If you are close enough to the president, it doesn't matter
if you are a drug trafficker.
It doesn't matter
if you're a child rapist. It doesn't matter if you're a dictator,
if you're close to him,
that you don't have anything
to worry about. But if you are on the opposite side of
him, that's when you become a bad person.
And you might not even be a criminal. It is crazy to have such a brazen criminal running the United States.
And that's exactly who he is. He's a brazen criminal. I'm Joanna Coles,
this is the Daily Beast podcast.
And today we're going to share
a conversation with Jasmine Crockett, the congresswoman from Texas
who is now running for a Senate seat
because she believes she can get
so much more done in the Senate. I'm not sure you can get anything done
in either Congress or Senate,
because we appear
to have a government of one. But whatever Jasmine is going to try,
and we really got into it
about the Epstein files,
because she's on the oversight committee about Donald Trump's health,
his physical health and his mental health.
What Republicans are saying behind Donald Trump's back and just, well,
the enormity of the crazy
that's going on right now.
Congresswoman Crockett,
thank you very much for joining us. We've got a lot to discuss.
Not the least Greenland, Venezuela,
your Senate run everything. But but I wanted you to explain to us
what it's like being in Congress right now
where the president seems to be operating a government of one.
When you talk to Republicans, what? What are they saying?
What do they say
behind closed doors about his behavior?
If I had to describe what it feels like
right now, it feels like wearing abuse
in an abusive relationship.
It feels like, you know, you have someone, and I think that the abuse is felt by
the Republicans and the Democrats alike.
Right. You thought that you were
in a relationship with someone who understood the rules
of being in a relationship,
but instead violated them,
and that's exactly what not only members of Congress are experiencing,
but frankly, the American people,
there are so many people that feel like
he violated their trust, with the priorities that he laid out
versus his actual actions.
I will say that most Republicans
just don't want to go against him. They don't want to deal with what
Marjorie Taylor Greene dealt with
when she decided
she couldn't take it anymore. Because when you're on the opposite side of him,
if you're going to be vocal against him,
it doesn't matter if you're a Democrat
or Republican or independent, then he does have kind of like a mob like
situation set up where
there are people that will come after you. There are people that will threaten you and you are
constantly looking over your shoulder.
And I can imagine that
if you have a spouse or a child,
it is that much more frightening for you.
And so, you know,
I thank God that, you know, even though I've asked at different times,
like,
why don't I have a husband and kids
and then that and then I'm like, oh, okay, maybe because you knew
I was going to answer this moment,
but that's not really
what politics should be like, right? Like, not really
that like, oh, you can't speak out.
You can't speak the truth. You can't talk about the oath
that you took to the Constitution. You can't rein in someone out of fear
that someone may try to take your life.
Like it doesn't make sense
that we're like, hey, guys, like we had to get a bulletproof vest.
It doesn't make sense that that is
the life that you have to live. Do you have a congresswoman? Do you have to wear a bulletproof vest?
We are absolutely making sure
I wear a bulletproof vest, because I don't know if I'm in a big, big,
big situation.
I just don't know. Wow. I would not expecting to
to kick off with that
or all the different categories
of Republicans though, because there are clearly
the true believers like Mike Johnson.
But then all the others who say one thing
when Trump is around but behind
his back is saying, when are we going
to use the 25th amendment? I mean, do people feel largely
if you were doing a sweep of
the Republicans you talk to,
do they think that he is on top form,
or do they think that he is aging
and in decline? So none of them have addressed that.
None of them have addressed it,
not with me. I've not had Republicans
say anything to me about that.
I will tell you that Republicans,
for the most part, are just afraid of him being on the other side of them,
whether it means
that they may lose their election,
or whether it means that they may endure the death threats.
They just are cowards. I mean, if I'm being honest and
then the ones that really are over him,
they have decided to leave Congress. So there's a lot of retirements
that are taking place
in a lot of those retirements. I've not talked to the people,
that are retiring on
that side of the aisle,
but I personally believe that it's that. And then you have only like a Thomas
Massie,
who is willing to go toe to toe and he only stands
for what he believes in.
Right. And I would say and it's crazy
because Thomas Massie is probably a further right,
Republican
than kind of like you're
I wouldn't classify him as a moderate guy, but he's a true Republican,
like he is a true fiscal conservative.
Like he. So he go he will vote against the budget
because it's spending too much money. Like he won't do it
just because Trump wants it.
He's like,
no, it's spending too much money. He also, you know, led the way as relates
to the Epstein file.
Right. He is still leading the way
on the same files. He is against dropping bombs in Venezuela.
Like this is a guy
that functions as a regular Republican. And we serve on the Judiciary Committee
together.
And there have been times
that he's had an amendment to a bill, and Democrats supported or vice versa.
Like he just I'm like,
can we get back to it? It's crazy. But I'm like, can we get more Thomas Massey's people
that just literally understand
who they are and what they believe,
and they stick by that. The problem with MAGA is MAGA
doesn't have a belief system.
MAGA simply does whatever Trump says. And so like you can't
you can't govern that way.
Like you have to be like, oh, I can go to this person and get help on this because they believe
in this kind of freedom or whatever.
Like, are there a constitutional is or,
you know, something. We're just like waiting to see
what the truth will be
before they know which way they can go. And it's it's crazy. They have absolutely
abdicated their duties.
So have you spoken to Marjorie Taylor
Greene? Obviously,
you famously got into it, some months ago.
But did you speak to her after
she announced she was leaving Congress? No, she wasn't really
around very much afterwards.
And so I don't even remember her
being in committee. Because we serve on oversight together,
so I don't
I can't really recall her
being in committee after that. Marjorie and I were never really friends. Well, I wasn't sure
if you ran into her in the bathroom or,
you know, the cafe or something. So. So what do you make of her leaving?
Do you think she's positioning herself
to come back into politics as a more independent character?
Do you think she might run
against Donald Trump? What was your impression of her
saying that she was going to leave?
So I talked to some people in Georgia to find out what was like,
what the rumblings were in Georgia.
There are those that believe she's
about to run for governor, of Georgia. The filing deadline has not passed. And,
I think there may have been a rule that would have caused her some problems
if she would have been serving in the house
while trying to run for governor.
And so I don't think that they have,
like, a real frontrunner for governor. And I think she tried to moderate herself
to hopefully be able to get it.
We know that Kemp was not one of Trump's
favorites, but he was able to win Georgia.
And so he had kind of moderated himself,
and he was against, Trump or Trump
was really against him because he refused
to steal the election, on his behalf.
So we are looking
and thinking and believing that she most likely
is about to try to run for governor.
And do you think she actually
is more moderate than she always portrayed herself,
or she is.
She really is a Maga candidate now. She's a Maga candidate. She is not moderate at all.
And, I don't know that she believes
she can make it through the primary,
without trying to get a little bit of kind of love
from both, right? MAGA would probably still stand with her,
because they know her
as being MAGA versus somebody else. And then, you know,
maybe some moderates would be like,
oh, well, you know, she went against him. So I think she's trying to kind of get
both groups. But she is absolutely still MAGA.
She's still did like some pretty bad votes
on a few things, after she left, so. Or.
I'm sorry.
She was on our way out the door. Right. So you mentioned
you're on the oversight committee.
Can you bring us up to speed with what on
earth is going on with the Epstein files?
I mean, you mentioned Thomas Massie two,
who got together with Roy O'Connor, and they managed to persuade enough of the women
Republicans to vote for the release.
Then there was the unanimous vote
for the release of the Epstein files. What is happening? What is happening with them?
Yeah. Nothing. Pam Bondi is not qualified,
both ethically and probably, legally, to be the,
to serve
as our top lawyer in this country. And so with that, she just does
whatever Donald Trump tells her to do,
which also is not her job, but whatever. And so they are not releasing files.
But now this is law. So it's, you know,
it's bigger than just a subpoena,
which is what we were able
to get out of the oversight committee. It is an actual law.
And so the question is,
what does it look like to enforce the law because the enforcement mechanisms weren't
really kind of laid out in the law.
Most likely
to try to get people on to sign it. And so, it's
my understanding that there is litigation
that is about to ensue against her
for violating the law. And we will see
kind of where a court goes on that.
And where does the litigation come from. Who's bringing that? Actually ro
and Maxine are leading the way.
And are you talking to the victims at all
and the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein? I mean, what I mean,
what are you hearing from them?
So, I mean, I talked to them recently. I will say that they've got some amazing
attorneys that are just so very helpful
in making sure we can kind of navigate
and understand this space, but also just like being good stewards
and good partners with these women, and making sure that, you know, as we go
out and we do news and things like that,
we keep them out front as far as like
how much of their stories they want out.
And, and make sure that we're pushing that
there are real people attached to this.
I applaud so
many of them because they've made it clear that it wasn't Partizan for some of them,
like for any of them.
And I'm saying some of them, some of them, you know, made it clear
that they voted for Donald Trump. Right? Like, I mean, part of the reason
they voted for him was because of this.
Now, granted, we're talking about
survivors, this band, you know, decades and have different experiences,
and with different people.
But like literally, it's like people
that voted for both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris and so for
the survivors, it's not political.
And frankly, for the Democrats, it's
not either. That's
why we're like, call in whoever you think. Like if there are bad Democrats, then
bring them in.
Like we're not trying
to protect pedophiles. And that is the message
that we want to get across. And that is that is where we're really
going wrong in this moment right now.
It is a matter of
if you are close enough to the president, it doesn't matter
if you are a drug trafficker,
it doesn't matter
if you're a child rapist. It doesn't matter if you're a dictator. If you're close to him, then
you don't have anything to worry about.
But if you are on the opposite side of
him, that's when you become a bad person. And you may not even be a criminal, right?
I mean, and so that's where it's, you know,
the way that I've phrased it this week in
is that we are searching for our morality right
now, like this isn't right or left
right now in the way that governance
is taking place. It's right or wrong. And right now we got a lot of wrong
that's going on.
And we're just asking people like,
I was telling a group of people, I said, go back to your elementary days
where they asked you the difference
between a truth and a lie,
whether something was right or wrong. Forget if there's a D or
are attached to it, just is it right to go
and drop bombs in Congress, not
have any say so that's a yes or no, right?
Like it's very simple and it seems like it only gets complicated
depending on who did it.
So do you get the problem. Is there a sense
that Congress is frustrated about this? I mean, Congress appears to be completely
cut out of any process whatsoever.
Can you not all rise together? Can you not all, you know, at least express your discontent
or fury with the president?
I would say yes. Technically. You know, we know that the War Powers
Resolution was passed
last week out of the Senate. So the Senate was able
to get a couple of people to come over, a couple of Republicans,
you know, Democrats stood strong.
A couple of Republicans came on board. We will see if anything happens
on the House side or not.
I don't have the highest of hopes, because Donald Trump
then went after those senators. You know, it's
I mean, it is it is crazy to have such
a brazen
criminal running the United States. And that's exactly who he is.
He's a brazen criminal. It does seem like it's
an extraordinary moment. Do you think Mike Johnson survives?
Will he survive as speaker? Maybe. I mean, he changed the rules,
to make it more difficult to kick him out.
So that's one thing he wanted to insulate himself
just a little bit.
You know, I think I don't think
they want to go through this.
We don't have anybody. And so we're just kind of out there again, and everyone's
looking at us in dysfunction.
I think the people
that would have been most inclined to kind of instigate the coup,
so to speak, They're gone.
You know, Matt Gates isn't here. He was the one that was instigating
before. Marjorie was right there with them.
Like Marjorie has gone like,
I think the people that potentially would have instigated this type of action,
they're not around.
So I think that they'll just kind of
sit around, they'll complain about Mike Johnson, but
I don't know that he'll get kicked out.
I think that he would call Trump first, to threaten people
and then they would fall in line.
So you've mentioned
the Justice Department. If you were doing the top three issues
that caused you
as a congresswoman,
the most concern, what would they be?
And we're recording this on a Tuesday afternoon,
and Donald Trump has just yelled at a group of us attorneys that had come
to the white House for a photo
opportunity, and he's just told them
that they're holding up his bigger plans.
So we've mentioned the DOJ. What would be the other sort
of your two priorities?
So for DOJ, it's probably the prosecutions
that are taking place of, enemies, right. The perceived enemies.
So like Jerome Powell. Yes. Yes. Letitia James, you know, the list goes on.
Comey. You know, I think that that is so very,
very chilling
and concerning and firing people
if they failed to do it. Yeah. That I think also the fact
that they specifically gutted
the Civil Rights Division and, the Department of Justice
is the one that is advising,
you know, on use of force things
and that kind of stuff. So as we see that ice is out of control,
you know, I don't anticipate that
there's any relief that we would ever get
from this Department of Justice, even if, they were to be sued.
Our laws are kind of difficult to get over
sometimes. These guys are so bad that we should be able to get over it,
but I just don't think that they would do
anything in the way of justice
for these victims. In addition to that,
they were the ones that advised him
that it was okay to send people to torture camps in other countries.
So you know, there's a lot this kind of
sitting there and then also just this idea that the Department of Justice
and basically Pam Bondi, did whatever trumped up charges,
she wanted to, to give cover
for what they did in Venezuela, to say that it was a law
enforcement action when it wasn't.
But that was the cover. So it's like, oh, no, no, no, he got
charged by the Department of Justice. And so this is why we have to go
and get their sitting president, who,
you know, we can deal with his legitimacy
or illegitimacy later, but like go in, kill people
because they killed Venezuelans. And go get him. And then we've not heard much
about the law enforcement side of this.
Action. We've heard about oil. We've talked about
he when he went and prosecuted for oil,
he I mean but that's all the president
has talked about is him talking to, oil
CEOs about getting oil out of Venezuela
in his press conference with oil or oil.
And so I just have grave concerns about the type of Department of Justice
that would allow,
the various miscarriages, to take place. And, it's just completely illegal.
But I could go on about them. You asked me about other priorities
in general. I think that we have to talk
through tariffs.
I think, tariffs are hurting,
not only the American people,
but they are hurting
our international relationships. And our friendships.
And, you know, the average person
doesn't even talk about tariffs, like, they don't even think about that,
like in their everyday kind of work.
But understanding
the tariffs are supposed to be a tool, a tool
of deterrence, for different actors.
And he's mischaracterized what they are,
how they work. But, you know, we would typically waive,
say, tariffs on Russia
as they are waging war on Ukraine. Right. Like as a way of kind of,
putting them in a bind. Right. That's what we would normally do. We normally would not talk to Canada
and Mexico, our friends
and who we have worked collaboratively
with in so many ways,
as part of North America
and start to pick fights. And so you start to pick unnecessary
fights.
And I think we're fighting on too
many fronts. And frankly, we may be isolated
in a minute because of, this leadership.
So I think that we have to
think through that because from a
national security standpoint,
this administration is actually making us more vulnerable to hate and attacks.
Whether we're talking about the illegal acts of Elon
Musk and, the empowerment of funds
that Congress had actually set aside
for, say, USAID. And so that was our way of flexing
soft power and building good relationships
for pennies on the dollar. And people have died.
We have like hundreds of
thousands of people have died because randomly the money was cut off.
And it was also that the likes of an Elon Musk can get $8 million a day.
The cruelty that America is evidencing
while also saying
that we have the moral high ground
to go and pull another dictator
in as another dictator, because it's a very dictatorial thing
to do, to not have
the authority or power to go in
and take somebody else's leader out. But you go and do it like you
can't be the good guy like you can't.
You're not the good guy. Right? So I would say that that has to be another thing.
That
is just kind of high up there. So I kind of put a lot of it in one.
Yeah. No, no. It's interesting. So look, you, are you being
redistricted?
You're you're running for Senate in Texas
is the reason that you're giving up your Congress seat
because you're being redistricted.
It is one of the factors. In general, I feel confident
that I could have won a seat.
The rules when you're running in Congress
is that you just have to be a resident of the state.
But you can run anywhere in the state. And I feel confident that I would have
been able to find a seat somewhere to run.
I feel confident then,
but they did kick me out of my district. I technically could have ran
for my district.
I wouldn't have been able to vote
for myself, but I could have run for it. And I don't think anyone
would have run against me simply because,
they would have understood that,
like they kicked me out of my district, but like, I'm not going to move around and buy new homes
and all these different districts
every time they want to play
funny, things with the lines. But I will tell you that the fact
that the Supreme
Court affirmed a decision, are actually
reversed, a decision from the lower court, and allowed these maps to go into effect
four days before the filing deadline.
That absolutely was a trigger for me. Because they are trying
to reduce our power in our voices.
And the reality is that they were reducing the voices of Latinos in our state
to one third.
They were reducing voices
of African-Americans to one fifth. But when you run statewide, everybody's
voice counts just the same,
and you know, to allow them to just have a pass
and go back to the Senate while also,
doing what they're doing on the House side
and understanding that most of the challenges that we have in the United States that kind of got us
here, it is because of the Senate.
The only reason that
they were able to redistrict randomly is because the John Lewis
voting Rights Advancement
Act that passed out of the House,
it did not pass out of the Senate. The only reason that women
are struggling
as it relates to reproductive access is because we can pass
the bill out the House. We can't get nowhere in the Senate.
The only reason we have this configuration
of the Supreme Court is because they came through
and they got confirmed in the Senate.
So every time I think about
the only reason he has immunity right now is because of this Supreme Court,
which again, came through the Senate.
And there's only one body that has
oversight over the federal judiciary. It is the Senate, not the House.
So for me, I can't say that I want to make
change and I want to do better. And then say, well, I'm too scared
and I just want a title
and I just want to stay in the ring. No, sometimes you've got to make bold
moves, and we are living in a bold moment
where we have an unhinged, most likely mentally ill,
chief who's a con in chief, and we have people that are scared
on both sides, Democrats and Republicans.
Well, and you don't seem scared. You seem fearless. And you've been. You've been certainly out there.
You're in a very tight race against, a sort of relative newcomer,
James Talarico.
What's the difference
between your positions if I'm rarely paying attention?
I live in Texas, and I know that
the Democrats have put up two candidates. Why would I vote for you and not him?
Yeah. So I think, just this past week,
a poll came out. This poll was about five abilities,
and a number of people
were trying to interpret
kind of what it meant. The poll,
said, number one,
that my favourability is higher than all the Republicans that are running.
And they are all elected in some way. And this
was a poll of just people in Texas.
It was 12 to 1600 people. I don't remember what the number was. And so it's significant to know
that I have name I.D.
that is approximately
just as high as theirs, but my favourability is higher than theirs.
The challenges
that Democrats typically have when we are running statewide in Texas
is we have great candidates.
So I don't have anything bad to say about
James. I served with him, in the state House.
And actually, James has been an elected
official longer than I have. But he only has state experience.
And right now
we're talking about a federal position. And so it's not even just
that it's a federal position, but
it's a federal position
during the time of Trump. And a lot of people have been disappointed
with how their elected leaders
are dealing in this moment,
whether they're Democrats or Republicans. Will Texans
know how I will deal in this moment
specifically
because I've been dealing in this moment. That's number one. Number two,
we can't really afford to get behind
and have somebody that has to learn through all of these areas,
as well as learn the processes. As somebody who served on both levels,
I can tell you that they're different.
And so we get the benefit of not
having to deal with the learning curve. But most importantly, the reason
that I brought up this poll and reason
that I brought up name ID is that we
typically spend about $100 million
trying to get somebody into office,
but we basically spend the vast majority of the money with people
just trying to learn the person's name.
And frankly, that's just not enough. We saw, even when we look at the
presidential, one of the things that
initially came out when the vice president
got in in some focus groups was that
people said that they didn't know her.
And I was like, that's crazy. Like, you got to know the vice. She's a vice president
of the United States. Like, what do people mean?
And what it was is that people feel like
they know Donald Trump. They feel like they know him. Right.
Because they've watched him on TV
for years, whether it was on The Apprentice. They watched him
and saw him in various magazines
with different rappers
and things like that. They've seen his name on buildings
around the world forever.
So when we would say things like,
he actually is file bankruptcy six times, we've like your line.
I've seen his name on the buildings,
you know, so he had not only name I.D.,
but he had a brand name.
And so, like, I think that
we get to start off a lot further along,
which means that our money gets
to go further with a candidate like me.
So instead of people investing their money
because I've got a great resume and I would make for a great senator,
but people don't know who I am.
Instead, where past that base, I look
at it like running bases for baseball. First bases. Do I know your name?
Second bases. What is your brand? Do I do I know it? Third bases do I like your brand?
Do I like what you stand for? Do I do I want to associate with that? And then fourth base
is actually getting you out to the polls.
My theory is that we are at third base. And so, people know my name. All polling reveals that people know
my brand.
I'm known for being a fighter, right? They know I'm a lawyer.
They know I'm a fighter. Third base.
And I think they know you
because you're fast on your feet, right? And you're good at cool
seeing you're good at throwing out
fantastic one liners
which get picked up by people. Yes. So that's so we've got that right.
So the final part of this is,
is getting people to the polls, which I think we're going to effectively do. But if you look at the electorate
for the last 30 years in Texas,
there are Democrats that argue we have to go and get Republicans
to come over in order to win.
I don't approach it that way. And my my opponent
and I think see this differently. I look at it
like we need to expand the electorate.
If the electorate is the same
that it's been for the last 30 years, then they are going to do what
they've been doing for the last 30 years.
They are going to elect
another Republican. I don't believe if they didn't crossover
and vote for Kamala
Harris instead of a convicted felon. I just don't think that they crossed over. I just for somebody
that they've potentially never heard of.
Like,
I just don't believe in that philosophy. But Texas is a nonvoting voter
support a state.
We know that we only turnout about
a little bit more than 52% of the voters.
So that means that we've got
a lot of opportunity with Nonvoters. When we look at who's not voting,
it's mostly black and brown.
And so that's why to me, the win is in getting to those people that feel like
nobody has ever spoken up for them.
Nobody is represented for them,
and nobody, frankly, has tried to talk to them
and bring them into the process.
I think that's where the win is. We're going to get a bit of a bump simply because the environment
is really bad for Republicans right now.
Right. We also are going to do a little bit
better than normal, because for the first time since the 90s,
which the last Democratic governor,
we had, Ann Richards, a woman,
the second woman to be elected as governor in the state of Texas,
Ann Richards, was in office in the 90s.
This is the first time that we have
every state House, every state Senate, as well as U.S. House race that has someone running.
That means that
whoever's at the top of the ticket doesn't necessarily
have to spend all their time running around to all 254 counties
trying to talk to everyone,
because you have
someone that is consistently engaging the electorate
in the Democratic way.
And I think that all of these things
combined, plus somebody who has a little bit of that, ability
to bring in people
from all over the country,
because I've traveled the country helping candidates everywhere. I've got elected officials everywhere.
In fact, one of my senators just today
or one of these senators, in the U.S.
Senate said, hey, when it
when am I coming to Texas? Well, I was going to ask you,
who are your advisors, Congresswoman?
Yeah. So, so I talked to
the vice president, for sure.
You know, I think that people learned in her book
that she is one of my mentors. So for sure, I talked to her.
I absolutely talked to Stacey Abrams just because of the role
that she played as relates to Georgia.
And how much work it took in a state
that nobody believed in that continues
to kind of perform in a purple ish way.
I also have been talking to, some other people
that I'm not going to say their names.
But but for, for the most part,
just talking to people that have run bigger races,
and people that have done what some thought could not be done.
You could look at Kamala Harris and Stacey Abrams and say they may have been strong candidates,
but they both lost all the,
and you have a source of energy
and chutzpah about you. And I think almost a modern
see that they actually don't have.
And so to me, it seems like they're interesting advisers for you,
but they might not be leaning
into the future of the Democratic Party
in the way that you seem able to.
Does that make sense? No, I completely understand. So I look at this as building blocks.
Right. I look at
this is making progress and hopefully,
not doing
certain things that may be ineffective. So when we have conversations, I'm like,
all right, what worked, what didn't.
Right. Like what was effective. So, Stacey was really big in getting
the state of Georgia kind of organized and
and getting it to the point
that it performed for, Ossoff and Warnock. Right. And so she played an integral role,
built out her own organization.
But she was doing something
that hadn't been done. So it's like,
all right, what worked, what didn't? Because what we want to do is focus on
what did work.
As well as doing the same thing
with the vice president because while the vice president did not
when as relates to the presidency,
she obviously won statewide, becoming only the second black woman
to go to the US Senate, in the country.
And she did it in a really big state. So one of the challenges with Texas
is just how vast it is,
as well as how expensive the media markets
are and things like that. So you know, literally running statewide,
in a state that closely mirrors Texas. In fact, if you just look at our diversity
numbers, we look like
we would be performing
as a democratic state. And that's
what is making the Republicans fearful.
And this isn't hyperbole. The governor has decided
that he is going to invest
$90 million into one county
this election cycle. Now, if the state was as red
as they claim it is,
there is no way you don't see Gavin Newsom
throwing $90 million into L.A. County, right?
There was obviously money that needed
to be spent on the prop 50 proposition. Right. So they went they raised money.
They spent that money, to kind of get people to support prop 50. But like, why would you go into, like,
the largest county in the state
and invest $90 million? If you are as
red as you say you are, are you go, are you going to have it
will Joe Biden come out and stump for you?
Will you have, support
from the Obamas? So,
I, I will what I will say about President
Biden is that,
I'll just tell you,
I absolutely consulted with, President Biden as well as Vice President
Harris before I even made a decision.
I, I talked to both of them
multiple times. I also shared internal polling with them.
I, I talked to them multiple times
before coming to this decision, and I came to this decision.
So I'll leave that there. Well, you might have decided
not to take their advice and that you again, your own decision
anyway. So.
All right, what can I ask everybody,
whatever the way they want to. But I will tell you
that I feel confident that,
Well, I'll tell you this. We also, as we do polling,
we poll for certain
big names
on how they function in the state. So if for some reason it looks like
they can be helpful,
I fully imagine that they absolutely. Once I become the Democratic
nominee, will sign up. I have not talked to the Obamas.
I never served while they were in office. And so we don't have the same close
relationship.
I absolutely have met them. And we've
kind of go together on something,
but what they poll well, in Texas, do you think they would be an advantage
for you in Texas?
I think the Obamas. Yes, I think the Obamas, yes. I don't know about the president
and the vice president.
But I do think that running the race that we're trying to run,
I do think that there is a role.
So in a utopia, let's say
everybody said we're all in for Crockett. I think that there is a role
that every single one of them could play.
Now, whether or not it's specifically
in Texas or not is a whole other issue. We're talking about a race
that's $100 million.
And so doing surrogacy to raise
money, is a possibility. Definitely.
Even if it's just passing me off
to different donors, that kind of stuff. I think those are possibilities.
So I think that there is a role for any
and everyone to play,
no matter what, if they were to, to say
that they were interested in helping out. So Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers
got into trouble on their podcast
over the weekend by saying,
that no one should send you money. What did your team think
when they heard that?
I mean, it was quite a long segment
on the podcast as well. I mean, they went on and on and on
about how it was a waste of money and
you were a candidate. That was basically for yourself. Then they were forced to apologize.
How did the apology come about? I have no idea. I mean, I didn't call them.
I didn't talk to them.
We were busy. I did maybe 20 something events,
between Friday and, and Monday, and all over Texas.
So, you know,
that was the least of my concerns. I will say that the real heroes
are the people.
And I'm so grateful to every person
that was outraged and decided to use their platform
to push back, because you had two people
that did not offer any substance
whatsoever, that decided to do that. We have our thoughts about where
that came from and why it happened.
We're still digging in. But I don't think this was as organic
as people were led to believe.
Oh, intriguing. Do you think it came from James Talarico? We just don't think it's as organic
as people have been led to believe.
But I will tell you that, I
don't know that they've been talking about
Senate races anywhere,
so it's very interesting. And that's definitely not
the thrust of their podcast is to do that.
But we've got a number of Senate races. And frankly, you know, there are a lot of people
that say it can't be done in Texas anyway.
And so you would think that maybe
some of the more contentious primaries or something would be
what they would talk about.
And you would also think, I've never,
ever heard anyone say, don't send money.
And to say that in a primary that was
that was very weird. And then, just to kind of have a cosign
from someone who's like, yeah,
I don't know who that person is. It's like the unknown person that you've never heard
of is obviously going to be
the one that's going to be better to win. Make it make sense. Right. So, you know,
I mean, listen, it's politics.
And I have never been one
to be thin skinned. And frankly, if I am going to be, like,
shook because of what some podcasters
who know nothing about Texas,
who know nothing about politics, who absolutely have no data whatsoever
to back them up,
decided to say
then I probably should not be in politics, so I don't plan to go and sit around
and try to respond to every troll
that may be motivated, maybe motivated
from a very genuine space or otherwise.
I'm not going to deal with it
like I am focused on something that they claim
I'm not focused on. I'm focused on the people,
the people that I have consistently
delivered for in every elected office. The people that are hurting right
now, the people that I am arguing
that I am best to represent. And so,
I would say that if my candidacy was so,
off base, nobody would be worried about
whether or not the person that has been the number five high, the fifth highest
fundraising member of the U.S.
House, whether or not they got money. Okay, so let me ask you another question. Last week we had Congressman Seth Moulton
on from Massachusetts, and he said
that the Democratic Party just lacked
leadership at a national level. What's your perspective?
And who do you think are the candidates
that are beginning to emerge? If you, a betting woman, for 2028,
to lead the party?
Yeah. That's tough. I'm gonna tell you
why I'm gonna say this stuff. I think that there
there is a void right now.
I will say that, and I and I will say that
there's a void. Not because I'm personally saying it,
but because, like, if the people are like,
who's our leader? Like, we don't see it,
then that that is that is what it is. Right?
So, I did a podcast with Brian Tyler
Cohen. We did a live recording in California,
and that was one of the main questions
that came up. And honestly, it's come up as I've traveled the country,
before I got into this race.
And so what I will say is that I don't think we are adjusting to the leadership style
that we need to be responsive to.
I think that there are a lot of people
that are it kind of goes back to your point that are very traditionally
trained politicians
and trying to figure out
how to adjust in this moment.
It is it is not as easy for some people. I think whoever figures out how to pivot
best,
is going to emerge as the leader. I think that there are
those that have argued that, at least from a social media standpoint,
Gavin has been able to do that.
Gavin Newsom,
the governor of California, yes. I think that there are those that argue
that from a social media standpoint,
but it's going to take more
than social media, right? So, so I, I will say that,
you know,
the vice president has stayed out for sure out front, with our book tour
and is touching people.
I think it is going to come down to, you know, when we go through
some of our most difficult times who it is
that people look to, do you know that
there's an answer for that right now? Do you think that Kamala Harris
would beat, Gavin Newsom?
I mean, they're both Californians. Do you think she would beat him
in, you know, in a debate or in a runoff for,
you know what? I have no idea. And I'm gonna tell you why. Because, what's happening
with our government right now?
It changes just like this. I think that in any given moment, there's
somebody that can shoot up and can.
I mean,
it may not even be either of them. Right? In in my my actual evidence for this
because I love to have receipts is army.
Right. Like he was not polling anywhere. As it relates
to like the mayoral in New York
and he adjusted and was able
to kind of feel the environment
and he became and emerged is like a force. Right? So I think that it's hard
for us to guess
what's going to happen in the future, because on any given day,
somebody may emerge simply
because they are able to kind of be agile
in this environment. Right.
What do you think it takes? Because there are some Democrats who think
your style is a little too in-your-face.
There are others who just say,
oh my God, she's brilliant. She's the future of the party. If Trump is,
if Trump and Trump Republicans
are the future of the Republican Party,
then we have to meet that energy head on.
I mean, they're the whole Steve
Bannon school of just flood the zone. You do not see Democrats doing that.
And it may not be effective
for them to do that now, but it's hard to see who would be
those people who can
who can take on what has been arguably
an incredibly effective,
Republican Party for the first year
of this second administration.
Yeah. I think, you know, one of the things
that I've stressed, as I'm traveling
and dealing with the Senate
campaign is unity. Democrats, we're big tent.
Everybody got opinions. Listen, and one of the things
that I would say when I was on the trail for Harris is I would especially
if I would go to black church
and I would say, how many of y'all are
married, you know,
and people would raise their hands. And then I say, now,
how many of you, love your spouses?
And they would,
you know, raise their hands? And I say, and how many of you agree
with your spouse all the time?
And that's
when things will get a little fun, right? Right. And I'd say, listen,
you decided to leave your spouse and stay
with your spouse for life,
and you have disagreements. I'm saying that is okay.
I will give you a permission structure if you don't agree
with this candidate on everything, and they only need you for four years
so you can dump them after that
if you want to. Right. And so I think that, you know,
there are a lot of people that got turned off by the Democrats
because they were saying,
well, there's these purity tests
and we got to do this. And if we don't do this, then, you know,
they're going to be done with us.
And it's like you will never please
every single person. Not to mention there is no perfection
that is walking on this earth.
And frankly, I think that my honesty
and my authenticity and the fact that I don't seem like
I'm like a perfect Patty,
I think that that's more appealing because at the end of the day,
people are like, oh, I can relate to her.
And so I think that we have to focus on
saying, listen, it's okay if you disagree with me, but
I'm gonna be better than them over there.
So I'm gonna need you to go ahead and come on in and vote for me and engage
in those conversations and talk about the fact that, like,
we are a democracy
because we believe in disagreement,
we believe in that. Right. But if again, I can
I just push back on that for a moment
because you mentioned saw Mamdani,
the the new mayor of New York. He had one very clear message,
which I think the Democrats have struggled
with, which was just affordability. Yep. The city doesn't feel affordable
to a ton of people who live here.
So why can't the Democrats
just hone their message around James Carville point,
which is it's the economy, stupid.
Yeah. No, I think that that is correct. Except we have big tent party.
So you you know, if you ever were
in caucus meeting, I can tell you you're going to have and you're talking
about strong, strong personalities, right?
It's like, well, in my district, it's
this in my district, it's that it's my, you know, it's like my, my, my, my,
my right isn't who doesn't have
affordability
is a key issue in their district. And they're still representing,
you know, Silicon Valley,
which has Ro Khanna who is a Democrat. I was going to say, which we take,
but yes. Right, right. No, no, but
but who doesn't have affordability
is that number one, I don't think that there's anyone that does.
I think that Democrats overthink. So so I agree with you. The overarching
theme needs to be affordability.
And then you like break off
into your branches of like what matters most in your areas because, say, if you go to Florida, then
health care is hitting really big there
because they have more people on Medicaid,
Medicare and the Affordable Care Act. Right? So like health care,
like maybe super duper big, right?
Texas health care is super big. So you can talk if you want to. Like, I break down the cost of food.
And as someone who served
on the agriculture committee, I know about what all goes into the cost.
And I've got bills that I filed around
trying to bring down cost. So, you know, all those things
and accessibility,
so you can start to get other places. But, you know, getting Democrats
to just say affordability, affordability,
affordability, affordability, and just
at least let that be kind of the top line.
Okay. We'll see. We'll see. All right. So so you're a busy congresswoman. You're
now having to wear a bulletproof vest.
You're not yet married. What do you do in your spare time? What are you reading? What are you watching on television?
What are you at the gym?
What are you doing? You just made me sound
like the biggest loser on the planet. I'm.
Well, I don't think so. You're running for more power. You're running for the Senate. You're running for the US Senate?
No. I will tell you that some of my best friends are, typically
the ones that are most concerned.
So they will call my scheduler
and be like, you're going to block off this time
and they'll take me to dinner
or they'll take me to,
or we'll just do, like, a girls day. My friends know that I love Broadway.
So if we've got, like,
a short weekend in DC, then I may go from DC up to New York
and we catch a show.
What can you recommend? What have you seen recently
that, you know? So, well, the most recent show I think that I saw
was actually Little Shop of Horrors.
But that's a whole other issue. That's a very, specific show to me.
There's a cute story behind it. But no, it is actually Hell's Kitchen. Hell's kitchen is my favorite show.
Is done by Alicia Keys. And it's about her growing up in New York.
And one of my childhood friends from elementary school,
she was actually in the show,
and so I was able to go
and see her in the show, and now she's moved on to another show.
That is going to be coming out. That's about, TLC, the music group. So, really excited to go and see that.
But Hell's Kitchen, by far is one of
the best shows on Broadway right now. Okay. And what are you reading? What what what is the book
by your bedside questionnaires?
Okay. That doesn't sound very relaxing. Let me just say it's not relaxing at all.
I mean, the last thing that I picked up
was, the vice president's book. Okay. And did you finish it? I did not,
they're okay with it. All right,
well, listen, I know you have to get, but you've got to do vote.
Whatever you've got to do. You've got more questionnaires to read. But love talking to you. I hope that you will come back
and give us an update on what's happening
with your campaign. Yeah. 49 days. It's over. I think it's 49. I write down today in 50 days, you have to
come back, and give us a sense.
And, let me ask you one more question. You you probably see
Donald Trump around the place.
I've never seen him a day in my life. You've never seen him a day in your life? You've never actually been
in the same room as him.
State of the Union. So I mean, that counts. We're in the same room. Have you ever had a conversation with him?
No. Never met him, never met Donald. And the only time we've ever been in the same room
is for the state of the Union address.
Okay, I was going to ask you what
you thought of the state of his health.
Oh, I've sent off letters
and tried to start investigations into it.
I've talked to actual medical doctors
that I'm friends with. And ask them questions
based on kind of what they could see.
There are a number
of medical professionals that believes that he is in bad, bad shape
and that like very, very, very, very,
very bad shape. So I'm just watching
you, just watching Jasmine Crockett. Thank you very much for joining us. Can't
wait to see what happens in your campaign.
And you have to promise to come back
and talk to us about it. Yes, I will, thank you. All right. And good luck out there.
I felt like I got a completely different
vision of Congresswoman Crockett
than I get from some of the more,
I guess, performative aspects
of a politician's life. Anyway, let me know what you think.
Please add a comment to YouTube. And also, I'm very curious to know
what you think about whether or not Bowen
Yang and Matt Rogers on their podcast. And we have the story
up on The Daily Beast,
and they're apologizing
to, to Congresswoman Crockett, whether or not
you think that was an organic moment,
or do you think a political opponent
put them up to it? And if there is a political opponent
who put it, put them up to it,
who would that be? I thought that was a very curious,
a curious moment.
Joanna, hi. I have to tell you about something
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