Rep. Dan Crenshaw, a Houston-area congressman best known for receiving an apology on SNL, was recently called a moron by a room full of conservatives after snapping at a 10-year-old girl who asked him to clarify something he said about Jesus.
Speaking at what appears to be a campaign or fundraising event, the girl asks Crenshaw what he meant when he said the following while promoting his book on a podcast:
“The important thing here is that we have societal hero archetypes that we look up to. Jesus is a hero archetype, Superman is a hero archetype. Real characters too, you know, I put, I could name a thousand. You know, Rosa Parks, Ronald Reagan, all of these people embody certain attributes that the American people think ‘this is good’.”
After reading the quote, the girl says, “I can’t wrap my head around this.”
“Well, I’ll help you,” Crenshaw interrupts. “Put a period after the word Jesus and don’t question my faith.”
At that, some members of the audience start to heckle and boo Crenshaw, who begins to short circuit and repeat “don’t question my faith” before being told by the child that she was not questioning his faith, but merely reading a quote from him.
“Nowhere in that quote am I saying Jesus is not real, that’s a ridiculous statement,” Crenshaw says.
He then accuses the girl of twisting his words, “which is not very Christian.”
The entire fiasco smells a little like astroturf.
Do we reasonably expect a 10-year old to find an unflattering and unreported quote from Crenshaw in a self-help leadership podcast marketed to members of the military? And the video of the spat itself was posted by a senior staffer for Club for Growth, a rightwing political action group that made headlines for spending $20 million on lawmakers who voted against certifying the 2020 presidential election (Crenshaw not among them).
Regardless, it’s not the first time Crenshaw has been heckled — in August, Crenshaw was booed at a fundraiser in Illinois after saying the 2020 election wasn’t stolen.
In this case, Crenshaw handled things much more poorly, and now video exists of him snapping at a kid who asked him about Jesus.
Fernando covers Texas politics and government at the Texas Signal. Before joining the Signal, Fernando spent two years at the Houston Chronicle and previously interned at Houston’s NPR station News 88.7. He is a graduate of the University of Houston, Jack J. Valenti School of Communication, and enjoys reading, highlighting things, and arguing on social media. You can follow him on Twitter at @fernramirez93 or email at fernando@texassignalarchive.com
