John-
Dan Crenshaw here.
The question that has been on the minds of every American these past few days is simple: what is going on in the skies above our country? With the shootdown of unidentified aerial phenomenons (UAPs) in recent days this is an understandable question to ask, but one the Biden Administration is having a difficult time answering. This week, I received a briefing from top military leaders about these objects and I’ll share what I learned below. I also went down to the border this week as part of a field hearing the Energy and Commerce Committee held on the fentanyl crisis that is killing tens of thousands of Americans every year. The hearing got heated when one of the Democrat witnesses ridiculously claimed that the fentanyl crisis and the border crisis are completely unrelated, and I made sure to debunk that lie. You can watch the full exchange in the hearing clip I included below.
As always, thank you for your support.
Now, here’s your brief:
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WHAT IS GOING ON UP THERE? |
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Joe Biden seemed to be deliberately avoiding speaking to the nation about the recent shoot-down of “objects” over U.S. airspace in recent weeks. In fact, it took him more than two weeks to publicly address the nation regarding violations of U.S. airspace and all we got from the president was seven minutes of scripted remarks with no questions answered. That is a big mistake.
Scrambling jets to shoot missiles at unknown objects above America is unprecedented and the American people are understandably asking for answers to basic questions. Even if the Biden Administration did not know *exactly* what the capabilities, origin, and purpose of these objects were, they should have explained that to the American people at the outset and assured all of us that they are getting to the bottom of it.
Top military leaders provided a briefing to Members of Congress this week on what they know so far about the objects that were shot down. Here’s what I learned:
- We still don’t know what these other three objects were. Joe Biden claimed this week that they might be objects from private companies that drifted into commercial air space, but that remains unclear. We’re calling them unidentified aerial phenomenons (UAPs) for now. We knew exactly what the China spy balloon was, and immediate steps were taken to stop its data from being sent to China.
- The UAPs were in Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) commercial zones, which means they were flying in the general vicinity and altitudes used by passenger aircraft. These objects had no signals or navigation lights. The first two UAPs were smaller, the size of an ATV, and harder to detect. The third resembled a balloon, and was easier for the radar to pick up. All moved with wind currents, which indicates these objects did not have propulsion devices like propellers or engines.
- Why are we just now seeing them? Heightened surveillance means we’re tracking more objects. These objects passed near Department of Defense facilities, and posed a danger to commercial aircraft, which is why they were shot down. This is different from the Chinese surveillance balloon, which posed no threat to civilian aircraft because it was flying above 60,000 feet.
- Newer technology has allowed for better detection in recent years. UAPs weren’t detected before because our radars were not adjusted for slow-moving objects. Our radars are designed to track things like incoming missiles, which move at an incredibly faster speed than these objects.
There’s obviously still a lot we don’t know and in some ways this briefing and Joe Biden’s remarks sparked more questions than answers. I’m going to continue pushing for transparency so Americans know what’s going on in the skies above their country.
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THE FENTANYL CRISIS AND THE BORDER CRISIS ARE CONNECTED |
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The fentanyl crisis hits every corner of this country and it’s killing Americans –especially young Americans –in every community. In Texas, a man was arrested this week in connection with dealing fentanyl-laced drugs to middle and high school students just north of Dallas. Three students died from fatal overdoses after taking these drugs.
It is hard to wrap your mind around just how pervasive and dangerous this crisis is, but just think about this: The DEA seized enough fentanyl last year to kill every American citizen. And that is just the fentanyl that was seized. It does not include all of the fentanyl that slipped through the cracks and made it into our country.
Make no mistake about it, the fentanyl crisis and the border crisis are connected. Chinese suppliers ship fentanyl precursors to the drug cartels in Mexico. The Mexican drug cartels manufacture the fentanyl and disguise it as candy, common street drugs like oxycontin, or lace it into other illicit narcotics like heroin and cocaine. The cartels take advantage of the chaos on our southern border to traffic this poison across our country and into the hands of drug dealers who then sell it to young people who have no idea what they are taking. The cartels are able to do this with relative ease because Border Patrol and Customs agents are distracted with a surge of illegal immigrants and we simply don’t have enough man-power to check every single vehicle passing through a point of entry or block the gaps between these entry points on our border.
Despite the fact that this crisis killed more than 70,000 Americans in one year – more than the entire Vietnam War – Joe Biden refuses to take serious action against the cartels or stop the Chinese from shipping the materials needed to make this poison to Mexico.
I’ve introduced legislation that would give the administration more tools to target the Mexican drug cartels, but we need to pressure Joe Biden and Congressional Democrats to join my bills so we can get them across the finish line and start to take real action against the cartels.
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FENTANYL HEARING AT THE SOUTHERN BORDER |
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House Republicans promised to hold Congressional hearings on the southern border once we took back the majority and that is exactly what we did this week at the Energy and Commerce Committee. I sit on the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, and we traveled to the Rio Grande Valley this week to hold an oversight hearing on the fentanyl crisis that is killing Americans.
The hearing got heated when one of the Democrat witnesses (a failed leftist candidate for Texas Attorney General) had the audacity to claim that the border crisis and fentanyl crisis aren’t linked, insisted the crises are being used by Republicans for political talking points, and even questioned why our hearing was being held at the border at all. The witness was either willfully ignorant or too blinded by her political leanings to recognize this simple truth: the fentanyl crisis is linked to the illegal immigration crisis, and BOTH are fueled by the cartels.
Unfortunately, this is the mindset carried by many on the left including Joe Biden. Remember, during Biden’s State of the Union address he mentioned the fentanyl crisis but failed to call out the Mexican drug cartels that are fueling the crisis in the first place. He also refused to acknowledge that the border crisis he created is contributing to fatal fentanyl overdoses all across our nation. And when Democrats in Congress talk about the fentanyl crisis they talk about it like it is a traditional addiction problem that can be solved with traditional addiction treatment. They fail to recognize the root causes of this problem: an illegal immigration crisis and the Mexican drug cartels that are profiting from both human and fentanyl smuggling across our southern border. The reason they do this is because they believe that acknowledging the root causes will implicate the left’s policy failures at the southern border. If they acknowledge the root causes, they cannot afford to ignore it and must join Republicans in our efforts to both control the southern border and take on the Mexican drug cartels.
Americans know that the fentanyl crisis is fueled in part by the illegal immigration crisis. This is common sense. Solving this problem should not be partisan. This is a common enemy we face as Americans and we must all come to the table to produce solutions that fix our open border and cause pain for the cartels that are killing Americans.
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“Back in the thirties we were told we must collectivize the nation because the people were so poor. Now we are told we must collectivize the nation because the people are so rich.”
-William F. Buckley
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That’s it for this week’s campaign brief. Thanks for reading.
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If you'd prefer to donate by check, please make your check payable and mail to: Dan Crenshaw for Congress, 5900 Memorial Drive, Suite 215, Houston, TX 77007.
Any questions, comments, or concerns? Simply reply to this email or give Team Crenshaw a call at 281-888-4016.
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PAID FOR BY DAN CRENSHAW FOR CONGRESS |
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