GLOVES OFF: Jasmine Crockett drops NIGHTMARE news on Trump, Republicans

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INTERVIEW - Brian interviews Jasmine Crockett about Trump, Elon, and the media.  For more from Brian Tyler Cohen: Order my #1 NYT bestselling book: https://www.harpercollins.com/pages/shameless YouTube (español): https://www.youtube.com/@briantylercohenespanol Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/briantylercohen Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/36UvEHs Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0066rKCBIycIMI4os6Ec5V Twitter: https://twitter.com/briantylercohen Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/briantylercohen Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/briantylercohen TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@briantylercohen Newsletter: https://plus.briantylercohen.com Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/briantylercohen.bsky.social Threads: https://www.threads.net/@briantylercohen

Transcript

00:00I'm joined now by Congressman Jasmine Crockett. Thanks so much for joining me.

00:02Yeah, it's good to have you in person.

00:04Yeah, thanks. So we are right now in a moment where obviously there's a lot of upheaval across

00:09the country over everything that's happening in this government, whether it's Medicaid cuts,

00:12food stamp cuts, attacks on the veterans, on and on. There's been recent guidance from the NRCC

00:17to stop doing town halls for Republican members. Not to fix any of the problems that the people who

00:22attend those town halls are actually bringing forward, but just not to hold the town halls

00:26whatsoever. So can I have your reaction to that cowardly move by GOP?

00:31Yeah. I mean, I think you laid it out cowardly. It's laughable to me because we supposedly live

00:37in a democratic republic and the idea that they don't want to go and talk to the people that

00:42literally put them into position, this is what we're constantly seeing from the Republicans.

00:47It's kind of like Trump. Trump is not deciding that he's going to be beholden to all these people

00:53that gave all the little money that they probably didn't have to his campaign that went out and

00:58decided to vote for him because they really believed in him. They believed the lies that

01:02he told when he said on day one he was going to end war, when he said on day one that he was going

01:07to reduce the price of food, that when he said on day one that he was going to give us a big,

01:13beautiful America, right? They believed that. And so as much as I spar on social media and that kind

01:19of stuff with, you know, radical MAGA, there's just not that much of this country that is just

01:25MAGA, right? Like I refuse to believe that the vast majority of this country is MAGA

01:30and there are those that got caught up that really were struggling and saying, okay, I'm going to take

01:35a chance on something else because maybe my life will get better because that is what was laid out.

01:39But what we're seeing is that Trump only cares about those select few people that he allowed to

01:44be on the inside when he got inaugurated. And right now we know that the Republicans don't

01:49care about the people that put them into position in the House. Instead, all they care about is

01:54making sure that they are in his good graces. They could care less about their constituents.

01:58And so I say where they won't go, we as Democrats, we need to show up and show that we really are a

02:05public service and show that while Fox News may go off and try to tell you that I'm some like

02:12double-headed, you know, devil or whatever, that I really do care. And I can back that up with the

02:18bills that I filed. And I can tell you the truth about the policies that we're pushing for and how

02:22that is going to improve your lives and not just the lives of my constituents and really start to

02:27heal this country and let them see that there's so much more that brings us together than separates

02:33us, right? And so get out of the cultural stuff, right? Because guess what? It's not the trans

02:38people that made you lose your job right now if you're without a job. It's not the trans people

02:43that somehow started a tariff war with Mexico or China or Canada. It's not the trans people

02:52that were out there taking away the Department of Education. So now if you were going to pay

02:57for your kiddo to go to school by using loans, those loans may not be available. It's not the

03:03trans people that they went out blaming for everything that was bad. It's also not the

03:08immigrants that they went out blaming everything on. And it's definitely not the black folk. Black

03:14people, especially black women, are still putting our bodies on the front lines in the fight for an

03:19America that will continue to kick us no matter what we do. Right. The major beneficiary, when you

03:25have all of these people getting screwed from this government, the people, the 70 some odd million

03:29Americans who use Medicaid, the 40 some odd million Americans who are on food stamps, it's

03:36not those people who are to blame for any of this stuff. The money is going, we already know where

03:42who's getting bloated defense contracts. We know that SpaceX is getting defense contracts. We know

03:46that Starlink Terminals is getting contracts. We know that Tesla is getting contracts. And so it's

03:50right in front of us, black and white, the numbers, when we see who's losing money out of all of this

03:55and who's gaining money out of all of this. And to your exact point, no, it is not the trans people

03:58who are to blame. It's not the black people who are to blame. It's not immigrants who are to blame.

04:02We can see in black and white who is benefiting from this presidency. And it's none of those

04:06people. It's the people at the top, people who helped Donald Trump get to where he is right now.

04:09To that point, we should go where Republicans aren't. What should we do with with regard to

04:14this town hall issue? Because clearly there's there, you know, folks are agitating across the

04:18country. People want to talk to elected officials to find out what the fuck is going on. And if

04:24those Republicans aren't going to show up, what would you recommend Democrats do? I absolutely

04:27believe that we have to show up. And I think that this allows us to build a rapport with those

04:33constituents that belong to them. And it allows us to say- These are Republican districts.

04:37And Republican districts. I mean, you know, it was funny because I was talking about this yesterday

04:42and it was in like an actual meeting in my office and someone wanted to ask, they were like,

04:48do you think that you can go into a Republican issue? I absolutely do. And I was explaining to

04:53him that actually, when I go to rural America, they actually crave for me to come back more than

04:59anywhere else. And I talked about the relationship that I have with the Texas Farm Bureau and how

05:04anytime the Texas Farm Bureau was on the hill, they were always coming to see me. And I knew

05:09that the vast majority of the people that were coming, that they weren't necessarily Democrats,

05:14but I just laid it out. And I don't think that there's anything partisan about food or there

05:17shouldn't be anything partisan about food, right? Like I may not grow it, but I definitely eat it.

05:22You know what I mean? And so like, I would just talk to them about the facts and I want our farmers

05:27to do well because I don't want us to be relying upon a food supply that is coming from elsewhere.

05:32I want us to have- That is a matter of national security, right? So I want us to have farmers

05:37that are able to raise food right here in our country that is under our government's eye,

05:43for sure. It doesn't mean that I want to get rid of trade and things like that because we do that

05:46as well, but definitely I want to make sure our farmers are good. And so having those real

05:51conversations and going into those areas, I remember we did a listening session in Waco,

05:57Texas, which isn't too far from Dallas. I show up. I'm the only Black member that showed up to the

06:04listening session. And we did about three different events on that day. And every room that I was in,

06:10I was the only Black woman until the last room. And then there was one other urban farmer Black

06:16woman that was there, but it was okay because at the end of the day, I didn't feel like we needed

06:22to focus on my complexion or the fact that I was the only Democrat that was sitting on the panel.

06:28We just need to talk facts. And so many people came up to me and it was almost like,

06:33oh my God, you're actually real. You're not the devil that I thought you were.

06:36I was going to ask, we do live in such a bifurcated media ecosystem. Have you found

06:42that folks who you talk to in areas where there's not usually Democrats, that they

06:47perceive Democrats as the caricature that Republicans or right-wing media makes them

06:51out to be? And how does that differ from what people tell you when they actually do have the

06:55opportunity to speak with you? Yeah. So it is interesting because

06:59people that don't have touched us with Democrats, for sure, when they first kind of encounter us,

07:05or at least encounter me, then they think of me differently than when they actually are given an

07:11opportunity to talk to me. Again, I bring up Texas Farm Bureau for a reason, just because I know a

07:16lot of their supporters are Republicans, but it doesn't matter when they come on the Hill.

07:22I am always, and honestly, all the guards go down. I remember the very first reception that they did

07:29during their first Hill day. And I went and there was a woman who was so rude to me. And I was like,

07:36okay. And I just kind of brushed it off or whatever. And she didn't know me. Like it was

07:42before a series of viral moments and that kind of stuff, but I was like this black woman Democrat.

07:46So that's all she knew. And she was incredibly rude. And after that, though, I never had a

07:52similar encounter with anyone because I think that I garnered a reputation. I mean, they've

07:57got pictures of me driving a tractor trailer in my district. Like, I think that the perception of me

08:04was completely different than what they ended up getting. And I think that's why Democrats should

08:08show up. I think that we should have been showing up a long time ago during the Harris campaign.

08:14I was telling them, send me to rural America. And they were like, what? I was like, send me

08:18to rural America. Well, they sent me to rural Georgia. And I mean, everybody came out and like,

08:24people were really excited that like, oh my gosh, you know, Jasmine Crockett's coming to rural

08:28Georgia. Right. But it allowed me to be on the local news there so that those that maybe don't

08:35get a person like me on the local news to kind of see and hear from me and know that I lived in

08:42East Texas as well. I've lived in rural America. I practiced law in rural America. So like I know

08:48the struggles that exist out there from actually living in rural America, as well as being someone

08:54who served on the Ag Committee. And so once they see that I'm able to talk the talk and that I

09:00understand the challenges, whether it's their hospital shutting down and me believing that

09:05your life expectancy should not be cut short just because of your zip code, because that's

09:09the thing that we run into in our big urban kind of centers. And so honestly, rural America and

09:15inner urban city, lower income areas actually share a lot in common when it comes down to

09:22SNAP benefits, right? Like me fighting for SNAP, that's not just for my district. It's more so for

09:27rural America than in my district because they use more SNAP benefits. So what I tell people

09:32all the time is that the fight that I'm waging, it's not just if somehow you go somewhere and

09:38you've got a D on the front of your name that you're going to get the benefits. It benefits

09:43the vast majority. But if we're not talking to people, then we can't complain that they're not

09:48listening to us because we're not having a conversation. And I think this is a great

09:51chance and opportunity to show that we don't want to be a divided states of America, that we really

09:58do want to be united. Part of that, I feel like the reason that we're not going into these spaces

10:03is just this broader problem that Democrats face where we want to avoid anything that might be

10:08controversial or unsafe. We just kind of stay away from any controversy. Do you think that,

10:15given what you've said, how Democrats should move forward with this idea that we should

10:21throw caution to the wind and not worry about messages that are poll tested? Not only state

10:26areas that we know are, okay, this was a Trump 51, Kamala 49 district, and so this is our target.

10:34We shouldn't go anywhere else. So much of what we do, I feel like has to be safe, whether it's in

10:38our messaging, whether it's in our campaigning, even when to respond. We don't allow ourselves

10:43to come out and respond. And so it allows Republicans to own the narrative. And then

10:47when we finally deign to build up a response and call a press conference two days from now,

10:53and the new cycle is gone already, whatever narrative Republicans wanted to put forward

10:57already is completely ingrained. We're so slow often. And so how do you think about that in terms

11:04of your own strategy? Yeah, man, you said a whole mouthful there. I will say that this kind of goes

11:12back to what we were talking about off camera when we were discussing just kind of like comms

11:17and what that looks like on the Hill and the way that they're trained and why, for me, I'm like,

11:22I need somebody that's outside of kind of like the Hill mentality. Yeah, because number one,

11:29most of them have no idea about new cycles. None. Like no clue, right? Like when we even a lot of

11:36times, and I do a lot of leading of my own comms, which is very frustrating, right? But I have more

11:43of a comms instinct. And I was a business major with emphasis in finance and marketing. So like,

11:47I've done marketing, so I understand it. And I've also done media before I got here, before I got

11:53to Congress. And actually, even before I got to the State House. So I understood like, okay, well,

11:58if this is the moment, then yeah, comms person, don't go pitching me to go on TV, talking about

12:05Z when we're talking about a all day, like the moment is past, right? And so even one of my young

12:11staffers yesterday was asking me about posting about something. I was like, it's State of the

12:15Union Day. It ain't about State of the Union. It's not getting posted today, not getting posted

12:19today, because we want to make sure that it gets the traction. But it's a similar kind of mindset

12:23when you're talking about social media. Now, granted, you can get to the point that you can

12:28actually create your own ecosystem. And it creates kind of the new level. Yeah, yeah,

12:34you can on social media. But like, I was like, that's not what we're, this is not where we are.

12:39And so I was like, like teaching her and like, this is when you should post about this. Because

12:45that's when it will make better sense. Because we're just going to be talking about the State

12:49of the Union. And so it's, it's not going to hit the algorithms the same way. And so I do think

12:55that it's important that we start to shift, because there hasn't been a measurable shift,

13:00right? Like, it's like, oh, okay, well, you know, Trump won. And then everybody's like,

13:06during highlights, it's like, dude, like, hello, like, some of y'all have been here before.

13:12So you know what he's like, and you know that it was only going to be supercharged, right?

13:16And so like tapping into that, and then, again, like, it's, it's the idea of what type of training

13:21do you have, not everyone can do media, period. That's just the bottom line. And then we've learned

13:27that in a very painful way. But nevertheless, and then not everybody can do every type of media,

13:33right? You have some people where they can do the very traditional news, that is going to be local,

13:41some are better at doing the cable news. Some can do podcasts, I'm learning that most cannot,

13:48um, you know, because they are from a different kind of school of thought when it comes to

13:53politics, right? So it's like, well, I got to be super buttoned up. And I handle politics the way

13:59that I handled practice in law. Like, when I would go into a jail and talk to a client,

14:05I am not talking to all of his crazy legalese. Like, he knows when I show up that I'm a lawyer.

14:10So he knows that I have done everything that I need to do to become who I am, right? And what

14:15my job is, but you got to understand the plan, honey. So like, when I, when I show up, I had to

14:21not only show up and make sure that my client understood, but also, I mean, I literally

14:26represented killers. So I couldn't show up and be scary either. So that's another reason that like,

14:32you don't see me like cowering to bullies, like, no, like, if they sensed that you were weak in

14:37any way, they took advantage of that. So I would talk to them one way. But then when I show up to

14:42a jury, it's people from all over the community with all different levels of education. And so

14:47I'm talking to them a certain way. But by the time I got to argue something in front of the judge,

14:51I know is where I go. And not everybody can do that. Not everybody can.

14:56And that's the wild part because, I mean, like the number one rule,

14:59public speaking is to know your audience. And so the people who like, look, politicians know

15:05what they're doing. They presumably know what they're doing when they get here. They know how

15:09to write legislation, presumably. They knew how to do all the committee stuff and speak in that

15:13way. But I think right now there seems to be ignorance in the fact that the audience isn't

15:19other politicians. The audience is the American people. And so when you speak to the American

15:23people in a way that sounds like rote politics speak, you lose them, especially in an era where

15:29people are so starved for authenticity. I mean, this is like, this is the social media era. And

15:34so if you're not going to be able to connect with people because you can't shake that politics speak,

15:39you can't shake that stiffness, then not only are you going to lose people, but you're never going

15:45to be able to break through in a media environment where you do have people who get it, who understand

15:50how to break through in this media environment. People like Trump himself. I mean, part of his

15:55winning formula is just he knows how to get attention. He knows how to get on camera.

16:01But you do know how to get on camera. A lot of people don't understand that when we're talking

16:06about how to, you know, how to speak to folks that the end user, the audience here, is not

16:13their colleagues in Washington, DC. It's the American people. And they don't speak the same

16:17way that the folks here speak. Correct. Yeah, no, I mean, our colleagues don't listen anyway.

16:21So I don't even know why we would try. I mean, they do not listen. But I do think that a lot of

16:27this kind of depends on like where you come from. Like my district. I mean, I love my district.

16:32Like, I mean, it is it's kind of next level. It's like very weird, like the relationship that I have

16:37with my district. And so I do think that my district affords me kind of an opportunity to

16:43literally just be as laid back as I want to be, because they also trust that I know how to write

16:48legislation. They know that I know how to work in a bipartisan, bicameral way. They know that,

16:53I mean, there's articles out there where you've got my senior senator that is saying nice things

16:58about me. Yeah. And if anybody knows anything about Texas, they know my senior senator is not

17:02a Democrat. Right. Because at the end of the day, like if there's somebody willing to work,

17:07like I will find our middle ground. Like is my senior senator ever going to support me having

17:11like liberties over my body? Probably not. Right. But on other things, like if he says that he

17:17actually cares about fentanyl, which is something that I am very well aware of as a former criminal

17:22defense attorney, and it's legislation that I started working on in the state house, as soon

17:26as we started taking all offense and all legislation to him, he started carrying it.

17:30And he actually had more time and he was actually pushing it out even further than I could. And so

17:34like my constituents know that I know how to do the job. And they also know that when I show up,

17:42I'm going to show up in my very real way. But if I've got to put on and be that pristine

17:47politician, they know that I can. Right. But they do feel so much more comfortable with me. They

17:53feel so much more excited about me. And I mean, I remember going home after somebody asked to take

17:59me outside and I saw my constituents and they were like, just tell us where to be. You don't have to

18:06do that. Like we will handle that. Like, yeah, no, my constituents don't play. They are very

18:11protective and very loving. But I think that it is because they know that when I come to work,

18:17I come to work to fight for them. So regardless of what the noise may say at the end of the day,

18:23they have the receipts because I email them every week and tell them everything that I've done.

18:27They've got pictures of the meetings that I've had in my office. They've got my committee

18:31hearings and videos. That's like the OG five things I did this week emailed before.

18:35Yeah, exactly. Right. But yeah, it really is. But like I tell them and I can remember going home and

18:41seeing some of my senior kind of constituents and them saying, we have never been so informed about

18:49what was going on and what our member was doing than now. But I do that. I do teletown halls

18:55once a quarter where we usually have no less than 7000 people that show up on the teletown halls.

19:00Right. And that's before everybody was having to do all the town halls because all the drama.

19:04We do that. We send out mailers. We'll send out mail so that people know exactly what all things

19:09we've accomplished, how much money we've brought home, that kind of stuff. So I don't wait until

19:14I need you for a vote. I tell you how I'm serving you consistently in all ways. And this is beyond

19:22kind of the social media stuff. This is the stuff that you only get if you're Texas 30. We send you

19:26text messages and we tell you we're going to be in your city and we're going to bring our office

19:31hours to you. We do a kids and kites event every year just so that we are connecting and showing

19:36that we really do care and we love our constituents. We do a kids and pitching event. So we

19:41do a lot of things within our districts and it has built kind of this Thick as Thieves relationship.

19:49And it is one reason that I do feel so empowered to be so fearless because my constituents know

19:55that I fight for them every day. Hopefully folks in nearby districts can see you too

19:59if there's town hall opportunities that we know Republicans aren't going to-

20:02Oh, we were asked. So after that was announced, I received an email from someone

20:08up north in Collin County, which is where we saw one of those videos from Keep Self.

20:13And this woman said, hey, they are thirsty. Like I've been talking to my Republican

20:18like neighbors and they just want someone to answer questions and now they don't want to show up.

20:24And like if anybody would be willing to do it, I think it would be you. And I emailed her back and

20:29it was like working on it. So I probably will, at least specifically in my area, if they're not

20:35going to show up, just go just right over to the neighboring district and tell them that I'm going

20:40to have a town hall. It's just a little chaotic when I do things because of my profile and because

20:45of how things are. So it takes a little bit more. I can't just say, oh, we're coming tomorrow.

20:52We have to get bomb sweeps and all kinds of stuff because of the threats that I get.

20:57Well, insofar as I can offer any words of encouragement, with safety in mind,

21:04of course, highly recommend that you get out there because I think this will not only give

21:09folks the information that they need and that they're kind of desperate for at this point,

21:13when a lot of them are losing their last lifelines, but also kind of disabuse themselves

21:17of this notion that Democrats are the caricature that Republicans admit them out to be. That we're

21:21just, you know, like we've got like abortion scheduled at like five o'clock and then,

21:25you know. So in any case, thank you for all your time. I appreciate it.

21:28Thank you. It's good to see you.

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