Republican Congressional candidate Dan Crenshaw has said that Saturday Night Live star Pete Davidson does not owe him an apology after making a joke about his war-caused disability live on the show this weekend.
Crenshaw, who lost his eye because of an IED blast in Helmand province, Afghanistan, in 2012, told TMZ that he would rather people not engage in “this culture where we demand apologies every time someone misspeaks,” referring to Davidson’s insensitive bit about his eye patch.
“I think it would be very healthy for our nation to go in that direction. We don’t need to be really outraged, I don’t need to demand apologies from them [the SNL crew],” the GOP candidate, who’s running for an open seat in Texas’ second congressional district, said.
“They can do whatever they want, they’re feeling the heat from around the country right now,” he added.
Crenshaw had, however, some advice for the 24-year-old funnyman and comedians in general.
“But I would like him and Saturday Night Live to recognize something, which is that veterans across the country don’t feel as though their wounds they received in battle should be the subject of a bad punchline for a bad joke,” he stated. The politician slapped back at Davidson, adding that “the biggest atrocity” in the whole situation was that the joke “wasn’t even funny.”
Davidson has come under fire for a comment he made during his latest Weekend Update segment, in which he gave his first impressions of a few of the candidates running in the November midterm elections. When talking about Crenshaw, Davidson started by saying “this guy’s kinda cool,” and went on to compare him to “a hitman in a porno movie.”
“I’m sorry. I know he lost his eye in war… or whatever,” the comedian added.
Despite Crenshaw’s statement, the National Republican Congressional Committee had a much harsher reaction to the SNL skit, demanding an apology and saying that “getting dumped by your pop star girlfriend is no excuse for lashing out at a decorated war hero.”
GOP Candidate Dan Crenshaw Responds After ‘SNL’ Mocks Him For Losing Eye In Afghanistan https://t.co/7BlcXzqm0K
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) November 4, 2018
“Pete Davidson and NBC should immediately apologize to Dan, and to the millions of veterans and military families who tune in every weekend, because they’re not laughing,” the committee’s spokesman, Jack Pandol, stated.
The daughter of late Senator John McCain, Meghan, also hit back at the show, calling the skit “really awful and incredibly tone-deaf and offensive.” Meghan’s father spent five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.
Crenshaw wasn’t Davidson’s only “victim” on Saturday, as Ariana Grande’s ex-fiance also mocked Florida Senate candidate Rick Scott, New York Rep Peter King, Mike Pence’s brother Greg, and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.
