Dan Crenshaw
Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, left, listens as Office of Management and Budget Acting Director Russell Vought testifies before the House Budget Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, March 12, 2019, during a hearing on the fiscal year 2020 budget.
Susan Walsh/AP
  • Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw, a former Navy SEAL, released a video of himself as a special operator dropping into Georgia to battle “far-left activists” and raise support for “American patriots.”
  • The video is intended to support Sen. David Purdue and Sen. Kelly Loeffler, fellow Republicans running to defeat their Democratic opponents and secure Republican control of the Senate.
  • Former head of US Special Operations Command, retired Gen. Raymond Thomas, called the video “embarrassing,” saying he thought it was a Saturday Night Live skit.
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Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw, a former Navy SEAL, released an action video of himself parachuting into Georgia and fighting antifa activists in support of Republican Senate candidates.

Retired US Army Gen. Raymond “Tony” Thomas, who led Special Operations Command when Crenshaw was in the military, wrote on Twitter that he thought the video was a Saturday Night Live or Comedy Central skit when he first watched it.

After watching it a second time, he wrote that the video was “embarrassing,” suggesting that Crenshaw’s attempt to persuade US voters with martial skills and name-calling rather than policy proposals debases American politics.

The video starring Crenshaw, a Republican who represents Texas’ 2nd congressional district in the House of Representatives, is called “Georgia Reloaded” and follows another video he made before the election in November called “Texas Reloaded.”

That video advertisement showed Crenshaw receiving a secret mission to “save Texas.” After receiving the orders, he parachutes into Texas, where he seeks out and recruits a team of local conservative leaders.

In the video ad "Georgia Reloaded," Crenshaw goes on another mission to combat "far-left activists," lawmakers like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, by rallying support for "American patriots," Sen. David Purdue and Sen. Kelly Loeffler. He also fights actors pretending to be antifa.

Backed by other Republicans like Crenshaw, Purdue and Loeffler are working to win over voters ahead of a Senate runoffs against Democratic candidates John Ossoff and Raphael Warnock. The outcome of these elections could determine which party controls the Senate.

While the videos of Crenshaw engaging in politics-related combat are not real, he has been in actual combat. In 2012, on his third deployment to the Middle East as a member of SEAL Team 3, he was wounded by an improvised explosive device (IED) in Afghanistan. He lost his right eye.

Despite the injury, for which he was awarded a Purple Heart, he continued to serve for another four years in the armed forces.

Thomas, who weighed in on the latest video on Twitter, has also been a part of a number of combat operations in Afghanistan, as well as Iraq and parts of Central America. Thomas retired from active duty in March 2019.

Read the original article on Business Insider