The following is the transcript of an interview with GOP Rep. Dan Crenshaw of Texas that aired on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on Feb. 16, 2025.
MARGARET BRENNAN: And we go now to Republican Congressman Dan Crenshaw of Texas, who joins us from the Munich Security Conference. Congressman, thank you for joining us. You recently met with President Zelenskyy of Ukraine, along with a bipartisan group of lawmakers. I understand that he has asked, not just for continued military support now, but security assurances in the event of a peace deal. What can you tell him about what to expect from America?
REP. DAN CRENSHAW: I just- I just came from a lunch where General Kellogg spoke as a Special Envoy leading this effort to establish peace. And he’s very clear that what the kind of peace we’re talking about is a lasting peace, which, of course, involves security assurances. And part of that process is figuring out exactly what that means. Even the Ukrainians are talking about what that means. There’s a variety of options, per se. I think the Europeans have to play a huge role in that. One of the things that gets talked about a lot is, what are European forces actually acting as a peacekeeping force? I’m here to constantly remind the Europeans, and I made this clear in various meetings here today, that, you know, if you want a seat at the table, because this is- this was a contentious issue that came up. You know, the Ukrainians clearly have a seat at the table, and the United States will be the intermediate- intermediary as we try to establish a peace deal. But the Europeans need to demand a seat at the table by- by being uncomfortably aggressive, which is something they haven’t done. They often talk–
MARGARET BRENNAN: — What do you mean? —
REP. DAN CRENSHAW: — about how they have matched U.S.- I’m telling you what I mean. They often talk about how they’ve matched U.S. aid, for instance. And I say, well, you should be doubling it. You should be tripling it. It’s your continent. You should be threatening things to Putin that actually make you uncomfortable, because that’s how- that’s the only language Putin speaks is power. And when General Kellogg is at that table with Putin, he’s only got a finite amount of leverage, and there’s only so much more leverage that the U.S. can- can impose. And if anybody can do it, I think it’s Donald Trump, and he’s already- he’s already said that, that nothing is off the table. Vice President Vance said that nothing is off the table. Economic, military, they will use the amount of leverage they can. My message to European leaders, I’m really not talking to you right now, I’m talking to European leaders right now, is if we want to win, if we want a better outcome for Ukraine, at the end of these peace talks, you need to be uncomfortably aggressive. You need to not just bolster your own defense spending, I mean because that’s a long-term issue. That’s a long term investment. You need to be talking about where you’re going to be putting actual troops on the ground. Stop following our lead and actually take the lead. Let us be actually holding you back. That would be an ideal situation and- and- and vastly change the power dynamic when dealing with Putin
MARGARET BRENNAN: So I just want to understand what you’re describing here. There already is a military security alliance known as NATO. You are saying you think there should be something else, or some other entity providing security assurances for Ukraine?
REP. CRENSHAW: European soldiers. I mean- look, Europeans send aid, right? They send weapons. They do the same things we do, they match it barely. My argument to them is you shouldn’t be matching it. You should be doubling it. You should be tripling it. It’s your continent. Zelenskyy had a- gave a speech today. He talked about a European army, right? So there’s- there’s- there’s a lot of talk about this. Of course, there’s NATO. That’s- that’s a security that’s- that’s a defensive alliance. That’s- that’s- that’s not an army. That’s- we’re talking about different things here. The Europeans need to come together, in my opinion, and have just a much stronger message towards Putin, instead of finger wagging at us about what we’re willing to give and not give in a peace deal. Again, I tell them, look, if you- if you want a seat at the table, earn it. The Ukrainians have earned it. The Ukrainians have impressed everybody for the last three years. They’ve fought valiantly and courageously. They’ve earned my respect. They earned that seat at the table. We need to listen to their- to what they want. We listen to Zelenskyy. And I want to listen to other European leaders as well, but I want them to be uncomfortably aggressive, because that gives us more leverage in order to help Ukraine come out with a better outcome.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay. You said that both President Trump and Vice President Vance were clear, nothing is off the table. However, the Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth did seem, in Brussels, to take things quite explicitly off the table. He said the U.S. does not want Ukraine in NATO and that Ukraine would not return to its pre-2014 borders, which acknowledges giving up some of Crimea and potentially the east. Do you think offering concessions before negotiations begin is a good strategy here?
REP. CRENSHAW: Yeah, I think you have to listen to the White House as a whole. They walked- they walked those back and made it clear that nothing is off- nothing is off the table. So- no, you walk into a negotiation with everything on the table. And I think that’s exactly what this White House is doing and what General Kellogg is, I think, the right guy to do it. And again, I just heard from him speak to a whole group of European leaders. We were there with Ukrainian soldiers, Ukrainian leaders. And look, there’s a path forward here. We don’t know the details yet, because we barely started. It’s less than a month since this administration has been in power, and they want to move fast, and everybody’s a little nervous, but I think they should be much more optimistic than they should be nervous. You needed a seismic shift here. This is not a sustainable operation in Ukraine. If Kamala Harris had been president, you’d be going along the same lines, which is basically funding this war until every Ukrainian is dead. That’s not an end that we can accept. There has to be some talk of negotiation. You know, I remind American people to from- from our perspective, from- from American strategic deterrence perspective, even getting Putin to that table to talk about an end to the war is a massive strategic win for us, because it establishes back our deterrence over time.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Do you know that he is actually committing to come to the table? Secretary of State Rubio said the other day, the Russians haven’t even figured out if they have, you know, picked out negotiators. We don’t have a commitment to actually negotiate from Vladimir Putin.
REP. CRENSHAW: No, we don’t. And you know what would be really helpful? What I said before, if the EU was uncomfortably aggressive about it.
MARGARET BRENNAN: — Got it–
REP. CRENSHAW: Again, Putin only responds to power. And this is- this is what I remind Western leaders here to. Western- Westerners don’t speak that language. Westerners talk about negotiations and- and, you know- and good moral values that we share and we believe each other. That’s not how the East works. They only respond to power.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So, okay, on that point, Vladimir Putin, it sounds like you would agree, is an accused war criminal. He is a dictator. There is a warrant out for his arrest, as you know, he invaded Ukraine. He is clearly a U.S. adversary, but this past week, President Trump said he’d love to have Putin back in the G8 which would make him again a peer global leader. President Trump floated inviting him to the U.S. or even visiting Russia himself. Do you think any of that is appropriate?
REP. CRENSHAW: It’s more appropriate than not talking to him for the last two years, which is what President Biden did. Who did that help? It hasn’t gotten us anywhere–
MARGARET BRENNAN: Talking is different than inviting him to the United States.
REP. CRENSHAW: Sure. I mean, you can parse it out however you like, but the reality is is you’re going to have to get him to the table somehow, right? And there’s a carrot and a stick approach. Trump can use a lot- you can use a lot of leverage, and then the Europeans need to use a lot more leverage. But you also have that carrot approach, and Trump is good at that. He’s good at flattering people in order to get them to the table. That is what we need, whether we like it or not, that’s what we need. That’s what Ukraine needs. Ukraine cannot sustain this, no matter how much money we give them, cannot sustain this forever, and so it is in our interest to get him to that table and there’s a variety of ways to do it, and I trust the president’s at least doing a heck of a lot better job than anybody else. I don’t see- I don’t hear any other ideas, by the way, so this is what we’re going with.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But flattering, a very brutal dictator who’s pretty cunning, frankly, you really think that’s a winning strategy?
REP. CRENSHAW: He’s not that cunning. He’s fought a war that has destroyed his society, killed hundreds of thousands of Russians. He’s made a massive mistake and miscalculation. He’s not as clever as maybe we’ve given him credit for. I think, let Trump do his campaign promise and play this out. Look, nobody’s going to take advantage of Donald Trump. And General Kellogg made that very clear, because that was a question Europeans asked him, you know, we- are you going to sell out just- just- just to get a deal? Just to get a deal that’s because of the campaign promise? Kellogg just laughed at that. He’s like, there is no way, there is absolutely no way that Donald Trump will be seen, and he will not let himself go down in history as having sold out to Putin. He will not let that happen. He believes- just for the sake of his own legacy, but he does care about lasting peace here, and lasting European peace. Again, my messaging, I’m not even talking to you right now, I’m talking to European leaders, you have to be uncomfortably aggressive against Putin in order to actually help us make this happen.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But I think you know, some of the things Europeans point to is the fact that the United States cut out our allied government in Afghanistan from the negotiation Donald Trump cut with the Taliban. So there is a reason they point back to that and say, don’t do this again. Don’t cut Ukraine out of a negotiation with an enemy.
REP. CRENSHAW: Sure, I mean, and I criticized that decision too, but that’s just not what’s happening now. This is a vastly different situation. I just met with Zelenskyy last night. They’re having very good conversations with our administration. The Ukrainians, I think, are very- the Europeans have all sorts of opinions. The Ukrainians, I think, are very optimistic as they should be. We’ve had some very good conversations, some very realistic conversations, and I’m very excited and optimistic about what can happen here.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay, just because I raised Afghanistan to you, I want to ask you, you were one of the co-sponsors of the Afghan Adjustment Act, which was an effort to help bring some of those Afghans who helped the United States in its war in Afghanistan here to the United States for safety reasons. They are now stuck because of this Trump refugee ban. This is not just special immigrant visa holders. These are refugees writ large. Do you think the U.S. should continue to bring those Afghans to the U.S.?
REP. CRENSHAW: Yeah, let’s actually be really clear. The reason they’re stuck is because Joe Biden pulled out of Afghanistan and had a zero troop policy despite every adviser telling him it was a terrible idea. That’s why they’re stuck. I still support bringing our allies back. I mean, to answer your question, it is obviously still a policy that I support, and we’ll work with the administration to make it happen. I mean, look, I was blown up because one of my interpreters stepped on a- on an IED right in front of me. He died. He lost all four limbs. Died later that night. These are- these are patriots. They were fighting for- with us, alongside of us, for their own country, for our interests. Of course, actual allies need to be brought home. I think the unfortunate thing about that withdrawal is a lot of people who are not even our allies made it back on those flights, and then the people who are our allies, including U.S. citizens, were left behind. Again, we cannot blame Donald Trump for this. Donald Trump never left Afghanistan and we can say, well, he wanted to, well, he never did. That’s the reality —
MARGARET BRENNAN: Right. I’m just asking about the policy now.
REP. CRENSHAW
–So, we’re going to work with the administration on this, and also, Congress still has to pass that. I mean —
MARGARET BRENNAN: Right.
REP. CRENSHAW
–You know it’s- there’s- it goes beyond the the executive at this moment,
MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay, when it comes to the military and military spending, the U.S. spends about 3.4 percent of its GDP on defense. Are you on board with boosting it to five percent which is what President Trump is saying western countries need to do? Are Republicans going to do that?
REP. CRENSHAW: It’s- it’s quite the target. Look, we’ve got a lot of work to do right now on- we’ve got a budget to pass, last year’s budget. Government funding expires on March 14, so we got to deal with that. We got to deal with the debt ceiling. We’ve got to finance disaster aid for California wildfires. We’ve got a reconciliation bill coming up. Look, you look at- you look at the world at the moment, and where America stands and the investments we need to make, it’s pretty obvious we need to increase defense spending, and the exact amount, of course, will get worked out in Congress.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Congressman Crenshaw, thank you for joining us.
REP. CRENSHAW: Thanks for having me.