Rep. Dan Crenshaw slams House Freedom Caucus members as 'grifters,' 'performance artists'

• Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas called House Freedom Caucus members "grifters," "performance artists"
• Crenshaw criticized the caucus during a Texas Liberty Alliance PAC event Sunday.

The conservative House Freedom Caucus is full of "grifters" and "performance artists," according to Rep. Dan Crenshaw, who slammed caucus members during a Texas Liberty Alliance PAC event.

In a clip posted to Twitter on Tuesday, the Texas Republican and former U.S. Navy SEAL questioned the devotion of caucus conservatives to former President Donald Trump over the weekend. 

"In the first two years of Trump's presidency, when Republicans were in control, when every single time we were voting on Donald Trump's agenda, who do you think was at the top of that list voting with Trump and who do you think was at the bottom?" Crenshaw said. "You know who was at the bottom? Everybody in the Freedom Caucus. All of them."

The caucus comprises the most conservative members of Congress.

"I've been in Congress for almost three years now. There's two types of members of Congress: There's performance artists, there's legislators," Crenshaw said. "Now, the performance artists are the ones that get all the attention. They're the ones you think are more conservative because they know how to say slogans real well. They know how to recite the lines that they know that our voters want to hear."

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Crenshaw, who was elected to Congress in 2018, voted in line with Trump 90.8% of the time during the 116th Congress, according to FiveThirtyEight. He went on to describe those who inconsistently support Trump as "grifters."

"We have grifters in our midst. I mean in the conservative movement," Crenshaw said. "Lie after lie after lie because they know something psychologically about the conservative heart. We're worried about what people are going to do to us, what they're going to infringe on us."

One consistent supporter during Trump's first years in office, Crenshaw said, was Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., now a vocal critic of the former president.

Kinzinger voted in line with Trump's policies 99% of the time from 2017-2019 during the 115th Congress, according to FiveThirtyEight. But he voted to impeach the former president earlier this year after a mob of Trump supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Kinzinger has said he will not seek reelection.

In November, the caucus chose Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa. to succeed Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., as chair. In the first years of Trump's presidency, Perry voted more consistently for Trump's policies than Biggs; 85% and 73%, respectively, according to FiveThirtyEight.

Reach out to Chelsey Cox on Twitter at @therealco.