(NewsNation) — Congressman Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, criticized President Joe Biden for not visiting the nation’s border while he was in Arizona on Thursday, saying the president “wants to pretend that this crisis that he created doesn’t exist.”
Biden traveled Thursday to Arizona, where he delivered an address about the state of democracy. Some Republicans lambasted the president for not making plans to tour the U.S.-Mexico border while he was there.
“It takes a lot of balls to go to Arizona, a border state, and not visit the border and not talk about this issue,” Crenshaw said.
The congressman leads a task force to combat drug cartels and is scheduled to travel to Colombia next week.
“There’s a lot of lessons to be learned from Colombia and how they dealt with their issues with the cartels and then the guerilla insurgencies,” Crenshaw said.
He’s also calling for more cooperation between the U.S. and Mexican militaries. Crenshaw has advocated for sending military troops into Mexico to battle cartels directly.
“I’m accused a lot of wanting to invade Mexico,” Crenshaw said. “That’s nonsense. We want to work with the Mexican government.”
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, however, stands in firm opposition to the suggestion. Instead, he’s told the American government to solve its own problems, starting with addiction issues that drive the demand for drugs coming over the border.