Dan Crenshaw heckled at fundraiser after acknowledging Biden’s 2020 election victory

Rep. Dan Crenshaw was heckled by Trump supporters on Wednesday, after he disputed the former president’s unproven claims that the 2020 election was fraudulent. 

Mr. Crenshaw, Texas Republican, got into a dispute with Illinois Senate candidate Bobby Piton over the matter while appearing at a fundraiser for the Illinois Republican Party. 

“Don’t kid yourself into believing [fraud is] why we lost. It’s not,” Mr. Crenshaw said, before being interrupted by Mr. Piton who tells the lawmaker “you’re wrong.”

Mr. Piton argued with Mr. Crenshaw that he had “plenty of proof” referring largely to the ongoing GOP-initiated audit in Maricopa County in Arizona. 

“It’s going to turn out and it’s going to flip. You watch,” Mr. Piton said. 

Some attendees can be seen pointing to Mr. Piton, saying “He’s right.”

“I’m not going to argue with this. This is something you got to accept,” Mr. Crenshaw said. “Is there a lot of voter fraud? Yeah, there probably is, but enough that Trump won? No, absolutely not. Five different states. Hundreds of thousands of votes. You’re kidding yourself.”

Mr. Trump and his supporters have continued pushing theories that the 2020 election was mired in voter fraud that made President Biden the illegitimate victor. 

“You know when you win and when you lose,” Mr. Trump said during a speech in Phoenix last month. “If I lost this election, I could handle it pretty easily. When they steal it from you and rig it, that’s not easy. We have to fight. We have no choice.”

Mr. Trump has also made it a point to attack Republicans who objected to his claims as being Republicans-in-name-only, an accusation put on Mr. Crenshaw after his recent comments.

Mr. Piton, one of several Republicans vying to flip incumbent Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth’s seat in 2022, encouraged Mr. Crenshaw to be primaried in his reelection to the House.

“It is disgusting to hear denials from a sitting do-nothing and intellectually dishonest Congressman in our House of Representatives,” a Facebook post on Mr. Piton’s campaign page read. “Crenshaw has done nothing but shill for the democrats and refuse to even see or hear the evidence of fraud.”

Mr. Piton also touted his own research into election voter data files in states like Georgia, Pennsylvania, Florida, Texas, and other states. The candidate said he also helped with canvassing efforts for the Maricopa audit.

“Piton has been in the fire for the last 9 months putting everything on the line working with many states. No way will he be backing down,” the post read. 

A June poll by Monmouth University found that nearly one-third, 32%, of Americans believed Mr. Biden is in office due to voter fraud.

The poll also found that 33% of respondents saw ongoing election audits as “legitimate efforts” to identify election irregularities. More than 60% of Republicans held the same view.

The poll surveyed 810 adults by phone between June 9-14. It had a margin of error of +/-3.5.