specter of, ‘They create so many crimes, they’re convicted’ … I mean, when it comes to violent crimes, property crimes, homicides, sex crimes, you’ve talked in the past about rapes — the numbers just don’t support that. But let’s focus on catch and release.”

Van Duyne replied, “But your argument is we’re defending those people that are here illegally,” which prompted Keilar to say, “Let’s focus on catch and release. Can we focus on catch and release because I do think —”

“You just … brought up the question, I just want to make sure we’re responding,” Van Duyne said, to which Kaiser noted she was “fact-checking” the lawmaker.

Van Duyne then accused Keilar of “defending” those immigrants, whom the Texas Republican claimed are “beating our police officers.”

Keilar pushed back and stated she did not say that and “absolutely do[es] not think that is okay.” She said the lawmaker was “misunderstanding” where she was coming from.

The CNN anchor brought the conversation back to the topic of catch and release, saying that when the practice is examined, “you have to look at what’s causing it, and it’s judicial backlog.”

Keilar pointed to the Senate’s collapsed border deal, which she contended would have cracked down on the practice of humanitarian parole. The deal included significant concessions for Democrats on border security and would’ve unlocked aid for Ukraine.

Van Duyne repeatedly interrupted Keilar to insist the deal would not have done that, before Keilar threatened to “cut the interview off” if the lawmaker would not let her speak.

The Texas Republican later told Fox News Digital she believed Keilar did not give her the chance to respond to her “outlandish statements.”

“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.

When reached for a comment, CNN pointed The Hill to their comment given to Fox earlier this week, which stated,  “Brianna’s nearly 13 minute interview with Rep. Van Duyne speaks for itself.”

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