Speaker 1: Who will become the Democratic nominee for president will be
Speaker 1: someone that has been out there and has shown that
Speaker 1: they won't allow themselves to be punched in the face
Speaker 1: and just say thank you.
Speaker 2: They will punch back. I think that that's what's going
Speaker 2: to happen. Hi.
Speaker 3: Everyone, I'm Kitty Kuric and this is next question. Texas
Speaker 3: Representative Jasmine Crockett has only been in Congress since twenty
Speaker 3: twenty three, but she's quickly become one of the most
Speaker 3: talked about Democrats in the country. She got into politics
Speaker 3: to help change an unfair criminal justice system she witnessed
Speaker 3: as a public defender. Now she's using her growing national
Speaker 3: platform to challenge the status quo and at times punch back,
Speaker 3: as we saw during her now famous encounter with Marjorie
Speaker 3: Taylor Green. But as you'll hear, her backstory is just
Speaker 3: as fascinating as her current one. Congresswoman, thank you so
Speaker 3: much for being here.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, it's my pleasure.
Speaker 3: We have so much to talk about, so much going
Speaker 3: on in this crazy world of ours, but I wanted
Speaker 3: to start by talking about your background.
Speaker 2: Yeah. May I call you Jasmine?
Speaker 3: Yes, absolutely, because I really enjoyed reading about you. I'm
Speaker 3: always interested in what has shaped people and how they
Speaker 3: have become the person they are. And I know you
Speaker 3: grew up in Saint Louis and your dad was a
Speaker 3: Baptist preacher. Tell us a little bit about your early
Speaker 3: years and your childhood.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so growing up in Saint Louis, it was a
Speaker 1: pretty simple life. I mean, you know, definitely compared to
Speaker 1: being in New York right now, right Like, there wasn't
Speaker 1: this crazy hustle and bustle. But I had two college
Speaker 1: educated parents. My mom actually is near genius as far
Speaker 1: as I'm concerned. She graduated high school at the age
Speaker 1: of sixteen, skipping ahead and became the salutatorian of the
Speaker 1: class she skipped into. And then she got a full
Speaker 1: ride to go to WashU and was done with undergrad
Speaker 1: at the age of nineteen. The reason that I say
Speaker 1: all that is that my parents were really big into education,
Speaker 1: and so I remember I was going to public school,
Speaker 1: great public school in my opinion, I mean, it laid
Speaker 1: the foundation for me to be where I am now.
Speaker 1: But my grades were too good and so my mom
Speaker 1: was like, it's not it's not Jane enough, right, And
Speaker 1: I was like, what is this?
Speaker 2: You know why are you guys not proud of me? Right?
Speaker 1: Like any other parent is happy because you're top of
Speaker 1: the class. And for them, it was like, no, it's
Speaker 1: just not enough. And so they ended up putting me
Speaker 1: in private school.
Speaker 2: So I ended school.
Speaker 1: I ended up going to Catholic school. It was interesting
Speaker 1: because I was just here for the Lion of Lenox
Speaker 1: Avenue's funeral and we were.
Speaker 2: At a Catholic.
Speaker 1: And I was like, oh goodness, it's back to being
Speaker 1: like that Catholic school girl because there was lots of
Speaker 1: kneeling and standing and all the things. But anyway, so yeah,
Speaker 1: so they put me in a Catholic middle school, and
Speaker 1: then my parents decided that it would be great if
Speaker 1: I went to a Catholic all girl high school. And
Speaker 1: I was at that age where like, you just don't
Speaker 1: want me to have a life, and so I ended
Speaker 1: up at Rosetti. Kane went there for a little bit,
Speaker 1: but then my parents divorced. So they divorced right before
Speaker 1: I turned sixteen, so it was about fifteen years old.
Speaker 2: And it was that hard for you. It wasn't at
Speaker 2: the time.
Speaker 1: At the time of the divorce, it was a bit
Speaker 1: of a relief because my parents just weren't getting along.
Speaker 1: It wasn't anything too extraordinary, but growing up where they
Speaker 1: seemingly had always loved each other and then kind of
Speaker 1: getting into this kind of cold space. I just wanted
Speaker 1: them to be happy, and I think because I was
Speaker 1: almost sixteen, it was like, all right, whatever, I'm almost
Speaker 1: out the house myself, you know. So they divorced, and
Speaker 1: the concern was that my mom was not going to
Speaker 1: necessarily they weren't going to necessarily be able to.
Speaker 2: Afford for me to go to my school anymore.
Speaker 1: And so at that point in time, my mom actually
Speaker 1: applied me to a school they cost a lot more money,
Speaker 1: because that's what makes sense. But she applied me to
Speaker 1: a country day school and they gave me a scholarship.
Speaker 1: And so while you know that school costs a lot
Speaker 1: of money, I was on a scholarship able to attend
Speaker 1: school there. And so, despite what some may think, I
Speaker 1: was a private school kid really from junior high through college,
Speaker 1: because even when I was to Rhodes, it was another
Speaker 1: private institution.
Speaker 3: That's where you went to college in Memphis and Memphis. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and throughout your childhood, you were super close to your grandmother,
Speaker 3: who you called, oh my Annie, yes, and that sounds
Speaker 3: like it was an incredible formative relationship.
Speaker 2: Oh man, I miss her every day.
Speaker 1: She truly was my biggest fan, and I don't think
Speaker 1: there ever will be anyone that will fangirl out over
Speaker 1: me as much.
Speaker 2: And that was way before any viral moment.
Speaker 1: My grandmother kept me from six weeks of age. My
Speaker 1: mom went back to work after I was about six
Speaker 1: weeks old, and my grandmother kept myself and all my cousins.
Speaker 1: So even though I was an only child, I grew
Speaker 1: up with my cousins. And my grandparents were originally from Arkansas,
Speaker 1: so even though I was in Saint Louis, I had
Speaker 1: a pretty country upbringing. When I would get to my
Speaker 1: granny's house, my poppa he worked for Pepsi Cola really
Speaker 1: his entire career. This was back when people would get
Speaker 1: a job and they would stay with it, and by
Speaker 1: the time he retired, they were shutting down the plant
Speaker 1: that he worked at, and it wasn't that far from
Speaker 1: their house. And my bike used to stay at my grandparents'
Speaker 1: house because my Papa would ride bikes with me, and
Speaker 1: so we would ride down to where the plant used
Speaker 1: to be located, and they allowed him.
Speaker 2: They still owned the land, so they allowed him to
Speaker 2: do some farming.
Speaker 1: So I guess this was probably the first urban farm
Speaker 1: that I became familiar with. And so my grandmother was
Speaker 1: a cook, and she had been like a cleaning lady
Speaker 1: as well. She used to cook and clean when I
Speaker 1: was super small for some very wealthy families in Saint Louis.
Speaker 1: But my papa would like grow all kinds of food
Speaker 1: and then bring it in and my granny would cook it.
Speaker 1: So here it is, we're like they were inner cities
Speaker 1: Saint Louis, but it was a little bit of their
Speaker 1: Arkansas roots. And my papa every once in a while
Speaker 1: would load us up in his van and take us fishing.
Speaker 1: So for me, like a real man has to know
Speaker 1: how to fish, because that's what you know, my papa
Speaker 1: did with me as a little girl.
Speaker 3: Sounds like they both had a huge influence on you.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, both of your grandparents.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they were truly my biggest fans. And I remember
Speaker 1: when my grandmother died. My grandfather had actually been in
Speaker 1: the hospital and one of my cousins called me at
Speaker 1: six am. And anybody that knows anything about me, they
Speaker 1: know that I'm not a morning person. So if you're
Speaker 1: calling me at an extraordinary hour, there's something that's going on.
Speaker 1: And so I was concerned that something had happened to
Speaker 1: my grandfather because he was in the hospital. And I
Speaker 1: remember I was actually trying to lose weight at the time,
Speaker 1: you know how we go through those phases, And so
Speaker 1: I was actually up walking a trail, Katie trail in Dallas,
Speaker 1: and my cousin called and so I said, what happened
Speaker 1: to Papa? And she said, Noah's granny And I said,
Speaker 1: what about her? And the day that my grandfather was
Speaker 1: being discharged, they could not get a hold of my grandmother,
Speaker 1: and it was because she actually just randomly passed away.
Speaker 2: So I was pretty devastated.
Speaker 1: And at that time I had been practicing law for
Speaker 1: some time, but my grandma was like she had been saying,
Speaker 1: I want to come see you in court, you know,
Speaker 1: And so we had made plans for the summer because
Speaker 1: normally during the summertime is when we would really try
Speaker 1: a lot of cases.
Speaker 2: And so she ended up dying in that spring before
Speaker 2: she could come.
Speaker 1: And I remember being at the funeral and so many
Speaker 1: people saying all she could talk about was she couldn't
Speaker 1: wait to see her She's called me Jazzy bou couldn't
Speaker 1: wait to see her Jazzy Boo in court. So again,
Speaker 1: an original fan who truly felt like I could do
Speaker 1: no wrong. And I can only imagine what she think
Speaker 1: of me now. I'm sure she'd be very proud. And
Speaker 1: it sounds like you were so lucky to have such
Speaker 1: loving grandparents and parents, because honestly, it make all the
Speaker 1: difference in terms of giving you this strong foundation confidence,
Speaker 1: kind of feeling comfortable in your own skin. I feel
Speaker 1: so bad when I meet people who weren't lucky enough
Speaker 1: to have that kind of love growing up. You know,
Speaker 1: you talk about your law career, Jasmine, but you came
Speaker 1: to law kind of I guess in a circumlocucious route.
Speaker 1: I like that word, and it's because you found it
Speaker 1: a little bit later, because initially, I know, when you
Speaker 1: went to Rose College you were interested first in being
Speaker 1: an anesthesiologist, which made me laugh, not because there's anything
Speaker 1: funny about being an anesthesiologist, but your reason was you
Speaker 1: didn't want to talk to people. And I thought, wait
Speaker 1: a second, Jasmine Crockett doesn't want to talk to people.
Speaker 2: That sounded so out of character to me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, No, did not want to talk to people. I
Speaker 1: thought it would be great just put people to sleep
Speaker 1: and I have to talk to them. So that was
Speaker 1: really for it. I mean, math and science nerd. I
Speaker 1: mean that's why, you know, when it comes down to it,
Speaker 1: when I'm in committee hearings, I always want to have
Speaker 1: my data in my facts because that's just how my
Speaker 1: brain works, right. But I did not want to talk
Speaker 1: to people, and now I can't stop. I would like
Speaker 1: to to a certain extent. We get asked to kind
Speaker 1: of do speaking engagements a lot, and I'm like, I'm
Speaker 1: really okay, like I don't have to guys.
Speaker 3: But but were you shy or introverted at some point? No, no,
Speaker 3: just not interested.
Speaker 2: No, yeah no.
Speaker 1: I was like, I've got my friends, I'm fine, and
Speaker 1: you know, I just want to do the work and
Speaker 1: go home.
Speaker 2: That was.
Speaker 1: My attitude about it. So I think it is kind
Speaker 1: of odd that I am in this type of profession.
Speaker 1: And even when I was practicing law, I actually really
Speaker 1: really loved it.
Speaker 2: And I mean I would, you know, talk to clients
Speaker 2: one on one.
Speaker 1: Fine, But I actually really love jury trial, which is
Speaker 1: really weird because I'm walking in and it's a bunch
Speaker 1: of strangers, and we've got to somehow get them down
Speaker 1: to who actually is going to be on the jury.
Speaker 1: And then convincing a bunch of strangers to like believe
Speaker 1: me and take my side. I like the challenge of it.
Speaker 1: But again, it was as I was speaking. I was speaking,
Speaker 1: and I was just kind of giving them facts and
Speaker 1: kind of walking them through a story versus kind of
Speaker 1: what I do a lot of now, which is just
Speaker 1: kind of pumping people up. But I think, honestly, the
Speaker 1: reason that I get requested to speak a lot is
Speaker 1: because I do actually stick to as many facts as possible.
Speaker 3: But you also, I think speak your mind, which we'll
Speaker 3: talk about in a moment, because I want to talk
Speaker 3: about how you became a lawyer, and it was very
Speaker 3: difficult circumstances that kind of opened your eyes. You're at
Speaker 3: Rose College and mem this soon and you are really
Speaker 3: the victim of I guess you would even call it
Speaker 3: hate crimes. Tell us what happened at Rhodes and then
Speaker 3: how that led you to a path of wanting to
Speaker 3: pursue being a lawyer.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so you know again, I mean grew up in
Speaker 1: Saint Louis, Saint Louis is a pretty segregated place, to
Speaker 1: be perfectly honest, and you know, going to the private schools,
Speaker 1: it was nothing for me to be potentially the only
Speaker 1: black person in my class, right like in a specific class,
Speaker 1: so definitely was not necessarily in a super black environment.
Speaker 1: When I went to Rhodes, there were eighteen black students
Speaker 1: in my freshman class, that is, that's it. And by
Speaker 1: the time I graduated, we were down to ten, and
Speaker 1: we were actually one of the larger classes. The senior
Speaker 1: class at that time had three or four African Americans.
Speaker 1: But I didn't feel a certain way because I had
Speaker 1: gone to these private schools where the numbers were few anyway,
Speaker 1: But it's interesting that I never felt racism until I
Speaker 1: got to a very black city, Memphis and on campus
Speaker 1: in my little bubble. And it's interesting because it's in
Speaker 1: North Memphis, which is very black, and they decided to
Speaker 1: target myself as well as a number of other black students.
Speaker 1: If you had a car, it was keyed with the
Speaker 1: N word.
Speaker 2: And in our on.
Speaker 1: Campus mailboxes they put these Jack the Rippers type style
Speaker 1: type letters, right so where they would cut letters from
Speaker 1: magazines and that kind of stuff. And they were making
Speaker 1: up sentences and none of it said that I was
Speaker 1: a child of God. I can tell you that, just
Speaker 1: really ugly stuff. But I felt very vulnerable because you're
Speaker 1: on campus mailbox. It's not something that is publicly known.
Speaker 1: So this meant it was someone who absolutely knew me,
Speaker 1: knew my friends. And then again, who would know who
Speaker 1: drives what car?
Speaker 2: What ear was this? Jasmine? I was in my junior
Speaker 2: but what year night?
Speaker 1: It was twenty oh I graduated three, so this was
Speaker 1: one ish maybe a one o twoish. So it was
Speaker 1: just the first time that I felt racism. I'd heard
Speaker 1: about racism, but I didn't really understand it because I
Speaker 1: was always in environments in which I would be one
Speaker 1: of a few. But I mean it didn't matter, like
Speaker 1: my friends were my friends, and you know, whatever sounds terrifying,
Speaker 1: it was. It was awful. It was truly awful.
Speaker 3: And Johnny Cochrane, who I knew very well, really yes,
Speaker 3: because I covered the OJ trial and also Reginald Denny. Anyway,
Speaker 3: Johnny and I became very close friends, and his law
Speaker 3: firm came to represent you, all right, and that's when
Speaker 3: you met someone. I'm wondering if I know the person
Speaker 3: you met from Johnny's law firm.
Speaker 1: And it's crazy because I've told this story a million
Speaker 1: times and I do not remember the lawyer's name, even
Speaker 1: though she was so influential.
Speaker 2: I hope one day she reaches out.
Speaker 3: Well, you know what, I can probably find that out.
Speaker 3: I know Dale Cochran, Johnny's wife, and I'll ask her
Speaker 3: for you. Yeah, yes, I think I know who it
Speaker 3: is too. But anyway, one of Johnny's associates or lawyers,
Speaker 3: maybe she was a partner at that time, came to
Speaker 3: Memphis and helped you all.
Speaker 2: I think she was.
Speaker 1: So they had a Memphis office at the time, so
Speaker 1: I think she was out of the Memphis office. But
Speaker 1: they had a team of them, and I don't know
Speaker 1: who all was assigned to who, but the attorney assigned
Speaker 1: to me, And I can.
Speaker 2: See her good enough.
Speaker 1: She was tall, bright skinned black woman and she wasn't
Speaker 1: too old at the time, and she was assigned to me.
Speaker 1: And they were trying to do the investigation. And this
Speaker 1: was a part of the school saying, hey, we're going
Speaker 1: to bring in somebody independently to try to figure out,
Speaker 1: you know, what happened.
Speaker 2: And they never figured out what happened.
Speaker 3: I was going to say, they never found out who
Speaker 3: did this. They never found out.
Speaker 1: And it's funny because I'm thinking, I feel like she
Speaker 1: had like a Nicole or a Michelle, like a.
Speaker 2: Name like that.
Speaker 1: But anyway, she graduated from University of Houston School of Law,
Speaker 1: and you know, being with people in this moment, I thought, Man,
Speaker 1: this is the work that I need to be doing,
Speaker 1: is to be that person that can be helpful even
Speaker 1: if you're not solving it, just knowing that you're not
Speaker 1: alone and that there's somebody that you can turn to.
Speaker 1: So I tell people all the time that God has
Speaker 1: to yell at me to move me. And so you know,
Speaker 1: I ended up having this incident and meeting that attorney.
Speaker 1: In addition to I have been recruited to do mock
Speaker 1: trial after doing a play a musical on campus, and
Speaker 1: so my mockschow coach was like, hey, you really should
Speaker 1: consider a law school. I become an All American and
Speaker 1: mock trial as well the one year that I did it,
Speaker 1: and so you know, it was just a culmination. Everything
Speaker 1: was pointing that way. And then when I applied to
Speaker 1: law school, I got a full ride to go to
Speaker 1: Texas Southern and so.
Speaker 2: And then you're transferred, right, and then I.
Speaker 1: Transferred yep, and so I was like, all right, this
Speaker 1: is clearly what God wants me to do, because everything
Speaker 1: was leading me down that path.
Speaker 3: Hi everyone, it's Katie Couric. You know I'm always on
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Speaker 3: Visit goodfeet dot com to learn more, find the nearest store,
Speaker 3: or book your own free personalized fitting. When you became
Speaker 3: a public defender, Jasmine, I know that really opened your
Speaker 3: eyes about the criminal justice system and how it treats
Speaker 3: some people versus others. And you worked you represented such
Speaker 3: a cross section of people. What impact did that have
Speaker 3: on you?
Speaker 1: It truly led me down the political path being a
Speaker 1: public defender.
Speaker 2: You know there's one case that I always looked.
Speaker 1: There's a number of cases, but there was one case
Speaker 1: that in my mind, was the catalyst for me deciding
Speaker 1: to get into politics. And I represented a seventeen year
Speaker 1: old kid who had stolen candy out of the concession
Speaker 1: stand at his high school. And in Texas, it can
Speaker 1: technically be a felony, and it just depends on who's
Speaker 1: prosecuting the case. The prosecutor at the time decided to
Speaker 1: prosecute this kid, who was stolen less than twenty dollars
Speaker 1: worth of candy for a state jail felony where he
Speaker 1: was facing up to two years in prison, and I
Speaker 1: just was like, this isn't right. I mean, like my
Speaker 1: mind was like, this doesn't make sense. But I didn't
Speaker 1: represent the kid initially, he had a different attorney, and
Speaker 1: then he ended up with a probation violation and that's
Speaker 1: when I ended up being assigned to him. And I
Speaker 1: was so frustrated because it was the type of case
Speaker 1: that I felt like, should just go to a jury trial,
Speaker 1: because no jury, I think that a seventeen year old
Speaker 1: kid should go to prison. But he ended up on
Speaker 1: a probation violation because his mom was struggling and working
Speaker 1: and wasn't able to go to school and pick him
Speaker 1: up and take him to go see his po in
Speaker 1: the middle of the day. And so we had technical violations.
Speaker 1: He didn't commit any new crimes, he didn't have dirty ways,
Speaker 1: he had technical violations for not showing up to his
Speaker 1: probation officer. In the judge gave maximum sentence, and I
Speaker 1: just was like, this just cannot be right. And it's
Speaker 1: funny because I've told that story a number of times
Speaker 1: and I'm sure the MAGA world would think that this
Speaker 1: was a black kid, but this wasn't. This was a
Speaker 1: young white male. And for me, justice has truly always
Speaker 1: been a blind thing. I ultimately got into politics because
Speaker 1: of an injustice that was served upon someone who literally
Speaker 1: was more so service in justice because he was poor.
Speaker 2: And I think that.
Speaker 1: When I reflect on the various injustices that I've experienced
Speaker 1: or seen firsthand, it's really been more socio economic than anything. Obviously,
Speaker 1: our criminal justice system definitely has issues when it comes
Speaker 1: to color as well.
Speaker 3: And there's a lot of overlap between races, so soolic circumstances.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, and I think that there are those that don't
Speaker 1: realize that the socio economics ends up impacting so many people,
Speaker 1: and it does cross the color barriers. But you can
Speaker 1: definitely see kind of the straight line a lot of times,
Speaker 1: whether we're talking about any.
Speaker 2: People of color. To be perfectly honest.
Speaker 3: When you were serving as a public defender, did you
Speaker 3: also witness people who were being treated differently because of
Speaker 3: their stature, their wealth, or socioeconomic status.
Speaker 2: All of that. I mean, the injustices ran rampant.
Speaker 1: And as someone who's licensed to practice in Texas and
Speaker 1: Arkansas who's done both urban as well as rule, I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, the amount of time that someone would get
Speaker 1: in rural Texas versus the amount of time for the
Speaker 1: same thing in urban Texas just night and day.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: So that's even another divide that we see, and a
Speaker 1: lot of it comes down to, really, you know, Democrats
Speaker 1: versus Republicans and how they choose to offer sentences, what
Speaker 1: it is that they're willing to consider as mitigation. I
Speaker 1: just see a lot of heartlessness where it's just a
Speaker 1: matter of like just lock them up and throw away
Speaker 1: the key. Like again, that kid got a maximum sentence,
Speaker 1: and I just kept remembering he wasn't a criminal. Not
Speaker 1: excuse him? What he did, but I don't know what
Speaker 1: else is childish but still in candy, Like I mean, like,
Speaker 1: I don't know what is more childish. And so I
Speaker 1: remember tracking him a bit and he ended up getting
Speaker 1: into more serious trouble because of his incarceration, right, and
Speaker 1: the people that he ended up being around and that
Speaker 1: kind of stuff. And so you know, when I ultimately
Speaker 1: went to the state legislature, I was really focused on
Speaker 1: fixing the criminal justice system with smart legislation because I
Speaker 1: knew the real impacts. Like, you have a lot of
Speaker 1: lawmakers on all levels that do things theoretically it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: I should do this because this seems like it's good
Speaker 1: for criminal justice, but they have never walked a day
Speaker 1: in so many people's shoes, and they've never taken the
Speaker 1: time to even examine the impact of their legislation. And so,
Speaker 1: you know, these are the things that inform me. These
Speaker 1: are the things that really created this pathway for me
Speaker 1: to have this desire to kind of do something more.
Speaker 1: It's just witnessing the injustices seeing how you know, I've
Speaker 1: had clients that died because they didn't take them seriously enough.
Speaker 1: You know, I remember having a client that was accused
Speaker 1: of killing his mom, and they didn't have evidence that
Speaker 1: he killed his mom, and I kept there was a
Speaker 1: type of hearing that I could have to challenge probable cause,
Speaker 1: and I remember having it and the judge just ruled
Speaker 1: against me, and I'm like, I'm right, you know, like
Speaker 1: it was. It was terrible and really this is these
Speaker 1: are white folk again. But he was prosecuted because he
Speaker 1: was poor. Essentially, they were like, oh, when they went
Speaker 1: and got his mother, who was elderly, she had a
Speaker 1: mattress that was on the floor and the place was
Speaker 1: not clean, and so they were like, you're living with
Speaker 1: your mom and this is you know, how she's living.
Speaker 2: You did something a killer with no evidence.
Speaker 1: And this guy, you know, in my opinion, probably struggled
Speaker 1: a little bit mentally because he was in his fifties
Speaker 1: or sixties and he was still living with mom and
Speaker 1: some other things, and he was depressed and he was
Speaker 1: overweight and he stopped eating. And I remember telling him
Speaker 1: in the jail, I'm like, my client's not eating, Like
Speaker 1: we need to do something.
Speaker 2: We need to make sure that you know, he's alive.
Speaker 1: And they kind of looked at him, thinking he's overweight,
Speaker 1: he'll be fine, and he died, and after he died,
Speaker 1: they determined that his mom died of natural causes, and
Speaker 1: so like, it's just hard to imagine a world where
Speaker 1: you don't have enough people that care to do right
Speaker 1: by people. And so that same kind of like passion
Speaker 1: that carried me through as a public defender, that led
Speaker 1: me to want to change laws, is the same passion
Speaker 1: this many years later. These are the real life experiences
Speaker 1: that I know can take place when there's bad people
Speaker 1: that are in power or just people that just don't care.
Speaker 1: So when we go through things like the Reconciliation Package
Speaker 1: and thinking about the harm that will happen not just
Speaker 1: to my constituents but just generally, I carry that weight
Speaker 1: with me.
Speaker 2: Because you've seen it up close.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you mentioned Republican and Democrat attitudes. But I
Speaker 3: also think it's interesting to note that Democrats don't have
Speaker 3: a great track record necessarily of criminal justice reform. When
Speaker 3: you think about the three strikes law being passed under
Speaker 3: Bill Clinton, right, yeah, yeah, so I think that for
Speaker 3: a long time this criminal justice reform wasn't looked on
Speaker 3: kindly by either party.
Speaker 1: No, no, that you know, the answer, especially to the
Speaker 1: crack epidemic was just lock everybody up, block everybody up,
Speaker 1: lock everybody up. And we've seen a similar situation with
Speaker 1: meth and now we're saying, you know, I mean they
Speaker 1: continue to do it with every new kind of dangerous drug.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, it's like the issue with the borders,
Speaker 1: all the drugs, and I'm like, there's all kinds of
Speaker 1: drugs that have always come across the border, and they
Speaker 1: will continue to come across the border. Like that's just
Speaker 1: kind of a thing. And this idea of incarcerating, incarceratingcarc rate,
Speaker 1: it's never fixed it. It's never fixed it. Like we're
Speaker 1: still trying to do the same thing to fix the
Speaker 1: same problem and it's still not being fixed. And so
Speaker 1: instead of getting to the root cause of the problems, right,
Speaker 1: like figuring out why is it that addiction is not
Speaker 1: fixed by incarceration, and like working on addiction so that
Speaker 1: you can drive down the demand for this illegal kind
Speaker 1: of narcotics circle that we find ourselves in, or finding
Speaker 1: out like what causes someone to be more inclined to
Speaker 1: even engage in drugs, and like fixing those things, fixing
Speaker 1: the environments because for some people it's environmental for some people,
Speaker 1: it's literally self medication, you know, when we look at
Speaker 1: so many of our unhoused people, and when we look
Speaker 1: at our veterans, and we look at like the fact
Speaker 1: that we don't have adequate access to healthcare, especially when
Speaker 1: we start to talk about mental health care, Like, I'm
Speaker 1: just like, there's a lot that we could do. We
Speaker 1: could maybe invest in mental health and maybe take a
Speaker 1: little bit out of incertion and maybe we will get
Speaker 1: a bigger and better results.
Speaker 3: So addressing the root causes of a lot of these
Speaker 3: social ills really made you want to go into politics
Speaker 3: to try to see what you could do, obviously fueled
Speaker 3: by your experience as a lawyer. And you have only
Speaker 3: been in Congress since twenty twenty three, right, And I'm
Speaker 3: curious when you got there, I'm sure you had big
Speaker 3: aspirations for fixing the system or addressing some of these
Speaker 3: root causes. I'm curious, Jasmine, what you found when you
Speaker 3: got to Washington and had this opportunity. Did you feel
Speaker 3: like you could actually do some of the things you
Speaker 3: set out to do or were you immediately frustrated?
Speaker 2: What did you think?
Speaker 1: So I was green going into the Texas House by
Speaker 1: the time I came to the US House, I understood.
Speaker 2: So you started obviously at the state level.
Speaker 1: Yes, So when I went into the Texas House, that's
Speaker 1: where I was like, Okay.
Speaker 2: This is my time. You know.
Speaker 1: I was absolutely positive that because I had actual experience
Speaker 1: in these spaces, that people would say, oh, she's the
Speaker 1: experienced one, and they would listen, and boy was I wrong.
Speaker 1: And so it's interesting by the time I got to
Speaker 1: the federal level, I would say that my expectations had
Speaker 1: been tempered. But one of the kind of things that
Speaker 1: really made me say, you know what, I can go
Speaker 1: ahead and go for the federal level is that there
Speaker 1: was a former ambassador under Clinton actually who was really
Speaker 1: trying to convince me that I should consider going to
Speaker 1: the federal level. And I was like, no, I mean,
Speaker 1: stuff is messed up enough in Texas. I'll just deal
Speaker 1: with this nonsense down here, like, I don't want to
Speaker 1: go to a bigger mess. And he said, at least
Speaker 1: if you go to the federal level, there's a chance
Speaker 1: that you may end up in the majority.
Speaker 2: You are not going to be in the majority in Texas.
Speaker 1: And he was like, and even when you're not in
Speaker 1: the majority, you have so much more access to resources
Speaker 1: to be able to send to your district. He was like,
Speaker 1: I think that you'll like it better from that vantage point,
Speaker 1: just being able to do more. And true, I've been
Speaker 1: able to do more.
Speaker 2: Is it enough? No?
Speaker 1: Am I competitive? And do I want us to end
Speaker 1: up in the majority so.
Speaker 2: That I can actually get things done? Yeah? Absolutely.
Speaker 1: You know I know how to play defense, I mean,
Speaker 1: for sure, but that's not where I want to be.
Speaker 2: I want to be on offense.
Speaker 3: You have been clearly one of the rising stars of
Speaker 3: the Democratic Party. You have an enormous social media following.
Speaker 3: We'll talk about some of your strong responses on Capitol
Speaker 3: Hill in a moment. But why do you think you
Speaker 3: have been able to connect with people, especially young people,
Speaker 3: because you have a big following among younger voters gen
Speaker 3: Z voters especially. What is it you think, Jasmine?
Speaker 1: I think it's the fact that I don't sound like
Speaker 1: a politician all the time. Instead, I sound more relatable
Speaker 1: and like a frustrated American. You know, as everything has
Speaker 1: kind of fallen apart around us, we still have some
Speaker 1: very good political figures that are seemingly holding it together
Speaker 1: in front of the camera.
Speaker 2: And I'm looking like, what the hell, you know. And
Speaker 2: I think that how.
Speaker 3: Can they hold it together? How can they be so controlled?
Speaker 2: Exactly?
Speaker 1: And I think that when people are reading the room
Speaker 1: or reading them, they're thinking, Okay, something's wrong with you,
Speaker 1: Like you are straight up just political, like you're a machine.
Speaker 1: And people are more trusting, in my opinion, of people
Speaker 1: that they feel like are relating to their feelings. And
Speaker 1: I am completely frustrated.
Speaker 2: But also who are unvarnished and emotional and direct and
Speaker 2: talk like you talk to your neighbor over a cup
Speaker 2: of coffee exactly.
Speaker 1: So I think ultimately, you know, one of the things
Speaker 1: that I've talked to the caucus is about consistently is
Speaker 1: being authentic. And my authentic self is not going to
Speaker 1: be who everyone else is in the caucus. But your authenticity,
Speaker 1: whoever you are, it comes through, and there's someone that
Speaker 1: can relate to you. There's someone that can relate to
Speaker 1: all of us.
Speaker 3: Isn't it interesting that that's what people credit Donald Trump
Speaker 3: with being authentic, not sounding like a politician, being unedited, unvarnished,
Speaker 3: you know, no four second delay between his brain and
Speaker 3: his mouth. But it's interesting, isn't it? He's authentic? But
Speaker 3: I guess the question is authentically what. I don't think
Speaker 3: he's authentic, You don't.
Speaker 1: I don't because he lies all the time, and I
Speaker 1: think that you have to be honest to be authentic.
Speaker 1: I will say that people were more inclined to be
Speaker 1: accepting of him because he did not sound like a politician,
Speaker 1: and so for them they read it as authenticity. But
Speaker 1: as so many people are getting frustrated with him because
Speaker 1: they're like, well, wait a minute, you said you were
Speaker 1: going to do this, but you're doing something else. He's
Speaker 1: not a true and honest kind of person. And I
Speaker 1: think to be authentic you have to be that. You know,
Speaker 1: there were people that felt like, oh, he's one of me, right,
Speaker 1: Like he's like me. And it's like, no, he's a
Speaker 1: NEPO baby. He's not like you, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: And so I think that there are you know, NEPO
Speaker 1: babies that come across authentic. But he was able to
Speaker 1: connect with I do think he had an authentic connection
Speaker 1: with certain people's frustration in general, right, I.
Speaker 2: Think, Well, I mean I think he recognized it.
Speaker 3: He certainly didn't have a connection yeah right, yeah, So
Speaker 3: he was almost costplain in a way.
Speaker 2: Was it he or isn't he? Yes.
Speaker 1: I think that that's the best way to say it,
Speaker 1: is that he's costplaying, But he wasn't costplaying as a politician,
Speaker 1: and I think people were more inclined to believe, well,
Speaker 1: this guy must be honest. Who would say half of
Speaker 1: these things unless they're being honest?
Speaker 2: Right like?
Speaker 1: Because he says the craziest things and does the craziest things,
Speaker 1: so it was read as honesty, and they would even
Speaker 1: give them passes for things that are completely inappropriate because
Speaker 1: they'd say, oh, well, I mean, at least he's being honest,
Speaker 1: right at least I know what I'm getting with him,
Speaker 1: And it's like, no, you don't, and now you're finding out.
Speaker 3: I want to talk more about the Trump administration, but
Speaker 3: I will also want to talk about President Biden, because
Speaker 3: when other people were pressuring him to step down, even
Speaker 3: when your caucus was wavering, you stood firmly behind him.
Speaker 3: And I'm curious how you feel with some of these
Speaker 3: revelations about his decline and energy and perhaps even mental
Speaker 3: acuity that we've been reading about, and if it's given
Speaker 3: you any pause and any regret, not a single one.
Speaker 1: I still stand by the decision to stand with President
Speaker 1: Joe Biden and then ultimately standing with Vice President Kamala Harris,
Speaker 1: and I'll tell you why the average person has not
Speaker 1: been given the level of access that the average member
Speaker 1: of Congress has to the president. I never saw anything
Speaker 1: in Joe Biden that made me wonder whatsoever. And it's
Speaker 1: not that I was with Joe Biden every single day,
Speaker 1: that's for sure. But as I talked about my grandparents,
Speaker 1: the way that I would describe Joe is, I mean,
Speaker 1: he's a granddaddy, right, and so like you know, the
Speaker 1: way that my granny was when she was younger versus
Speaker 1: ultimately kind of where she was at eighty one when
Speaker 1: she ended up passing away. Mentally she was still there,
Speaker 1: but like her attitude about certain things like whether or
Speaker 1: not she was looking to be as polished or cared
Speaker 1: to be as polished, or even if she moved as fast,
Speaker 1: it just wasn't there. We all slow down. But I
Speaker 1: will tell you that I will take a broken or
Speaker 1: however they want to describe Joe Biden over Donald Trump
Speaker 1: any given day, because number one, I know Joe Biden's heart,
Speaker 1: and I can tell you that when you look at
Speaker 1: the legislation that he was able to push forward with
Speaker 1: This wasn't legislation that was about him and his rich friends.
Speaker 1: It was legislation that was for the good of the
Speaker 1: American people. And when you look at the people that
Speaker 1: he surrounded himself with, even if you're saying that there
Speaker 1: was a mentally deficient Joe Biden, I know that he
Speaker 1: apptsolutely had a mental acuity that is supreme when it
Speaker 1: comes to comparing him to Donald Trump, because at least
Speaker 1: he kept good people around him. He kept people that
Speaker 1: would keep us safe in this country. He kept people
Speaker 1: that would make sure that even as tensions were rising
Speaker 1: all around the world, that we were keeping those tempered.
Speaker 1: He was able to understand with his level of mental acuity,
Speaker 1: who our friends were. He was not getting us into
Speaker 1: unwarranted terrafors and things like that. So even if we
Speaker 1: want to say, which I refuse to accept, that Joe
Speaker 1: Biden was mentally deficient, let me tell you something. His
Speaker 1: mental deficiency is still a thousand times better than what
Speaker 1: we currently have. And so, you know, I just wish
Speaker 1: that ultimately this country would judge each of our leaders
Speaker 1: with the same measuring stick we do not.
Speaker 2: There was a lot of pressure that was put on
Speaker 2: Joe Biden.
Speaker 1: There were a lot of criticisms that were lodged at
Speaker 1: him as well as Kamala Harris. Now, the question is
Speaker 1: why is it that none of these critiques came about
Speaker 1: for Donald Trump? Right, Because when you think about it,
Speaker 1: Kamala Harris light years ahead of Donald Trump, as relates
Speaker 1: to qualifications, as relates to her overall resume, and as
Speaker 1: it relates to the fact that she was a lot younger.
Speaker 1: Everybody said that they wanted to get rid of Joe
Speaker 1: Biden because he was too old. Then you had a
Speaker 1: younger qualified, non felon candidate, and somehow the people still
Speaker 1: chose the old white man. So like for me, I
Speaker 1: don't think it was ever about that. I think Democrats
Speaker 1: have for a very long time allowed Republicans to play them.
Speaker 1: So essentially, Republicans came up with a narrative and Democrats
Speaker 1: decided to play into that, and that only hurt the
Speaker 1: Democrats because ultimately they still went with a very old man.
Speaker 2: Right, what was the narrative? You think the narrative was.
Speaker 1: That Joe Biden was too old and that he was
Speaker 1: seen now, right, like that was the narrative that the
Speaker 1: Republicans went with and the Democrats picked up on it
Speaker 1: and bought it. I mean, think about the number of
Speaker 1: resignations that we've seen out of Democrats right, like, oh,
Speaker 1: you know, one person gets accused of something, they're like, oh,
Speaker 1: you got to step down, just an accusation, right, And
Speaker 1: it's usually like the right will kind of fuel it
Speaker 1: because they know the Democrats will eat their own. And
Speaker 1: it's not to say that we shouldn't have standards, but
Speaker 1: it is to say that we should understand what we're
Speaker 1: being played. And so I kept saying, we stand by
Speaker 1: Joe Biden because he has a record to run on.
Speaker 2: Now, whether or not we were getting.
Speaker 1: Out there and communicating effectively about that record, I say
Speaker 1: we didn't. And I say that it had to be
Speaker 1: a team sport. It couldn't just be that, you know,
Speaker 1: we were relying on the president to get all the
Speaker 1: information out.
Speaker 2: It was incumbent upon us.
Speaker 1: We were supposed to go into our districts with these
Speaker 1: big fake checks and make sure all the local media
Speaker 1: was there and we talk about the investments that were
Speaker 1: being made and make sure that they knew Joe Biden
Speaker 1: did this, that new facility, Joe Biden did that, like
Speaker 1: it was up to us to really be good partners.
Speaker 2: And you don't think Democrats were.
Speaker 1: I don't think that we were. Instead, if we spent
Speaker 1: half as much time beating down Joe Biden as we
Speaker 1: did uplifting, all that was accomplished, and it got accomplished
Speaker 1: in only two years because he only had the House
Speaker 1: in the Senate for two years. Ultimately, when the history
Speaker 1: books are written, he will go down as a very
Speaker 1: accomplished president, as one of our best presidents. But if
Speaker 1: people don't know, if we're not communicating, then it's almost
Speaker 1: like we didn't do anything. And I still think that
Speaker 1: we are struggling with figuring out how to communicate out
Speaker 1: to the general public.
Speaker 3: Hi everyone, it's me Katie Couric. You know, if you've
Speaker 3: been following me on social media, you know I love
Speaker 3: to cook, or at least try, especially alongside some of
Speaker 3: my favorite chefs and foodies like Benny Blanco, Jake Cohen,
Speaker 3: Lighty Hoyke, Alison Roman, and Ininegarten. So I started a
Speaker 3: free newsletter called Good Taste to share recipes, tips and
Speaker 3: kitchen mustaves. Just sign up at Katiecuric dot com slash
Speaker 3: good Taste that's k A T I E c o
Speaker 3: U r ic dot com slash good Taste. I promised
Speaker 3: your taste buds will be happy you did. Let me
Speaker 3: ask you about the Democratic Party because obviously it has
Speaker 3: gotten tons of criticism and you're saying that Democrats should
Speaker 3: have supported Joe Biden. But I think many Americans feel
Speaker 3: like the Democratic Party is lost, feckless, cannot get their
Speaker 3: shit together to be just to say it, you know, real,
Speaker 3: what do you think the Democratic Party needs to do
Speaker 3: to reinvigorate itself, to have a leader, to have some
Speaker 3: organizing principle.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so, first of all, I think we need to rebrand.
Speaker 1: I don't know that we've ever invested in branding. I
Speaker 1: can't really tell you what our brand is.
Speaker 2: Well, I don't know.
Speaker 3: It's diverse, and maybe that's part of the problem, right,
Speaker 3: it doesn't speak with one voice. There are a lot
Speaker 3: of different voices it is, which isn't necessarily bad.
Speaker 1: No, I think that it's actually one of our strengths.
Speaker 1: But I do think that the Republicans have branded us
Speaker 1: as weak, right that I mean when people like you say,
Speaker 1: e feckless, right, Like, I mean, we've been branded as weak,
Speaker 1: and I think when people are looking for leadership, you
Speaker 1: don't ever when you go through and you say list
Speaker 1: the act of a leader week is not one of
Speaker 1: those attributes that anyone will ever list as a descriptor.
Speaker 2: So I think that number one, we.
Speaker 1: Have to brand ourselves as something other than we've been
Speaker 1: branded as elitist and weak, and I think that we
Speaker 1: have to be branded as strong as well as for everyone.
Speaker 3: You know, I hear weak, But I think it's interesting
Speaker 3: because why is tolerance and acceptance branded is weak?
Speaker 1: I can't tell you why is branded is weak, but
Speaker 1: it has been and I think I think because we
Speaker 1: have had kind of a turn the cheek type of
Speaker 1: attitude like we're going to always be the adults in
Speaker 1: the room.
Speaker 2: And we are. We are still going to be the
Speaker 2: adults in the room.
Speaker 1: But you know, when you've got people that are beating
Speaker 1: you down and then you don't really respond, I think
Speaker 1: that people are like, okay, like are you gonna fight
Speaker 1: for me? You're not fighting for yourself, right, And so
Speaker 1: I think that there are ways to do it, and
Speaker 1: I think we're starting to get our footing. But I
Speaker 1: think for the longest, we have so many institutionalists that
Speaker 1: believe that if I just show you how the institution
Speaker 1: is supposed to work, then Marjorie Taylor Green and others,
Speaker 1: you will come into the fold and you'll start to
Speaker 1: respect the institution.
Speaker 2: They don't care.
Speaker 1: Like you need to evaluate some of these kind of
Speaker 1: new actors, including the president himself, and say like no,
Speaker 1: like we can't play foot. See like this guy is
Speaker 1: like punching people in the face, whether we're talking about
Speaker 1: presidents and leaders of other countries. I mean, he's completely
Speaker 1: disrespectful and ignores all norms, and I think we have
Speaker 1: to deal with him in the way that he is.
Speaker 1: I think that we go back to showing the world
Speaker 1: and the country what leadership should look like, which is thoughtful,
Speaker 1: which is compassionate, while also being very strong. When we
Speaker 1: got the White House bag like we do it like
Speaker 1: once we're the ones in the seats.
Speaker 2: But I don't think that we do it from afar.
Speaker 1: And I think that ultimately who will become the Democratic
Speaker 1: nominee for president will be someone that has been out
Speaker 1: there and has shown that they won't allow themselves to
Speaker 1: be punched in the face and just say thank you,
Speaker 1: like they will punch back.
Speaker 2: I think that that's what's going to happen.
Speaker 3: That's a perfect segue to your encounter. Obviously you're infamous,
Speaker 3: famous encounter with Marjorie Taylor Green.
Speaker 2: Let's listen. Do you know what we're here for? You
Speaker 2: know we're here. What you're here for? Well, you do
Speaker 2: want talking about?
Speaker 1: I guess order.
Speaker 4: I do have a point of order, and I would
Speaker 4: like to move to to take down miss Green's words.
Speaker 4: That is absolutely unacceptable. How dare you, I mean, are
Speaker 4: your feelings her words down?
Speaker 2: Oh? Oh girl, baby girl?
Speaker 4: Oh really, don't even play, baby girl. We are gonna
Speaker 4: move and we're gonna take your words down there second motion.
Speaker 1: I'm just curious, just to better understand your ruling. If
Speaker 1: someone on this committee then starts talking about somebody's bleach blonde,
Speaker 1: bad built, butch body, that would not be engaging in personalities.
Speaker 2: Correct. Oh what now?
Speaker 3: All right, take us back to that moment, Jasmine. First
Speaker 3: of all, how you had kind of the hutzpah to
Speaker 3: come back at her and sort of what that whole
Speaker 3: experience was like for you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was really annoyed. That was a bad day.
Speaker 1: On that day, the vast majority of the Republicans on
Speaker 1: the Oversight Committee decided that they would venture up to
Speaker 1: New York, so we did not have committee when we
Speaker 1: were supposed to have committee earlier in the day. So
Speaker 1: the Democrats were at work while the Republicans were on
Speaker 1: a field trip to support there soon to be felonious candidate.
Speaker 1: And so we had to have our hearing at eight pm,
Speaker 1: and she was still talking about Judge Mrshawan, And that's
Speaker 1: not what the hearing was about, whatsoever.
Speaker 2: The hearing was about.
Speaker 1: Our attorney general and whether or not he should be
Speaker 1: held in content. And so I was like, what are
Speaker 1: we doing? You know, like, you guys finally show up
Speaker 1: to work and then you don't even know what you're
Speaker 1: here for.
Speaker 2: And then that's when she decided to kind of insult you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And so the thing is, it was a clear
Speaker 1: violation of the rules, and Comer didn't quite understand that
Speaker 1: he would lose a vote. So it was my understanding
Speaker 1: he was going to rule against her if she failed
Speaker 1: to apologize, but she was going to apologize. Then she
Speaker 1: was like, I'm not gonna apologize, Like I'm not apologizing,
Speaker 1: and so then Jamie Raskin was like, well, she's gonna
Speaker 1: have to go because that's the rule like, once we
Speaker 1: take down your words, then you you got to go.
Speaker 2: You can't rule is if you attack someone personally.
Speaker 1: Yeah, then you are engaging in personalities and then you
Speaker 1: take down their words and so it's a part of
Speaker 1: the record and then what happens is they're not allowed
Speaker 1: to participate for the rest of that committee hearing. Well,
Speaker 1: he was concerned about his numbers because not everyone has
Speaker 1: showed up for this eight pm he vote, and he
Speaker 1: needed her vote and so next thing, you know, they
Speaker 1: were like, oh, he's gonna, you know, change his ruling.
Speaker 1: I was like what And so you know, I looked
Speaker 1: over and I was like, I cannot let this like
Speaker 1: slad like it was so pissed because I was like,
Speaker 1: you guys are ignored the rules. And so that's when
Speaker 1: I looked over at her and wrote it down on
Speaker 1: a piece of paper and from hand to toe, trust
Speaker 1: her down and I asked, and I did it in
Speaker 1: the form of a parliamentary inquiry because I did not
Speaker 1: want to violate the rules, but I also wanted to
Speaker 1: teach a lesson about how bad this could go.
Speaker 3: And so yeah, yeah, and you credit your granny, yes
Speaker 3: for coming up with some of the bad monology.
Speaker 1: Yes, she used to call people bad built. See, once
Speaker 1: they get to a certain age, they just say whatever.
Speaker 1: And that was one of the things that she used
Speaker 1: to do in her older age. She would look at
Speaker 1: people and call them bad built.
Speaker 3: You got a lot of feedback for that exchange or
Speaker 3: that comment or that what did you call it? Parliamentary
Speaker 3: and it was a skit on SNL And I'm sure
Speaker 3: you heard from a lot of people. I'm sure you
Speaker 3: heard both positive and negative. But was it mostly positive?
Speaker 3: It was mostly positive?
Speaker 2: And what were people saying to you?
Speaker 1: People were really happy that the bully finally got bullied,
Speaker 1: but in a very creative, classy way that kind of
Speaker 1: showed my mental superiority. So people were really happy, I
Speaker 1: mean even Republicans. I was getting high fives from Republican
Speaker 1: colleagues and winks and different people being like, I think.
Speaker 2: Your eyelashes are great, you know.
Speaker 1: Like, so there was a lot of positivity really from
Speaker 1: both sides of the aisle, not just in the chamber
Speaker 1: but also like outside, And you know, the one response
Speaker 1: I didn't really expect to have was just the number
Speaker 1: of like women of color that talked about some of
Speaker 1: their work spaces and just the level of disrespect that
Speaker 1: they get and just being able to see me stand
Speaker 1: up for myself and Congress really made them feel like
Speaker 1: that they could stand up for themselves as well, and
Speaker 1: that they needed to dig into their own kind of
Speaker 1: rules in their own organizations. But they felt like, you
Speaker 1: know what, if a congresswoman can do this, I can
Speaker 1: as well. Now they weren't going out calling people Bleachmond
Speaker 1: that built bitch bodies, but you know, just at least
Speaker 1: standing up for themselves and feeling confident to do it.
Speaker 3: But what, you know, what do you say to those
Speaker 3: who believe this is kind of a breakdown of decorum
Speaker 3: and civility in Congress? There's that argument, you know, the
Speaker 3: Michelle Obama when they go low, we go high attitude.
Speaker 3: You know, this whole idea that I'm sure you grew
Speaker 3: up with your mom seeing this, you know, you don't
Speaker 3: want to sync to their level type thing. Yeah, did
Speaker 3: it give you any pause to say, you know what
Speaker 3: you were talking about, these people who want to protect
Speaker 3: the institution, or do you think that that's not at
Speaker 3: this point in time or at this moment in history,
Speaker 3: the way to go.
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: I still think that, you know, I did it in
Speaker 1: such a way that kind of walked a line of
Speaker 1: sorts because that was not my first thought. Oh, when
Speaker 1: I got insulted, it was to you know, throw an
Speaker 1: insult like right back. And so I think, I think
Speaker 1: that there are ways to do this, but I definitely
Speaker 1: think that we've got to do something. So I think
Speaker 1: that this is just kind of where we are. And
Speaker 1: I recall when my predecessor chose me. One of the
Speaker 1: things that she talked about, and she had been there
Speaker 1: for thirty years, she said, Congress isn't what it used
Speaker 1: to be. And that's saying a lot when you've been
Speaker 1: there for thirty years. I mean, she was basically like,
Speaker 1: this place is going to hell in a hand basket,
Speaker 1: is basically what she was telling me. So I think
Speaker 1: that we have different generations of fighters for different fights,
Speaker 1: and I think that we will get back on track.
Speaker 2: I do. I think that people will get weary of.
Speaker 1: This, and you know, I feel like there's a little
Speaker 1: bit of that that's already kind of sinking in. But
Speaker 1: until we get these type of bad actors out, I
Speaker 1: think that it needs to be clear that if y'all
Speaker 1: want to fight, we can fight. But honestly, I just
Speaker 1: want The only type of fighting that I want to
Speaker 1: do is in the form of legislation that will better
Speaker 1: the lives of my constituents in front, better the labs
Speaker 1: of the vast majority of theirs as well.
Speaker 3: Do you find other Democrats are more willing to take
Speaker 3: the gloves off now than they used to be?
Speaker 1: I think those of us that haven't been in institutions
Speaker 1: too long are more willing and more apt.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I want to talk to you about some of
Speaker 3: the things that are going on in this country, Jasmine,
Speaker 3: before you go, what do you think about what has
Speaker 3: happened in la and calling up the National Guard, the
Speaker 3: Marines and basically saying this could happen in every state
Speaker 3: in our country.
Speaker 2: I truly have no words.
Speaker 1: You know, you grow up as a little girl in
Speaker 1: this country and you think, man, this is a great
Speaker 1: place to live and it's only going to get better,
Speaker 1: and then you become the adult version of me, and
Speaker 1: you have a president that is openly just a criminal,
Speaker 1: like not just the convictions he's got, consistently breaking laws,
Speaker 1: ignoring court orders, violating the Constitution, and doing it all
Speaker 1: because he really is seeking this retribution, this retribution that
Speaker 1: he campaigned on.
Speaker 2: He said, I will be your retribution.
Speaker 1: And so this idea that we don't care how many
Speaker 1: people get hurt, we don't care how we prostitute our
Speaker 1: service members, you know, thinking that you have your own
Speaker 1: special little army that's for you. I mean, it is
Speaker 1: just it is sick. It is really sick, and anybody
Speaker 1: that supports it is also sick. And so you know,
Speaker 1: we've got a mental health crisis in this country because everyone,
Speaker 1: no matter how you affiliate yourself, should be against Trump.
Speaker 2: Period.
Speaker 1: This is not partisan for me, Like I would give
Speaker 1: anything to have sad to say, George Bush, I like,
Speaker 1: give me any regular repat Republican nowadays and I would
Speaker 1: be happy. But right now we have someone who does
Speaker 1: not care, and he is being enabled by the fact
Speaker 1: that there are you know, people that follow him and
Speaker 1: they pump him up as well as the people that
Speaker 1: are surrounding him. And so, you know, my heart breaks
Speaker 1: for service members. People that signed up to protect democracy
Speaker 1: and freedom not only here but abroad, and we're willing
Speaker 1: to risk their lives and now literally the very thing
Speaker 1: that they signed up to fight against is now their
Speaker 1: commander in chief. It really breaks my heart and I
Speaker 1: don't know how far he has to go before we
Speaker 1: can come together and just say enough is enough, like
Speaker 1: this should not be partisanship. The final point that I'll
Speaker 1: make is that Tribeca just ended and they did a
Speaker 1: screening of a documentary that I'm in and Scott the Inquisitor,
Speaker 1: and it's about Barbara Jordan, and you know.
Speaker 2: It's amazing.
Speaker 1: It is an amazing, amazing documentary. But to watch her
Speaker 1: in the age of Nixon, and to see and hear
Speaker 1: about her thought process about Nixon, and to know that
Speaker 1: there were members of his party they were like, no, right,
Speaker 1: Like it wasn't partisanship. It was right versus wrong. It's
Speaker 1: the things that they teach you when you're in elementary school,
Speaker 1: and somehow we don't have that right now. Behind closed doors,
Speaker 1: Republicans will say, you know, I remember them telling me
Speaker 1: how much they hated Elon, but they would not do
Speaker 1: that out front. They wanted us to take Elon down right,
Speaker 1: and they will even say things about Trump.
Speaker 2: They won't do what's right.
Speaker 1: They won't honor their oath, the oath that they swore
Speaker 1: to the Constitution.
Speaker 2: Why not.
Speaker 1: I have no idea other than their cowards bottom line
Speaker 1: on their cowards, anyone that potentially would do right, They
Speaker 1: would rather preserve their opportunity to still be associated with
Speaker 1: the Republican Party and not be ostracized and not be
Speaker 1: targeted by MAGA and just resign. You know, we've got
Speaker 1: a new resignation that was just announced here just about
Speaker 1: two weeks ago.
Speaker 2: I think he's charing Homeland.
Speaker 1: He's only been in Congress since eighteen and he's like,
Speaker 1: I'm out. But instead of just doing what's right because
Speaker 1: you disagree with what's happening, he's like, I'll leave.
Speaker 2: We had a number of retirements.
Speaker 1: Unfortunately, like the ones that you see retire on the
Speaker 1: Republican side are people that probably are like I just
Speaker 1: can't be a.
Speaker 3: Part of this, instead of just say why yeah, how
Speaker 3: do you see this whole chapter in American history coming
Speaker 3: to a close? Are you positive that sanity and adherence
Speaker 3: to the Constitution will prevail or do you worry what's
Speaker 3: down the road if we continue on this path.
Speaker 1: There are no absolutes, and we know that democracy and
Speaker 1: freedom have to be one and fought four and one
Speaker 1: in every generation. This is our generational fight. I can
Speaker 1: tell you that I was elated to see the outpouring
Speaker 1: of people for no kings versus the lack of attendance
Speaker 1: for you know, the birthday parade. But you know, right
Speaker 1: now we have a party that is held bent on
Speaker 1: rigging the system. Right now, the President has called down
Speaker 1: to my governor and wants him to find a way
Speaker 1: to do mid He wants to do redistricting right now,
Speaker 1: and it is so that mid decade, sorry mid decade
Speaker 1: redistricting so that he can get five additional seats out
Speaker 1: of Texas. We have thirty eight seats in Texas, only
Speaker 1: thirteen belong to Democrats.
Speaker 2: The numbers are already.
Speaker 1: Completely skewed, and they want to cheat to get five
Speaker 1: more seats.
Speaker 2: We know that the.
Speaker 1: Democrats should have been in control of the House but
Speaker 1: for the Republican controlled newly Republican controlled Supreme Court in
Speaker 1: North Carolina deciding to redistrict again once they got control
Speaker 1: in taking three seats.
Speaker 2: So they are held bent on power no matter what.
Speaker 2: And you know, I don't know that.
Speaker 1: The American people fully understand that, but I say that
Speaker 1: the most patriotic thing that anybody can do, regardless of
Speaker 1: your political affiliation, is to vote for whoever is not
Speaker 1: the Republican in every single ballot for the next at
Speaker 1: least three, four or five ballots, to at least restore
Speaker 1: some sense of calm, to at least make Republicans nervous
Speaker 1: that the people are not going to stand for this
Speaker 1: and just blindly vote for the person that has r
Speaker 1: Because you may want to put all the blame on Trump,
Speaker 1: but the reality is that he's got a lot of
Speaker 1: co conspirators and accomplices that have allowed him to do this.
Speaker 3: I can't let you go without asking you about the
Speaker 3: events of this weekend. The same weekend the No Kings protests,
Speaker 3: I guess they're saying thirteen million Americans turned out all
Speaker 3: over the country, and that very same weekend, State Representative
Speaker 3: Melissa Hortman was murdered in her home along with her
Speaker 3: husband and two others obviously critically wounded. These are really
Speaker 3: scary times for elected officials. Jasmine, and I'm curious how
Speaker 3: you're feeling about if you're personally nervous, and how the rhetoric,
Speaker 3: the violent rhetoric, can be toned down.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm not nervous. You know, I tell people
Speaker 1: all the time, God has not given me a spirit
Speaker 1: of fear. I am of the opinion stay ready so
Speaker 1: you don't have to get ready. The number of death
Speaker 1: threats that I get are a little bit higher than average,
Speaker 1: so we have consistently had to figure out our safety.
Speaker 1: I think I'm more frustrated than anything. I'm frustrated that,
Speaker 1: you know, I have colleagues that will engage in certain
Speaker 1: rhetoric and then come and high five to you and
Speaker 1: talk to you and you know things, and it's like, dude,
Speaker 1: like we should be shutting down some of this stuff, right.
Speaker 1: You know the fact that on that day, Marjorie Taylor
Speaker 1: Green had the audacity to you know, post a picture
Speaker 1: of her with this, you know, ridiculously Siah's gun and
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff, Like that's just ridiculous, exactly, like
Speaker 1: all of that, Like this isn't a game, Like you
Speaker 1: had people that died. And maybe it's funny to you
Speaker 1: because they're Democrats, but honestly, again, you talk about being
Speaker 1: a patriot or an American, like you should not be
Speaker 1: okay with this.
Speaker 2: You should not be okay with lawlessness. You should not.
Speaker 1: Be okay with you know, encouraging killers or potentially inciting
Speaker 1: other killers because they know that you'll give them a
Speaker 1: pat on the back, like you should not be engaging
Speaker 1: in that at the same time that you're pretending as
Speaker 1: if all the crime in our country is caused by immigrants,
Speaker 1: immigrants that have come over and somehow you're having to
Speaker 1: go to their jobs to grab them up and round
Speaker 1: them up and throw them who knows where, But they
Speaker 1: are the ones that are causing the crime. Like the
Speaker 1: hypocrisy is astounding, but also the heartlessness, whether it is
Speaker 1: in their rhetoric or whether it's in their bills, the
Speaker 1: fact that they go around and they say that they're
Speaker 1: Christians and there is nothing Christian or loving or compassionate
Speaker 1: or merciful about anything that they do. And so for me,
Speaker 1: I just want the American people to wake up. If
Speaker 1: you really, like I tell people all the time, if
Speaker 1: you want Jesus go to church. You really shouldn't look
Speaker 1: for us in your politics. But if you are, don't
Speaker 1: listen to just somebody saying or proclaiming that they're a Christian.
Speaker 1: Like I don't care who you are, you should not
Speaker 1: be okay with you know, Mike Lee posting it. I
Speaker 1: mean just it's absolutely astounding. And I remember I messaged
Speaker 1: a Republican that I consider to be a friend. Can't
Speaker 1: say his name because then he'll lose all of his
Speaker 1: you know, Republican bouta fides. But I text him, I say, yo,
Speaker 1: get your people in line, Like we are not protected.
Speaker 1: You know, the only people that can afford to be
Speaker 1: protected are people that raise enough money to actually pay
Speaker 1: for security, because they don't do anything to protect us,
Speaker 1: like at all. I have been asking for a while
Speaker 1: put extra money into our MRA, which is a our
Speaker 1: official account, our budget, so that we can have protection,
Speaker 1: like they don't give us capital police officers, Like you
Speaker 1: have to be a high ranking Democrat regardless of your threats,
Speaker 1: you just have to be like in a certain or
Speaker 1: Democrat or a Republican to end up getting a team.
Speaker 2: That's it.
Speaker 3: They're the only You have to have a certain amount
Speaker 3: of money. You're saying, basically you can pay for it.
Speaker 2: Well no, no, no, no, they supply it. So if you
Speaker 2: are like the minority leader, so you have to be
Speaker 2: at a certain level, yes.
Speaker 1: You have to be at a certain level, or you
Speaker 1: have to pay for your own out of your campaign funds.
Speaker 1: And I think that that's unfair because it's like I'm
Speaker 1: just trying to serve people, like and when I go
Speaker 1: out to campaign, like, I want to make sure that
Speaker 1: I'm giving people the information about why am my candidacy matters?
Speaker 1: Not having to look out for my security because my
Speaker 1: job is a security risk, like you should just like
Speaker 1: they are protecting the thug that's in the White House,
Speaker 1: Like we could get one person, you know what I mean, Like,
Speaker 1: just like he could have forty five million dollars to
Speaker 1: have this stupid parade, forty five million dollars going across
Speaker 1: four hundred and thirty five members of the House. You
Speaker 1: could have gave us that money to protect us. It
Speaker 1: would be I mean literally, that would have been more
Speaker 1: than enough. There's so many things that could have been
Speaker 1: more worthwhile. And this is after, you know, Steve Scalise
Speaker 1: is still serving, but this is after he literally was
Speaker 1: shot in the congressional baseball game. Like, I mean, how
Speaker 1: many members have to die or how many.
Speaker 2: Political figures have to be targeted?
Speaker 1: We put in more money for the protection detail of
Speaker 1: Donald Trump after those attempts in a bipartisan way, because
Speaker 1: it was the right thing to do. So I'm just like,
Speaker 1: I don't understand why we're not making movement, and so
Speaker 1: you know, I'm gonna continue to beat the drum, but
Speaker 1: I think I'm probably gonna beat it more publicly now
Speaker 1: because I have been trying to go through the process
Speaker 1: of saying, yo, we need more protection.
Speaker 2: And it's fallen on deafairs.
Speaker 3: Are you optimistic this whole thing is going to end
Speaker 3: in a positive way ultimately? Do you think democracy will prevail?
Speaker 2: That's my hope. All I got is hope right now.
Speaker 2: I don't have anything beyond that. You're still excited about
Speaker 2: public service.
Speaker 1: I'm excited about the people that I have an opportunity
Speaker 1: to serve. I don't know about the mechanics of service itself,
Speaker 1: but definitely very excited to go home or even just
Speaker 1: travel the country and know that people are having their
Speaker 1: faith restored in politicians.
Speaker 3: Jasmine Crockett, thank you so much. This was so great
Speaker 3: to be able to get to know you and talk
Speaker 3: to you about these issues. Of course I have a
Speaker 3: million more questions, but you've got people to see in
Speaker 3: places to go, so.
Speaker 2: Yes, I do. Thanks so great, Thank you so much.
Speaker 3: Thanks for listening everyone. If you have a question for me,
Speaker 3: a subject you want us to cover, or you want
Speaker 3: to share your thoughts about how you navigate this crazy world,
Speaker 3: reach out send me a DM on Instagram. I would
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Speaker 3: Weller composed our theme music. For more information about today's episode,
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