Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, issued a stern admonishment Sunday of a House Democrat who recently compared President Trump to Adolf Hitler and described his supporters as being alcohol-addicted and prone to drug abuse.
In a two-minute video the freshman GOP lawmaker chastised Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., for the combative speech he delivered last week.
“President Trump is a lot of things, but he’s not Hitler. He didn’t kill millions of people. He didn’t star a world war. He doesn’t have any concentration camps,” Crenshaw said. “And to accuse him of being Hitler is intellectually dishonest, and frankly, a huge insult to the millions of Jews who died under Nazi Germany.”
“If you want to insult President Trump, at least you’re picking on someone your own size — at least you’re picking on somebody who can fight back,” he continued. “But you went on to insult, degrade, and demean tens of millions of Americans who voted for him. This is a cowardly form of politics.”
Stop insulting Americans just because they vote for someone you don’t like. pic.twitter.com/8wrP3ybtPe
— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) January 6, 2019
Johnson made the comments while addressing the attendees of an NAACP “Jubilee Day” event in Atlanta’s Friendship Baptist Church.
“Americans elected an authoritarian, an anti-immigrant, racist strongman to the nation’s highest office,” Johnson said. “Donald Trump and his ‘Make America Great Again’ followers, who want to return America back to a time where white men and white privilege were unchallenged, and where minorities and women were in their place. These folks now control the highest office of the land.”
“Americans, particularly black Americans, can’t afford to make that same mistake about the harm that could be done by a man named Hitler or a man named Trump,” he added.
Johnson, who will lead a House Judiciary subcommittee in the 116th Congress, also described Trump supporters as “older, less educated, less prosperous, and they are dying early.”
“Many are dying from alcoholism, drug overdoses, liver disease, or simply a broken heart caused by economic despair,” he said.
Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA): “Donald Trump and his Make America Great Again followers…are older, less educated, less prosperous, and they are dying early. Their life spans are decreasing, and many are dying from alcoholism, drug overdoses, liver disease, or simply a broken heart.” pic.twitter.com/YYmwopUZDm
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) January 3, 2019
Crenshaw, who became a household name late last year after he was mocked on “Saturday Night Live” and later went on the show himself, was injured by a bomb in Afghanistan, which took his right eye. He served 10 years as a Navy SEAL.
At the end of his video, Crenshaw pledged never to insult Johnson’s supporters, mentioning “deplorables” in a list of possible insults he would avoid — a reference to a gaffe former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton made during the 2016 campaign when discussing Trump’s base.
“This is not the behavior we expect from a member of Congress,” Crenshaw said. “So I’ll leave you with this. Pick on somebody your own size. Pick on me if you like. My office will be right down the hall from yours.”
