Dan Crenshaw

Rep. Dan Crenshaw, Republican of Texas, has upped his attacks on Rob Serra, a retired firefighter who survived 9/11, by claiming that Serra is conspiring against him with Democratic Rep. Max Rose. Which, if you’re keeping score, pits Crenshaw—a former Navy Seal who takes credibility from his war injury—against a 9/11 first responder and a fellow congressional Afghanistan veteran.

After Serra came forward to say that Crenshaw had refused to shake his hand in a Capitol Hill hallway as he lobbied for the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund—a claim backed up by a fellow 9/11 first responder who witnessed the snub—Crenshaw insisted that it was a dirty attack intended to get him back for his own attacks on Rep. Ilhan Omar. Now Crenshaw says that Serra is “conspiring with Max Rose” and “There’s a more malicious underlying motive here I think.” Oh, but he wasn’t done there: Crenshaw brought it back around to Rep. Omar (who, by the way, has co-sponsored the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund), saying, “This accusation is a nefarious attempt to undermine me because I spoke out against Omar. It’s highly dishonest.”

Crenshaw’s evidence for a conspiracy is that Rose retweeted Serra’s accusation that Crenshaw snubbed him. Serra is Rose’s constituent … and it’s a single retweet. As evidence of malicious conspiracy goes, it’s not the strongest. As Serra put it to the New York Daily News, “I’ve met Max Rose once or twice. All I did was respond to Max’s tweet. If that’s conspiring then I think we have different definitions of conspiring.”

Serra also returned to the key point: Crenshaw’s refusal so far to co-sponsor the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund: “I wanted to shake (Crenshaw’s) hand because I had respect for him. He may have been in a rush… and I’m by no means an important person, but I still stand by the fact that he needs to support this bill.”