GOP Candidate Dan Crenshaw Challenges NBC, ‘Saturday Night Live’ to Donate $1 Million to Veterans Charity

Republican congressional candidate Dan Crenshaw, a former Navy SEAL who lost an eye during his third tour in Afghanistan, called on Saturday Night Live Monday morning to donate $1 million to a veterans charity after cast member Pete Davidson joked he looks like “a hitman in a porno movie.”

Crenshaw made it clear that he doesn’t “want some hollow apology” from Davidson or NBC.

“I think what him and maybe the producers at SNL should do is pool their money together. Let’s throw a figure out there, $1 million, and we will donate that to a series of veterans nonprofits that helps veterans,” Crenshaw said.

A partial transcript is as follows: 

ALISYN CAMEROTA: You are a Navy Seal. You did five tours of duty. You lost your eye after being hit by an IED int he Hellman province in 2012. You’ve received the Purple Heart, two Bronze Stars, a medial with valor. You could squash Pete Davidson like a grape, obviously. It’s not even a fair fight, right? He’s punching up. What do you want from him this morning?

CRENSHAW: Everybody is asking that. Like, do you demand an apology from this man? I do not demand an apology. He probably should apologize, but I don’t want some hollow apology. I think he has exposed himself. I think he’s exposed himself for who he really is. I wish him well. I think what him and maybe the producers at SNL should do is pool their money together. Let’s throw a figure out there, $1 million, and we will donate that to a series of veterans nonprofits that helps veterans. Maybe the Navy SEAL Foundation, maybe Wounded Warriors, maybe Folds of Honor. I was just at their benefit last night. There’s a lot of great organizations out there, a lot of veterans that really need help. And frankly, this kind of thing is offensive to them. They feel laughed at.

CAMEROTA: That’s really interesting. I don’t know if Pete Davidson has a million dollars but we’ll see what SNL comes up with and if SNL heeds your call to do something. Meanwhile, while I have you, I do want to ask you about some veterans issues. As you know, President Trump has been talking on the campaign trail about this migrant crisis, as he calls it. This group of migrants from Central America that are still roughly one-thousand miles away from our border. He is saying he’d like to send 15,000 troops to the Southern U.S. border. That’s more than there is in Afghanistan, which is 14,000. And more than are in Iraq — 5,200. Do you think that’s appropriate?

CRENSHAW: I think the president and his advisors need to come up with anyway necessary to make sure that 10,000 people don’t break down our barriers the way they broke down the barriers on the Mexican southern border.

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The bottom line is this: We need to stop thousands of people from illegally crossing from one side of our border to the other.