“I’m not looking for fights here. But if a false narrative is spreading quickly, you have to say something,” he told POLITICO in an interview. “I think politics has changed radically, where people want a freewheeling, authentic person. Fine, that’s good. And that’s certainly what I deliver. But you also need to be thoughtful and correct in what you say.”…

His “grifters” comment referred to only “a couple of” sitting House Republicans, Crenshaw said, but most “got dragged into it” because of their voting records. (Kinzinger’s votes had a 99 percent Trump alignment during the 115th Congress, according to FiveThirtyEight, better than all but five other GOP lawmakers.)

“The people who really reacted harshly probably are the people I’m talking about, because I struck a nerve with them,” he said…

Freedom Caucus member Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) offered a thinly veiled dig when asked about Crenshaw’s viral video, saying a group of House Republicans have chipped away at vaccine mandates “without any help from a whole lot of people who throw in a lot of criticism about our tactics.” Crenshaw says he isn’t sure there’s much philosophical difference between himself and Freedom Caucus members, but he rolls his eyes at frequent motions to adjourn and other caucus tactics he said he finds “very ineffective.”