“Saturday Night Live” comic Pete Davidson says he “kind of got forced to apologize” to Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) in 2018 for mocking the eye patch the veteran wears after his injuries from an explosion in Afghanistan.
Davidson’s comments, first flagged by The Daily Beast, come from his new stand-up special released Tuesday on Netflix, “Alive from New York.”
“I got in trouble last year, because I was making some jokes,” Davidson says.
“I didn’t think I did anything wrong,” the 26-year-old continues. “It was like words that were twisted so that a guy could be famous. … So, I made fun of this guy with an eyepatch and then, like, I kind of got forced to apologize.”
“My roommate thought I should apologize so that I didn’t get shot in the face,” Davidson says, referring to his mother.
“People were like, ‘You hate America!’ And I’m like, ‘No, I just didn’t want to be incorrect about how he lost his f—ing eye,'” Davidson later adds. “Is that a crime?’”
Davidson drew heavy criticism for joking about Crenshaw’s injury during a November 2018 episode of “Weekend Update.”
“This guy is kind of cool, Dan Crenshaw,” Davidson said while showing a photo of the Texas Republican wearing an eye patch.
“You may be surprised to hear he’s a congressional candidate for Texas and not a hit-man in a porno movie,” Davidson added.
“I’m sorry. I know he lost his eye in war — or whatever,” he added, to laughter from the live studio audience.
“Whatever,” Davidson chuckled after the audience response died down.
In “Alive from New York,” Davidson now says he regrets making Crenshaw “a household name.”
“I did make that guy famous and a household name for no reason, right?” He asks.
Crenshaw, 35, accepted Davidson’s apology at the time and appeared on “SNL” the following week.