Right-wing congressman Dan Crenshaw is falling out of favor with the MAGA base. For starters, he committed a cardinal sin of accurately acknowledging the validity of the 2020 presidential election results. After Trump's election lies prompted a deadly failed insurrection, Crenshaw acknowledged the role Trump's delusions played in sparking the riot, but stopped short of voting in favor of his impeachment.
And in recent comments, Crenshaw took aim at the most pro-Trump wing of Congress: the House Freedom Caucus, whose members include such darlings as conspiracy theorist Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, firearm fanatic Lauren Boebert of Colorado, suspected child trafficker Matt Gaetz of Florida, and others.
Crenshaw said:
There's two types of members of Congress. There's performance artists and there's legislators. The performance artists are the ones that get all the attention. ... In the first two years of Trump's presidency, when Republicans were in control, when we were voting on Donald Trump's agenda, who do you think was at top of that list voting with Trump and who do you think was at the bottom? ... You know who was at the bottom? Everybody in the Freedom Caucus. All of them. ... We have grifters in our midst."
While Democrats found truth in Crenshaw's comments and Republicans in the so-called Freedom Caucus maligned him, Crenshaw's on "performance artist" stunts haven't gone unnoticed.
Last year, Crenshaw released an action movie style campaign ad called Texas Reloaded. While the ad was scant on actual issues, it had plenty of shots featuring Crenshaw jumping out of a plane.
Now, just weeks after his "performance artists" quip, Crenshaw has teased a sequel to the ad, boasting about an impending "left-wing meltdown" it will supposedly trigger.
Cue left-wing twitter meltdown, another Texas Reloaded ad is here👇https://t.co/5yh4rl1iEP#redwave2022 pic.twitter.com/uJ2kNnb2CF
— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) December 30, 2021
Crenshaw promised the soon-to-be-released movie would be "really cool" and asked supporters to contribute to the ad.
People couldn't help but notice the hypocrisy.
When Crenshaw said we have grifters and performance artists in our midst he was actually just fundraising for his new cringe campaign ad pic.twitter.com/ruLBbD8KKF
— Pedro L. Gonzalez (@emeriticus) December 31, 2021
.@DanCrenshawTX: rada, rada, rada “performance artist politicians.”
Also Dan Crenshaw:
Content Producing Politicians. https://t.co/ruHbtBNbi9
— Joseph Flores, Ph.D. (@jsphflrs) December 31, 2021
Crenshaw is such an ass. Wanted to come clean but then got a lot of pushback so he’s back to the BS https://t.co/ljgcNKpCJM
— treesey #SaveOurDeocracy (@Treesey16) December 31, 2021
.@DanCrenshawTX solidifes his place as Congressman Performance Artist https://t.co/3knD6BHSIC
— No More Sympathy #FAFO (@BeefsnBeans) December 30, 2021
@DanCrenshawTX I understand why you know performance artists. You certainly aren't interested in legislating. https://t.co/yusCQdKa1M
— Terresa (@inprivate_t) December 30, 2021
Performance artist. @DanCrenshawTX #HollywoodDan https://t.co/6rwnhM3vDd
— brigitte jay (@jaybrigitte) December 30, 2021
Reactions to the teaser were far from kind.
I love the reminder that no creative project I am involved can be as embarrassing as something created by a sitting member of Congress. https://t.co/WL0YeUbV27
— professor jiggly (@beastmstrgenral) December 31, 2021
Dan is very upset we dont like the arts projects he works on instead of passing any legislation that would help the people of the country he serves https://t.co/8NQmZ9u54d
— I Hate Santa Claus (@AniMaikaru) December 31, 2021
Lmao you dork https://t.co/bcX3s5zQ8u
— Damian 🖤 (@aanarkissed) December 31, 2021
Yikes.