Last week it seemed like one of the Republican party’s newest stars, Navy SEAL-turned-Texas representative Dan Crenshaw, might be the latest to be taken down. Newsweek reported that he was involved in an “orchestrated campaign” to disparage a female veteran who had alleged sexual assault at a V.A. facility. It’s damning news, if true, but Crenshaw isn’t simply pretending like it’s not a big deal. Mere days after the report, he dropped a new campaign video where he pretends he’s a big time action movie star.
Crenshaw — who lords over a cartoonishly gerrymandered district and who rose to fame after being made fun of by Pete Davidson — wasn’t campaigning for himself. He was campaigning for David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, the two Republican incumbents battling to retain their Senate seats, which, if both are lost, would flip the legislative body blue. Crenshaw has done easily mocked action movie-style campaign videos before, including one where his missing eye has superpowers. This one, however, earned him even more scorn.
https://twitter.com/DanCrenshawTX/status/1338184981684908033
The video begins with Crenshaw being summoned away in the middle of an acceptance speech, informed by government agents that his help is needed. He strips out of his suit, revealing some warrior attire. He then gets in a plane, leaps out of it à la Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible — Fallout, and lands heroically on a vehicle peopled by antifa, who, by the way, are not an organization, no matter how many times Republicans say they are.
The low production values, the unconvincing attempts to turn Crenshaw into a cross between Ethan Hunt and Thor, the silly portrait of anitfa, the arrival mere days after heinous allegations — all conspired to make him a figure of fun over social media.
Dan Crenshaw is a joke.
Pass it on. pic.twitter.com/OWYEghu5DV— Jo (@JoJoFromJerz) December 13, 2020
Every veteran I know is embarrassed by Dan Crenshaw.
— Gailen David (@gailendavid) December 14, 2020
This is the corniest shit I've seen in a long while https://t.co/vjeQqEoP49
— Vaush 🇵🇸 (@VaushV) December 13, 2020
https://twitter.com/waltshaub/status/1338279889795952646
There’s a moment in this three-minute long video where Crenshaw says “bring everyone” to Georgia – then jumps out of a plane alone.
To the GOP operative who just texted, “If this doesn’t get mocked in the Jolt tomorrow, nothing ever will” — thank you. #gasen https://t.co/jILmQnz4fE— Greg Bluestein (@bluestein) December 14, 2020
Some compared it to Threat Level Midnight, the hilarious spy fantasy written by The Office’s Michael Scott.
https://twitter.com/waltshaub/status/1338282944851570690
Some found it the year’s weirdest campaign video.
Dan Crenshaw produced the weirdest, most masturbatory campaign video of the cycle.
The narrator sounds like she’s covering a nature channel documentary about wildebeests.
Crenshaw looks like a cosplay James Bond villain.
This is some weird, funny shit. https://t.co/sj2TrO1b7g
— The Hoarse Whisperer (@TheRealHoarse) December 13, 2020
Others pointed out some plot holes.
dan crenshaw's new ad for the georgia senate runoff is mainly a video about himself skydiving to fight antifa guys who are for some reason patrolling an empty field pic.twitter.com/0lZGmHI2GR
— jack wagner (@jackdwagner) December 13, 2020
Many mocked Crenshaw’s action star aspirations.
Congrats to @dancrenshawtx for convincing people to donate so he could make himself a star in the worst superhero movie that will thank God never be made https://t.co/DWCml56ESy
— Katie Hill (@KatieHill4CA) December 14, 2020
Dan Crenshaw: A Legend in His Own Mind (and only there) https://t.co/miQGp013vE
— Rachel Vindman 🌻 (@natsechobbyist) December 14, 2020
And some called him out for what he really is.
Here's the real Dan Crenshaw. He's not a secret agent. He's a coward who spreads lies about a current House staffer and veteran, refuses to meet with the VA IG, and then spreads more of the lies to a reporter. He's just a bro with a god complex. https://t.co/1rxC28HVRt
— Fred Wellman (@FPWellman) December 14, 2020
This you? https://t.co/aZd1XpatJC
— Brock Wilbur (@brockwilbur) December 13, 2020
https://twitter.com/thor_benson/status/1338227669364854786
Of course, Perdue and Loeffler could really use the help. He was so scared of his opponent that he skipped out on their last debate, while she robotically repeated buzzterms like “radical leftist” during hers. Then again, if Crenshaw really did help smear a woman reporting sexual assault, maybe ludicrous campaign videos are the only places left where he can be the good guy.