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DEMOCRATS REP. JASMINE CROCKETT WITH KATIE COURIC Crockett: “I Didn’t Come to Congress to Be Quiet. I Came to Fight.” PLAY YOUTUBE VIDEO Original article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7t1d56bW2s
“I Didn’t Come to Congress to Be Quiet. I Came to Fight.” \| Rep. Jasmine Crockett with Katie Couric Rep. Jasmine Crockett Jun 20, 2025 344K subscribers ... 38,317 views ... 1.3K likes #JasmineCrockett #Congress #Democracy In this no-holds-barred sit-down with Katie Couric, Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) says it plain: “I didn’t come to Congress to be quiet. I came to fight.” From calling out Trump’s chaos to challenging GOP double standards, Crockett unpacks what’s at stake for our democracy—and why the old rules don’t apply when people’s lives are on the line. Raw, real, and ready to rattle the system. Subscribe for more from Rep. Jasmine Crockett: 📺 YouTube: / @repjasmine 📲 Instagram: @RepJasmine #JasmineCrockett #KatieCouric #Congress #Democracy #GrassrootsPower #FightForUs #NoFilter #RepCrockett #BoldLeadership Chapters Peter Burgess COMMENTARY Representative Jasmine Crockett may be quite young and new to the House of Representatives ... and female and black ... but she is both competent and confident. She is a breath of fresh air ... and hope ... in a Washington political swamp populated by men who should have been pushed out a very long time ago. I grew up in England in the UK ... born in 1940. I don't think I met a black person prior to being a student at Cambridge in 1958. At the end of my first year at Cambridge, I wanted to go to the College May Ball ... a wonderful celebration for the end of the academic year. I had a problem ... no girlfriend and nobody to take to the ball! A fellow student at my college ... an African from Uganda ... learned of my challenge and very tentatively suggested that perhaps I could take his sister to the May Ball. She was a student at Girton ... one of the ladies' colleges at Cambridge. That seemed to be a solution and that is what happened. In retrospect ... I think this experience changed my attitude to race in a very fundamental way. My fellow student in college was Prince Pierre and my dance partner was Princess Elizabeth of Toro in Uganda ... an ancient African traditional kingdom. By any standards these two were impressive sudents from an academic point of view ... especially Princess Elizabeth. Sadly, Prince Pierre was killed in some serious African violence in Uganda under Idi Amin soon after leaving Cambridge. Princess Elizabeth remained in the UK for several years with an increasingly high profile professional and social life. I belief she became the first black ... and the first female ... in the UK to become a barrister. She became a successful 'model' at a top advertising agency and I believe she was the first black model to appear on the cover of Vogue and other high profile fashion magazines. She was friendly with Princess Margaret and British high society. Eventually she returned to Uganda to the legal profession before being appointed the Ugandan Ambassador to the United Nations. My life has been very 'pedestrian' by comparison ... but I believe my positive attitude to race was formed by my very very positive experience with Prince Pierre and Princess Elizabeth when I was a young college student! I don't know Rrepresentative Jasmine Crockett ... she is American, not African ... but she seems to have really good 'values' and stands for a lot of very 'good things'. Better yet, she does good things in her professional life which are continuing into a political life both at the State level and now at the National level. People like Jasmine Crockett give me hope that there can be progress towards the better world that is possible thanks to technology but constrained by all sorts of widespread foolishness that doesn't get addressed. Peter Burgess Transcript Intro 0:00 [Music] congresswoman thank you so much for being here absolutely it's my pleasure um we have so much to talk about so much going on in this crazy world of ours but I wanted to start by talking about your background may I call you Jasmine yes absolutely because I really enjoyed reading about you i'm always interested in what has shaped people and how they have become the person they are and I know you grew up in St louis and your dad was a Baptist preacher um tell us about a little bit about your early years and your childhood yeah so growing Early years up in St louis um it was a pretty simple life i mean you know definitely compared to being in New York right now right like there wasn't this crazy hustle and bustle but I had two college educated parents um my mom actually is near genius as far as I'm concerned she graduated high school at the age of 16 skipping ahead and became the saludiatoran of the class she skipped 1:03 into and then she got a full ride to go to Wu um and was done with undergrad at the age of 19 um the reason that I say all that is that my parents were really big into education um and so I remember I was going to public school um great Public school 1:21 public school in my opinion i mean it laid the foundation for me to be where I am now um but my grades were too good and so my mom was like 'It's not um challenging enough right?' And I was like 'What is this?' You know 'Why are you guys not proud of me?' Right like any other parent is happy because you're top of the class and for them it was like 'No it's just not enough.' Um and so they ended up putting me in private school so I ended up Catholic school right i ended up going to Catholic school um it was interesting because I was just here uh for the the Lion of uh Catholic school 1:53 Linux Avenue's funeral and uh we were at uh a Catholic church and I was like 'Oh 2:01 goodness it's back to being like that that um Catholic school girl cuz it was lots of kneeling and standing and all the things.' Um but but anyway so yeah so they put me in a Catholic middle school and then um my parents decided that it would be great if I went to a Catholic all girl high school uh and I was at that age where I like you just don't want me to have a life um and so I ended up at Rosidi Kain went there for a little bit but then my parents divorced so they divorced right before I turned 16 so I was about 15 years old and um hard for you it wasn't at the time at the time of the divorce it was a bit of a relief um because my parents just weren't getting along it wasn't anything too extraordinary but growing up where they seemingly had always loved each other and then kind of getting into this kind of cold space I just wanted them to be happy um and I think because I was 3:04 almost 16 it was like 'All right whatever i'm almost out the house myself you know um so they divorced and the concern was that my mom was not going to necessarily they weren't going to necessarily be able to afford for me to go to my school anymore and so at that point in time um my mom actually applied me to a school that cost a lot more money because that's what makes sense um but she applied me to a country day school and they gave me a scholarship and so while you know that school costs a lot of 3:36 Country day school money I was on a scholarship able to attend school there and so um despite what some may think I was a private school kid really from junior high through college because even when I went to Roads it was another private institution um that's where you went to college in in Memphis in Memphis yeah and and throughout your childhood you were super close to your grandmother who you called Granny um and that sounds 4:01 like it was an incredibly formative relationship oh man I miss her every day um she truly was my biggest fan and I don't think there ever will be anyone that will fan girl out over me as much and that was way before any viral moment um my grandmother kept me from 6 weeks of age my mom went back to work after I was about six weeks old and my grandmother kept myself and all my cousins so even though I was an only child I grew up uh with my cousins and uh my grandparents were originally from Arkansas so even though I was in St louis I had a pretty country uh upbringing uh when I would get to my granny's house my papa he worked for Pepsi Cola um really his entire career this was back when people would get a job and they would stay with it and uh by the time he retired they were 5:01 shutting down the plant that he worked at and it wasn't that far from their house and uh my bike used to stay at my grandparents house cuz my papa would ride bikes with me and so we would ride down to um where the plant used to be located and they allowed him they still owned the land so they allowed him to do some farming um so I guess this was probably the first urban farm that I became familiar with and so my grandmother was a cook and she had been like a cleaning lady as well she um used to cook and clean when I was super small for some very wealthy families in St louis um but my papa would like grow all kinds of food and then bring it in and my granny would cook it so here it is where like they were inner city St louis but it was a little bit of their Arkansas roots and my papa every once in a while would load us up in his van and take us fishing um so for me like a real man has to know how to fish because um that's what you know my papa um did with me as a little girl sounds like they 6:04 Grandparents both had a huge influence on you oh yeah both of your grandparents yeah they were they were truly my biggest fans and I remember when my grandmother died my grandfather had actually been in the hospital and one of my cousins called me at 6:00 a.m and anybody that knows anything about me they know that I'm not a morning person so if you're calling me at an extraordinary hour there's something that's going on and so I was concerned that something had happened to my grandfather because he was in the hospital and I remember I was actually trying to lose weight at the time you know how we go through those phases and so I was actually up walking um a trail Katie Trail in Dallas and my cousin called and and so I said 'What happened to Papa?' And she said 'No it's granny.' And I said 'What about her?' Um and the day that my grandfather was being 7:04 discharged they could not get a hold of my grandmother um and it was because she actually just randomly passed away so I was I was pretty devastated and um at that time I had been practicing law for some time but my grandma was like she had been saying I I want to come see you in court you know and um so we had made plans for the summer because normally during the summertime is when we would really try a lot of cases and so um she ended up dying in that spring before she could come and I remember being at the funeral and so many people saying all she could talk about was she couldn't wait to see her she used to call me Jazzy Boo couldn't wait to see her Jazzy Boo uh in in court so again an original fan who truly felt like I could do no wrong and I I can only imagine um what Law career 8:02 she think of me now i'm sure she'd be very proud and it sounds like you were really lucky to have such loving grandparents and parents because honestly it does make all the difference in terms of giving you this strong foundation confidence kind of feeling comfortable in your own skin i feel so bad when I meet people who weren't lucky enough to have that kind of love growing up yeah um you know you talk about your law career Jasmine but you came to law kind of I guess in a circumlocious route i like that word and and it's because um you you found it a little bit later because initially I know when you went to Rose College you were interested first in being an anesthesiologist which made me laugh not because there's anything funny about being an anesthesiologist but your reason was you didn't want to talk to people and I 9:01 thought wait a second Jasmine Crockett doesn't want to talk to people that sounded so out of character to me yeah no did not want to talk to people i thought it would be great just put people to sleep and not have to talk to them um I was I was really excited for it i mean um math and science nerd i mean that's why you know when it comes down to it when I'm in committee hearings I always want to have my data and my facts because that's just how my brain works right um but I did not want to talk to people and now I can't stop uh I would like to uh to a certain extent uh we get asked to kind of do speaking engagements a lot and I'm like I I'm really okay like I I don't have to guys um but but were you shy or introverted at some point no no just not interested no yeah no i was like I've got my friends i'm fine and you know I just want to do the work and go home uh that was that was my attitude about it 10:04 so I think it is uh kind of odd that I am in this type of profession and even when I was practicing law I actually really really loved it and I mean I would you know talk to clients oneonone fine um but I actually really love jury trial which is really weird cuz I'm walking in and it's a bunch of strangers and we've got to somehow get them down to who actually is going to be on the jury and then convincing a bunch of strangers to like believe me and take my side um I like the challenge of it but again it was as I was speaking I was speaking and I was just kind of giving them facts and kind of walking them through a story um versus kind of what I do a lot of now which is um just kind of pumping people up um but I think honestly the reason that I get requested to speak a lot is because I do actually stick to as many facts as possible but 11:06 you also I think speak your mind which we'll talk about in a moment because I I want to talk about how you became a lawyer and it was very uh difficult circumstances that kind of opened your eyes you're at Rose College in Memphis and you are really the victim of uh I guess you would even call it hate crimes uh tell us what happened at Roads and then how that led you to a path of wanting to pursue being a lawyer yeah so you know again I mean grew up in St louis st louis is pretty segregated place to be perfectly honest and you know going to the private schools um it was nothing for me to be potentially the only black person in my class right like in a specific class um so definitely was not necessarily in a a super black environment when I went to roads there 12:02 were 18 black students in my freshman class by the time that's it and by the time I graduated we were down to 10 um so and we were actually one of the larger classes the senior class at that time had three or four African-Americans um but I didn't feel a certain way because I had gone to these private schools where the numbers were few anyway um but it's interesting that I never felt racism until I got to a very black city Memphis um and on campus in my little bubble and it's interesting because it's in North Memphis which is very black um and they decided to target myself as well as a number of other black students um if you had a car it was keyed with the n-word um and on a in our onampus mailboxes they put these Jack the Ripper sty style type letters right so where they would cut letters from magazines and that kind of stuff and they were making up 13:04 sentences and none of it said that I was a child of God i can tell you that um just really ugly stuff but I felt very vulnerable because your onampus mailbox is not something that is publicly known um so this meant it was someone who absolutely knew me knew my friends um and then again who who would know who drives what cars what year was this Jasmine um I was in my junior First time she felt racism but what year n it was 20 oh I graduated 03 so this was 01ish maybe 01 02ish um so it was just the first time that I felt racism i'd heard about racism but I didn't really understand it um because I was always in environments in which I would be one of the few but I mean it didn't matter like my friends were my friends and you know whatever um sounds 14:05 terrifying really it was It was awful it was truly awful and Johnny Cochran who I knew very well really yes because I covered the OJ trial and also uh Reginald Denny anyway Johnny and I became very close friends and uh his law firm came Yeah to represent you all right and that's when you met someone i'm wondering if I know the person you met from Johnny's law firm and it's crazy because I've told this story a million times and I do not remember the lawyer's name even though she was so influential i hope one day she like reaches out well you know what i can probably find that out i know Dale Cochran Johnny's uh wife and I'll ask her for you cuz I think I know who it is too but anyway one of Johnny's associates or lawyers uh maybe she was a partner at that time came to Memphis and helped you all i think she was so they 15:04 had a Memphis office at the time so I think she was out of the Memphis office um but they had a team of them and I don't know who all was assigned to who but the attorney assigned to me and I I can see her good enough she was tall bright-skinned black woman um and she wasn't too old um at the time and she was assigned to me and they were trying to do the investigation and this was a part of the school saying 'Hey we're going to bring in somebody independently to try to figure out you know what happened.' And they never figured out what happened i was going to say did they they never found out who did this they never found out um and she it's funny cuz I'm thinking I feel like she had like a Nicole or a Michelle like a name like that but anyway uh she graduated from University of Houston School of Law and um you know being with 16:03 people in this moment I thought man this is the work that I need to be doing is to be that person that can be helpful even if you're not solving it just knowing that you're not alone and that there's somebody that you can turn to um so I tell people all the time that God has to yell at me um to move me and so um you know I ended up having this incident and meeting that attorney um in addition to I had been recruited to uh do mock trial um after doing a play a 16:42 Public Defender musical on campus and um so my mock trial coach was like 'Hey you really should consider law school.' I become an all-American in mock trial as well the one year that I did it and so you know it was just a culmination everything was pointing that way and then when I applied to law school I got a full ride 17:00 to go to Texas Southern and so and then you transferred right and then I transferred yep and so I was like 'All right this is clearly what God wants me to do.' Because everything was leading me down that path and when you became a public defender Jasmine I know that really opened your eyes about the criminal justice system and how it treats some people versus others and you worked you represented such a cross-section of people what impact did that have on you um it it truly led me down the political path um being a public defender you know there's one case that I always looked there's a number of cases but there was one case that in my mind was the catalyst for me deciding to get into politics and uh I represented a 17-year-old kid who had stolen candy out of the concession stand at his high school and in Texas it can technically be a felony um and it just depends on who's prosecuting the 18:02 case the prosecutor at the time decided to prosecute this kid who had stolen less than $20 worth of candy for a state jail felony where he was facing up to two years in prison and I just was like this isn't right like I mean like my mind was like this doesn't make sense but I didn't represent the kid uh initially he had a different attorney and then he ended up with a probation violation and that's when I ended up being assigned to him and I was so frustrated because it was the type of case that I felt like should just go to a jury trial because no jury would think that a 17-year-old kid should go to prison um but he ended up on a probation violation because his mom was struggling and working and wasn't able to go to school and pick him up and take him to go see his PO in the middle of the day and so he had technical violations he didn't commit any new crimes he didn't have dirty UAS he had technical violations for not showing up to his 19:05 probation officer and the judge gave him a maximum sentence and I just was like 'This just cannot be right.' And it's funny because I've told that story a number of times and I'm sure the MAGA world would think that you know this was a black kid but this wasn't um this was a a young white male and for me justice has truly always been a blind thing um I ultimately got into politics because of an injustice that was served upon someone who literally was more so serve this injustice because he was poor and I think that when I reflect on the various um injustices that I've experienced or seen firsthand it's really been more socioeconomic um than anything obviously our criminal justice system definitely has issues 20:02 when it comes to color as well and there's a lot of overlap between race and socioeconomic circumstances Criminal Justice System 20:09 absolutely and I think that there are those that don't realize that the socioeconomics ends up impacting so many people um and and it does cross the color barriers but you can definitely see kind of the straight line a lot of times whether we're talking about any people of color to be perfectly honest when you were serving as a public defender did you also witness people who were being treated differently because of their stature or their wealth or se socioeconomic status yeah all of that i mean the injustices ran rampant and as someone who's licensed to practice in Texas and Arkansas who's done both urban as well as rural I mean you know the amount of time that someone would get in rural Texas versus 21:04 the amount of time for the same thing in urban Texas just night and day um you know so that's even another divide that we see and a lot of it comes down to um really you know Democrats versus Republicans and how they choose to um offer sentences what it is that they're willing to consider as mitigation um I just see a lot of heartlessness where it's just a matter of like just lock them up and throw away the key like again that kid got a maximum sentence and I I just kept remembering he wasn't a criminal not excusing what he did but Fixing the Criminal Justice System 21:42 I don't know what else is childish but still in candy like I mean like I don't I don't know what is more childish and so I remember tracking him a bit and he ended up getting into more serious trouble because of his incarceration right and the people that he ended up 22:01 being around and that kind of stuff and so you know when I ultimately went to the state legislature I was really focused on fixing the criminal justice system with smart legislation um because I knew the real impacts like you have a lot a lot of lawmakers on all levels that do things theoretically it's like oh I should do this because this seems like it's good for criminal justice but they have never walked a day in so many people's shoes and they've never taken the time to even examine the impact of their legislation um and so you know these are the things that informed me these are the things that really created this pathway for me to have this desire to kind of do something more it's just witnessing the injustices seeing how you know I've had clients that died because they didn't take them seriously enough you know I remember having a client that was accused of killing his mom and they 23:03 didn't have evidence that he killed his mom and I kept there was a type of hearing that I could have to challenge probable cause and I remember having it and the judge just ruled against me and Witnessing injustices 23:17 I'm like I'm right you know like it was it was terrible and really this is these are white folk again but he was prosecuted because he was poor um essentially they were like 'Oh well when they went and got his mother who was elderly um she was she had a mattress that was on the floor and the place was not clean.' And so they were like 'You're living with your mom and this is you know how she's living clearly you did something to kill her.' With no evidence and this guy you know in my opinion probably struggled a little bit mentally cuz he was in his 50s or 60s and he was still living with mom and some other things and he was depressed 24:02 and he was overweight and he stopped eating and I remember telling them in the jail I'm like 'My client's not eating like we need to do something,' we need to make sure that you know he's alive and they kind of looked at him thinking 'He's overweight he'll be fine.' And he died and after he died they determined that his mom died of natural causes and so like it's just hard to imagine a world where you don't have enough people that care to do right by people and so that same kind of like passion that carried me through as a public defender that led me to want to change laws is the same passion this many years later these are 25:01 the real life experiences that I know can take place when there's bad people that are in power or just people that just don't care so when we go through things like the reconciliation package and thinking about the harm that will happen not just to my constituents but just generally like I carry that weight Criminal justice reform 25:27 um with me because you've seen it up close yeah and you mentioned Republican and Democrat attitudes but I also think it's it's interesting to note that Democrats don't have a great track record necessarily of criminal justice reform when you think about the three strikes uh law coming you know being passed under Bill Clinton right yeah yeah so I think that for a long time uh sort of this criminal justice reform wasn't looked on kindly by either party no no that you know the answer especially to the the crack epidemic was just lock everybody 26:09 up lock everybody up lock everybody up and and we've seen a similar um situation with meth and and now we're seeing um you know I mean they they continue to to do it with every new kind of dangerous drug i mean you know it's like the issue with the border is all the drugs and I'm like there's all kinds of drugs that have always come across the border and they will continue to come across the border like that's just kind of a thing um and this idea of incarcerate incarcerate incarcerate it it's never fixed it it's never fixed it like we're still trying to do the same thing to fix the same problem and it's still not being fixed and so instead of getting to the root cause of the problems right like figuring out why is it that addiction is not fixed by incarceration 27:02 and like working on addiction so that you can drive down the demand for this illegal kind of narcotics um circle that we find ourselves in or finding out like what causes someone to be more inclined to even engage in drugs and like fixing those things fixing the environments because for some people it's environmental um for some people 27:25 Mental health care it's literally self-medication um you know when we look at so many of our unhoused people and we we when we look at our veterans and we look at like the fact that we don't have adequate access to um health care especially when we start to talk about mental health care like I'm just like there's a lot that we could do we could maybe invest in mental health and maybe take a little bit out of incarceration and maybe we will get a bigger and better results so addressing the root causes of of a lot of these social ills really made you 28:03 want to go into politics to try to see what you could do obviously fueled by your experience as a lawyer and you've only been in in Congress since 2023 right and and I'm curious when you got there I'm sure you had big aspirations for fixing the system or addressing some of these root causes and I'm curious Jasmine what you found when you got to Washington and had this opportunity did you feel like you could actually do some of the things you set out to do or were you immediately frustrated what did you think so um I was green going into the Texas house by the time I came to the US House I understood so you started obviously at the state level yes so when I went into the Texas House that's where I was like okay this 29:01 is my time you know I was absolutely positive that because I had actual experience in these spaces that people would say 'Oh she's the experienced one.' And they would listen and boy was I wrong um and so it's interesting by the time I got to the federal level um I would say that my expectations have been tempered um but one of the kind of things that really made me say you know what I can go ahead and go for the federal level is that there was a former ambassador under Clinton actually who was really trying to convince me that I should consider going to the federal level and I was like 'No I mean stuff is messed up enough in Texas i'll just deal with this nonsense down here like I don't want to go to a bigger mess.' and he said 'At least if you go to the federal level there's a chance that you may end up in the majority you are not going to be in the majority in Texas.' 30:02 And he was like 'And even when you're not in the majority you have so much more access to resources to be able to send to your district.' He was like 'I think that you'll like it better from that um vantage point just being able to do more.' Um and true i've been able to do more is it enough no um am I Competitive 30:25 competitive and do I want us to end up in the majority so that I can actually get things done yeah absolutely um you know I know how to play defense i mean for sure um but that's not where I want to be i want to be on offense you have been uh clearly one of the rising stars of the Democratic party uh you have an enormous social media following we'll talk about some of your uh strong responses on Capitol Hill in a moment but why do you think you have been able to connect with people especially young people because you have a big following among younger voters uh Gen Z voters 31:06 especially what is it you think Jasmine i think it's the fact that I don't sound like a politician all the time um instead I sound more relatable and like a frustrated American um you know as everything is kind of falling apart around us um we still have some very good political figures that are seemingly holding it together in front of the camera and I'm looking like what the hell you know and I think that that same level how can they hold it together how can they be so Yeah controlled exactly and I think that when people are reading the room or reading them they're thinking 'Okay something's wrong with you.' Like you are straight up just political like you're a machine and people are more trusting in my opinion of people that they feel like are relating to their feelings and I am i'm 32:02 completely frustrated but also who are unbarnished Yeah and emotional Yeah and direct and talk like you talked to to your neighbor over a cup of coffee yeah exactly so um I think ultimately you know one of the things that I've talked to the caucus about consistently is being authentic and my authentic self is not you know going to be who everyone else is in the caucus but your authenticity whoever you are it comes through and there's someone that can relate to you um you know there's someone that can relate to all of us isn't it interesting that that's what Authenticity 32:44 people credit Donald Trump with being authentic not sounding like a politician uh being unedited unvarnished you know no 4 second delay between his brain and his mouth but it's interesting isn't it he's authentic but 33:05 I guess the question is authentically what i don't think he's authentic you don't i don't because he lies all the time and I think that you have to be honest to be authentic i will say that people were more inclined to be accepting of him because he did not sound like a politician and so for them they read it as authenticity but as so many people are getting frustrated with him because they're like 'Well wait a minute you said you were going to do this but you're doing something else he's not uh a true and honest kind of person um and I think to be authentic you have to be that you know there were people that felt like oh he's one of me right like he's like me and it's like no he's a Nepo baby he's not like you you know what I mean um and so I think that there are you know nepo babies that come across authentic um but he was able to connect with I do think 34:05 he had an authentic connection with certain people's frustration um in general right i think Well I mean I think he recognized it he certainly didn't have a connection right so he was almost cosplaying in a way wasn't he or isn't he yes i I think that that's the best way to say it is that he's cosplaying but he wasn't cosplaying as a politician and I think people were more inclined to believe well this guy must be honest who would say half of these things unless they're being honest right like because he says the craziest things and does the craziest things so it was read as honesty and they would even give them passes for things that are completely inappropriate because they'd say 'Oh well I mean at least he's being honest right at least I know what I'm getting with him.' And it's like 'No you don't.' And now you're finding out 34:56 Joe Biden i want to talk more about the Trump administration but I will also want to talk about President Biden because when 35:03 other people were pressuring him to step down even when your caucus was wavering you stood firmly behind him and I'm curious how you feel with some of these revelations about uh his sort of uh decline in energy and perhaps even mental acuity that we've been reading about and if it's given you any pause and and and any regret not a single one um I still stand by the decision to stand with President Joe Biden and then ultimately standing with Vice President Kla Harris and I'll tell you why um the average person has not been given the level of access that the average member of Congress has to um the president i never saw anything in Joe Biden that um made me wonder whatsoever 36:00 and it's not that I was with Joe Biden every single day that's for sure um but as I talked about my grandparents um the way that I would describe Joe is like I mean he's he's a granddaddy right and so like you know the way that my granny was when she was younger versus ultimately kind of where she was at 81 when she ended up passing away mentally she was still there but like her attitude about certain things like whether or not she was looking to be as polished or cared to be as polished or even if she moved as fast it just wasn't there we all slow down but I will tell you that I will take a broken or however they want to describe Joe Biden over Donald Trump any given day because number one I know Joe Biden's heart and 36:52 Joe Bidens Heart I can tell you that when you look at the legislation that he was able to push forward with this wasn't legislation that was about him and his rich friends it was legislation that was for the good of the American people and when you look 37:04 at the people that he surrounded himself with even if you're saying that there was a mentally deficient Joe Biden I know that he absolutely had a mental acuity that is supreme when it comes to comparing him to uh Donald Trump because at least he kept good people around him he kept people that would keep us safe in this country he kept people that would make sure that even as tensions were rising all around the world that we were keeping those tempered he was able to understand with his level of mental acuity who our friends were he was not getting us into unwarranted um tariff wars and things like that so even if we want to say which I refuse to accept that Joe Biden was mentally deficient let me tell you something his mental deficiency is still a thousand times better than what we currently have and so you know I just wish that ultimately 38:03 this country would judge each of our leaders with the same measuring stick we do not um there was a lot of pressure that was put on Joe Biden there were a lot of um criticisms that were lodged at him as well as Kla Harris now the question is why is it that none of these critiques came about for Joe Biden i mean I'm sorry for uh Donald Trump right because when you think about it Kla Harris light years ahead of Donald Trump as it relates to qualifications as it relates to her overall resume and as it relates to the fact that she was a lot younger everybody said that they wanted to get rid of Joe Biden because he was too old then you had a younger qualified nonfelon 38:48 Democrats Playing the Narrative candidate and somehow the people still chose the old white man so like for me I I don't think it was ever about that i think Democrats have for a very long 39:02 time allowed Republicans to play them so essentially Republicans came up with a narrative and Democrats decided to play into that and that only hurt the Democrats because ultimately they still went with a very old man right and what was the narrative you think the narrative was that Joe Biden was too old and that he was seen now right like that was the narrative that the Republicans went with and the Democrats picked up on it and bought it i mean think about the number of resignations that we've seen out of Democrats right like oh you know one person gets accused of something they're like oh you got to step down just an accusation right and it's usually like the right will kind of fuel it because they know that Democrats will eat their own and it's not to say that we shouldn't have standards but it is to say that we should understand when we're being played and so I kept saying we stand by Joe Biden because he has a record to run on now whether or not um we were getting out there and 40:03 communicating effectively about that record I say we didn't and I say that it had to be a team sport it couldn't just be that you know we were relying on the president to get all the information out it was incumbent upon us we were supposed to go into our districts with these big fake checks and make sure all the local media was there and we talk about the investments that were being made and make sure that they knew Joe Biden did this Joe that that new 40:27 Democrats Need to Rebrand facility Joe Biden did that like it was up to us to really be good partners and you don't think Democrats were i don't I don't think that we were instead we spent if we spent half as much time beating down Joe Biden as we did uplifting all that was accomplished and it got accomplished in only two years because he only had the House and the Senate for two years ultimately when the history books are written he will go down as a very accomplished president as one of our best presidents but if people don't know 41:00 if we're not communicating then it's almost like we didn't do anything and I still think that we are struggling with figuring out how to communicate out um to the general public let me ask you about the Democratic party because obviously it has gotten tons of criticism and you're saying the Democrats should have supported Joe Biden but I think many Americans feel like the Democratic party is lost feckless cannot get their together to be just to say it you know real um what do you think the Democratic Party needs to do to reinvigorate itself to have a leader to have some organizing principle yeah so first of all I think we need to rebrand i don't know that we've ever invested in branding i can't really tell you what our brand is well I I know it's diverse and maybe that's part of the problem right it doesn't speak with one voice there are a lot of different voices it is which isn't necessarily bad no I think that it's 42:04 actually uh one of our strengths but I do think that the Republicans have branded us as weak right that I mean when people like you say effectless right like I mean we've been branded as weak and I think when people are looking for leadership you don't ever when you go through and you say list the attributes of a leader weak is not one of those attributes that anyone will ever list as a descriptor so I think that number one we have to brand 42:36 Why is Tolerance Acceptance Branded as Weak ourselves as something other than we've been branded as elitist and weak and I think that we have to be branded as strong as well as um for everyone i mean you know I hear weak but I think it's interesting because why is tolerance and acceptance branded as weak i can't 43:01 tell you why it's branded as weak but it it has been and I think I think because we have had kind of a turn the cheek type of attitude like we're going to always be the adults in the room and we are we are still going to be the adults in the room but you know when you've got people that are beating you down and then you don't really respond um I think that people are like 'Okay like are you going to fight for me you're not fighting for yourself right and so I think that there are ways to do it and I think we're starting to get our footing um but I think for the longest we have so many institutionalists that believe that if I just show you how the institution is supposed to work then Marjgery Taylor Green and others you will come into the fold and you'll start to respect the instit they don't care like you need to evaluate some of these kind of new actors including the president himself and say like 'No like we can't play footsie.' Like this guy is like punching people in the face whether 44:01 How to Deal with President Trump we're talking about presidents and and leaders of other countries i mean he's completely disrespectful um and ignores all norms and I think we have to deal with him in the way that he is i think that we go back to showing the world and the country what leadership should look like which is thoughtful which is compassionate while also being very strong when we got the White House back like we do it like once we're the ones in the seats but I don't think that we do it from afar and I think that ultimately who will become the Democratic nominee for president will be someone that has been out there and has shown that they won't allow themselves to be punched in the face and just say thank you like they will punch back i think that that's what's going to happen that's a perfect segue to your encounter obviously your infamous famous encounter with Marjorie Taylor Green you 45:02 the one talking about I just I think your fake eyelashes are messing up the Hold on hold on listen order m i'm just curious just to better understand your ruling if someone on this committee then starts talking about somebody's bleach blonde bad built butch body that would not be engaging in personalities correct a what now chairman i make I make a motion to strike those all right take us back to that moment Jasmine first of all how you had kind of the hutbah to to come back at her and sort of what that whole experience was like for you yeah I was really annoyed that was a bad day um on that day the vast majority of the Republicans on the oversight committee decided that they would venture up to New York so we did not have committee when we were supposed to have committee earlier in the day so the Democrats were at work while the Republicans were on a 46:04 field trip to support their soontobe felonious candidate um and so we had to have our hearing at 8:00 p.m and she was still talking about Judge M and that's not what the hearing was about whatsoever um the hearing was about our attorney general and whether or not he should be held in contempt and so I was like what are we doing you know like you guys finally show up to work and then you don't even know what you're here for um and then that's when she decided to kind of insult you yeah and so the thing is it was a clear violation of the rules and um Comr didn't quite understand that he would lose a vote so it was my understanding he was going to rule against her if she failed to apologize but she was going to apologize then she was like I'm not going to apologize like I'm not apologizing and so then Jamie Raskin was like 'Well she's gonna have to go because that's the rule like once we take down your words then you you got to go you can't wait for them.' Is if you attack someone personally yeah then 47:08 What Happens if You Attack Someone you are engaging in personalities and then you take down their words and so it's a part of the record and then what happens is um they're not allowed to participate for the rest of that committee hearing well he was concerned about his numbers because not everyone has showed up for this 8:00 p.m and he needed her vote and he needed her vote and so next thing you know they were like 'Oh he's going to you know change his ruling.' And I was like 'What?' And so you know I looked over and I was like 'I cannot let this like slide.' Like I was so pissed because I was like 'You guys are ignoring the rules.' And so um that's when I looked over at her and wrote it down on a piece of paper and um from head to toe dressed her down um and I asked and I did it in the form of a 48:01 parliamentary inquiry um because I did not want to violate the rules but I also wanted to teach a lesson about how bad this could go um and so Yeah and you credit your granny yes for coming up with some of the terminology 48:18 How People Reacted to the Skit yes she used to call people bad bill see once they get to a certain age they just say whatever and that was one of the things that she used to do in her older age she would look at people and call them bad built you got a lot of feedback for that exchange um or that that comment or that what did you call it parliamentary inquiry um it was uh it was a skit on SNL yes and I'm sure you heard from a lot of people i'm sure you heard both positive and negative but was it mostly positive it was mostly positive and what were people saying to you um people were really happy that the bully finally got bullied but in a very creative classy um way that kind of showed my mental 49:05 superiority um so people were really happy i mean even Republicans I mean I was getting high fives from Republican colleagues and winks and um different people being like I think your eyelashes are great you know like um so so there was a lot of positivity really from both sides of the aisle not just um in the chamber but also like outside and you know the one response I didn't really expect to have was just the number of like women of color that talked about some of their work spaces and just the level of disrespect that they get and just being able to see me stand up for myself in Congress really made them feel like that they could stand up for themselves as well and that they needed to dig into their own kind of rules in their own organizations um but they felt like you know what if a congresswoman can do this I can as well now they weren't going out calling people bleach blond bad built 50:04 What Do You Say to Those Who Believe bodies but you know just at least standing up for themselves and and feeling confident to do it but what you know what do you say to those who believe this is kind of a breakdown of decorum a and civility in Congress there's that argument you know the Michelle Obama when they go low we go high attitude um you know this whole idea that I'm sure you grew up with your mom seeing this you know you don't want to sink to their level type thing um did it give you any any pause to say you know what you were talking about these people who want to protect the institution or do you think that that's not at this point in time or at this moment in history the way to go yeah I I still think that you know I did it in such a way that kind of walked a line of sorts um because that was not my first 51:00 thought um when I got insulted uh it was to you We Have Different Generations of Fighters know throw an insult like right back um and so I I think I think that there are ways to do this but I definitely think that we've got to do something so I I think that this is just kind of where we are and I recall when my predecessor chose me one of the things that she talked about and she had been there for 30 years she said 'Congress isn't what it used to be.' And that that's saying a lot when you've been there for 30 years i mean she was basically like this place is going to hell in a hand basket is basically what she was telling me so I think that we have different generations of fighters for different fights and I think that we will get back on track i do I think that people will get weary of this um and you know I feel like there's a little bit of that that's already kind of sinking in um but until we get these 52:01 Are Other Democrats More Willing type of bad actors out I think that it needs to be clear that if y'all want to fight we can fight but honestly I just want the only type of fighting that I want to do is in the form of legislation that will better the lives of my constituents and frankly better the lives of the vast majority of theirs as well do you find other Democrats are more willing to take the gloves off now than they used to be i think uh those of us that haven't been in institutions too long are more willing and more apt yeah i want to talk to you about some of the things that are going on in in this country Jasmine before you go what do you think about what has happened in LA and calling up the National Guard the Marines and basically saying this could happen in every state in our country um I truly have no words um 53:00 you know you grow up as a little girl and you you grow up as a little girl in this country let me clarify that and you think man this is a great place to live 53:12 Mental Health Crisis and it's only going to get better and then you become the adult version of me and you have a president that is openly um just a criminal like not just the convictions he's got consistently breaking laws um ignoring court orders violating the constitution and doing it all because he really is seeking this retribution this retribution that he campaigned on he said I will be your retribution um and so this idea that we don't care how many people get hurt we don't care how we prostitute our our service members you know thinking that you have your own special little army that's for you i mean it is just it is 54:00 sick it is really sick and anybody that supports it is also sick um and so you know we've got a mental health crisis in this country because everyone no matter how you affiliate yourself should be against Trump period this is not partisan for me like I would give anything to have sad to say George Bush like I like give me any regular Republican nowadays and I would be happy but right now we have someone who does not care and he is being enabled by the fact that there are you know people that follow him and they pump him up as well as the people that are surrounding him and so you know I my heart breaks for service members people that signed up to protect democracy and freedom not only here but abroad and were willing to risk their lives and now literally the very thing that they signed up to fight 55:04 against is now their commander-in-chief um it it really breaks my heart and I don't know how far he has to go before we can come together and just say enough is enough like this should not be partisanship the final point that I'll make is that um Tribeca just ended and they did a screening of a documentary that I'm in and um it's called The Inquisitor and it's about Barbara Jordan and you know it's amazing it is an amazing amazing documentary but to watch her uh in the age of Nixon and to to see and hear about her thought process about Nixon and to know that there were members of his party they were like 'No right.' Like it it wasn't 56:04 partisanship it was right versus wrong it's the things that they teach you when you're in elementary school and somehow we don't have that right now behind closed doors Republicans will say you know I remember them telling me how much they hated Elon but they would not do that out front they wanted us to take Elon down right and they will even say things about Trump but they won't do what's right they won't honor their oath the oath that they swore to the 56:29 GOP Cowards Constitution why not i have no idea other than they're cowards bottom line they're cowards anyone that potentially would do right they would rather preserve their opportunity to still be associated with the Republican party and not be ostracized and not be targeted by MAGA um and just resign you know we've got a new resignation that was just announced here just about two weeks ago um I think he's cheering Homeland he's only been in Congress since 18 and he's like I'm I'm out but instead of just doing what's right 57:06 because you disagree with what's happening he's like 'I'll leave.' We had a number of retirements unfortunately like the ones that you see retire on the Republican side are people that probably are like 'I just can't be a part of this.'But they can't say why how do you see this whole chapter in American history coming to a close are you positive that sanity and adherence to the constitution will prevail or do you worry what's down the road if we continue on this path uh there are no absolutes and we know that democracy um and freedom have to be won and fought for and won in every generation this is our generational fight i can tell you that I was elated to see the outpouring of people for no kings um versus the lack of attendance for you know the 58:07 birthday parade um but you know right now we have a party that is hellbent on rigging the system right now the president has called down to my governor um and wants him to find a way to do mid um oh goodness he wants to do redistricting right now um and it is so that mid decade sorry um mid decade redistricting so that he can get five additional seats out of Texas we have 38 seats in Texas only 13 belong to Democrats the numbers are already completely skewed and they want to cheat to get five more seats we know that the Democrats should have been in control of the House but for the Republican controlled newly Republican controlled Supreme Court in North Carolina deciding to redistrict 59:00 again once they got control and taking three seats um so they are hellbent on power no matter what and you know I don't know that the American people fully understand that but I say that the most patriotic thing that anybody can do regardless of your political affiliation is to vote for whoever is not the Republican in every single ballot for the next at least three four or five ballots to at least restore some sense of calm to at least make Republicans nervous that the people are not going to stand for this and just blindly vote for the person that has a R because you may want to put all the blame on Trump but the reality is that he's got a lot of co-conspirators and accompllices that have allowed him to do this i can't let you go without asking you about the events of this weekend the same weekend the No Kings protests i guess they're saying 13 million Americans turned out all over the country and that very same weekend we 1:00:05 saw the murder of a Minnesota representative and her husband at the hands of someone who seems seem to be or politically motivated to do this um these are really scary times for elected officials Jasmine and I'm curious how you're feeling about if you're personally nervous and how the rhetoric the the you know violent rhetoric can be toned down you know I'm not nervous um you know I tell people all the time God has not given me a spirit of fear um I am of the opinion stay ready so you don't have to get ready uh the number of death threats that I get are a little bit higher than average um 1:01:00 so we have consistently had to figure out our safety i think I'm more frustrated than anything i'm frustrated that you know I have colleagues that will engage in certain rhetoric and then come and high-five you and talk to you and you know things and it's like dude like we should be shutting down some of this stuff right you know the fact that on that day Marjorie Taylor Green had the audacity to you know post a picture of her with this you know ridiculously sized gun and that kind of stuff like that's just ridiculous mike Lee mike Lee exactly senator Mike Lee like all of that like this isn't a game like you had people that died and like maybe it's funny to you because they're Democrats but honestly again you talk about being a patriot or an American like you should not be okay with this you should not be okay with lawlessness you should not be okay with um you know encouraging killers or potentially inciting other killers because they know that you'll 1:02:00 give them a pat on the back like you should not be engaging in that at the same time that you're pretending as if all the crime in our country is caused by immigrants immigrants that have come over and somehow you're having to go to their jobs to grab them up and round them up and throw them who knows where but they are the ones that are causing the crime like the hypocrisy is astounding but also the heartlessness whether it is in their rhetoric or whether it's in their bills um the fact that they go around and they say that they're Christians and there is nothing Christian or loving or compassionate or merciful about anything that they do and so for me I just want the American people to wake up if you really like I tell people all the time if if you want Jesus go to church um you really shouldn't look for us in in your politics but if you are don't listen to just somebody saying or proclaiming that they're a Christian like I don't care who you are you should not be okay with 1:03:02 you know Mike Lee posting i mean just it's absolutely astounding and and I remember I I messaged a Republican that I consider to be a friend can't say his name because then he'll lose all of his you know Republican bonafes but um I text I said 'Yo get your people in line.' Like we are not protected you know the only people that can afford to be protected are people that raise enough money to actually pay for security because they don't do anything to protect us like at all i have been asking for a while put extra money into our um MRA which is our official account um our budget so that we can have protection like they don't give us capital police officers like you have to be a high ranking Democrat regardless of your threats you just have to be like in a certain or Democrat or Republican to end up getting um a team that's it 1:04:00 they're the only have a certain amount of money is you're saying basically so you can pay for it well no no no no they supply it so if you are like the minority leader the So you have to be at a certain level yes you have to be at a certain level or you have to pay for your own out of your campaign funds and I think that that's unfair because it's like I'm just trying to serve people like and when I go out to campaign like I want to make sure that I'm giving people the information about why my candidacy matters not having to look out for my security because my job is a security risk like you should just like they are protecting the thug that's in the White House like we could get one person you know what I mean like just like he could have $45 million to have this stupid parade $45 million going across 465 you know or 435 members of the House you could have gave us that money to protect us it would be I mean literally that would have been more than enough there's so many things that could have been more 1:05:06 worthwhile and this is after you know Steve Scaliz is still serving but this is after he literally was shot at the congressional baseball game like I mean how many members have to die or how many um political figures have to be targeted we put in more money for the protection detail of Donald Trump after those attempts in a bipartisan way because it was the right thing to do so I'm just like I don't understand why we're not making movement and so you know I'm going to continue to beat the drum but I think I'm probably going to beat it more publicly now because I have been trying to go through the process of saying yo we need more protection and it's fallen on death ears are you optimistic this whole thing is going to end in a positive way ultimately do you think democracy 1:06:02 will prevail that's my hope all I got is hope right now i don't have anything beyond that you still excited about public service i'm excited about the people that I have an opportunity to serve i I don't know about the mechanics of service itself but definitely very excited to go home or even just travel the country and know that people are having their faith restored in politicians jasmine Crockett thank you so much this was so great to be able to get to know you and talk to you about these issues of course I have a million more questions but you've got people to see and places to go so yes I do this was great thank you so much

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