'Here We Go Again': Jasmine Crockett Absolutely Flames Republicans Over Hearing On The 'Biden FBI'

2 days ago

At a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday, Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) blasted Republicans for holding a hearing on the FBI under the Biden administration.

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Transcript

00:00We'll recognize the ranking member, Ms. Crockett, for an opening statement.

00:04Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and as I'm sure you can assume, we see this a little bit differently.

00:11Here we go again talking about Biden, Biden, and more Biden. Today is nothing more than a dog and

00:17pony show for Republicans to avoid facing the American people for their trash policies that

00:22are killing the economy and our democracy. Despite Republicans' claim of backing the Blue and being

00:28the party of law and order, we're here today because Republicans are willing to throw our

00:34country's top law enforcement agents under the bus to appease Trump and execute his political

00:40vengeance. Now, I know remembering things is hard for some of my colleagues on the other side of the

00:45aisle, like remembering not to add reporters into a signal chat discussing military war plans,

00:52but let me remind my colleagues that it was Trump who decided to store national secrets

00:56and classify documents next to his oversized bathtub and toilet at Mira Lago. It was Trump

01:02who took the documents out of the boxes and shared them with his guests. It was Trump who

01:07told his staff to move the boxes when the FBI was coming, and it was Trump who appointed Director

01:13Christopher Wray as head of the FBI, the same director that allowed the investigation to move

01:19forward. As much as Trump and Republicans hate to accept it, we are still a country with laws,

01:26and when you break them, there are consequences. Now, make no mistake, we should all be concerned

01:32about the FBI, but my concerns as ranking member of this subcommittee, as a member of Congress,

01:38and as an attorney, as well as a citizen, are based on things called facts. And when I say facts,

01:44I mean clear, indisputable facts, not those alternative facts my Republican colleagues

01:50continue pushing onto the American people. So let's talk about facts. Fact. Even prior to being

01:57confirmed by the Senate, Kash Patel was directing officials within the FBI to fire members within

02:03the Bureau simply because they worked on the lawful investigations into Trump. Fact. Patel

02:10failed to disclose his previous work and financial ties with the country of Qatar, a country that

02:18had you had read the Mazars report, realized, released last year by the House Oversight

02:24Committee, you wouldn't know, paid close to half a million dollars to Trump while he was president

02:29of the United States. Unsurprisingly, the FBI's Foreign Influence Task Force was recently disbanded

02:36and the DOJ also cut back on its Foreign Agents Registration Act enforcement. Our enemies are

02:43jumping up and down now that we're doing their work for them. Another fact, Patel has never even

02:51been an FBI agent and is now leading the Bureau. Even one of today's Republican Witnesses

02:59organizations, the Reform the Bureau, has advocated having an FBI agent lead by,

03:07I'm sorry, having an FBI agent lead the Bureau. But rather than confirm a director with credible,

03:13dedicated experience, the Republicans confirmed a political loyalist with no Quantico or FBI training.

03:20Talk about DEI. Didn't earn it higher. Another fact, Patel, who rails against telework,

03:29what he calls lazy agents, was working part-time in and out of Las Vegas, commuting back and forth

03:36between there and D.C. while also living in the home of a GOP mega donor. Think about that for a

03:43second. Could you imagine what Republicans would have done had, say, James Comey had been living

03:50in New York part-time as the FBI director and if his New York home was owned by, say, George Soros?

03:57Speaker Johnson would have forced a floor vote on articles of impeachment within days of this news

04:03coming out. But nevertheless, my Republican colleagues are willing to sacrifice safety

04:08for stupidity as long as it's loyal. Another fact, Patel and Trump-backed FBI leadership

04:16have redirected FBI agents who are working on investigations involving violent crimes against

04:21children and child exploitation and transferred them to work on anti-Tesla attacks and redacting

04:29Jeffrey Epstein files. Talk about FBI waste and abuse. You simply can't make this stuff up. To be

04:37clear, Director Wray testified before Congress last year, noting that, quote, if each one of the

04:43FBI's cyber agents and intelligence analysts focus exclusively on the China threat, China's

04:52hackers would still outnumber FBI cyber personnel by at least 50 to 1. Yet rather than hire more

05:02agents to protect against these cyber security threats, Director Patel is reassigning agents

05:08to redact Epstein files. Someone please tell me how this makes America safe. It's almost as

05:16ridiculous and wasteful as Patel's idea to contract the bureau with UFC fighters. And while

05:26I have very real concerns about the current state of the FBI today, I want to be very clear. My

05:31concerns aren't with career agents, the men and women dedicating their lives to protect our country

05:37and communities. It's with the irresponsible leadership and reckless decisions coming from

05:42Patel, Trump and Doge staff within the FBI. Our bureau needs resources to do its job effectively.

05:50What it doesn't need is 20-something-year-old Doge bags reviewing materials without having

05:56undergone proper vetting and clearance. The American people have a right to be worried,

06:01but these worries shouldn't be based on Republican baseless conspiracy theories.

06:06Our country is already on a dangerous path, pushing closer to causing irreparable harm.

06:13Republican members need to wake up and put Trump loyalties aside to engage in real oversight

06:19of the current FBI before it's too late. Congress deserves it. The brave men and

06:24women at the bureau deserve it, and the American people deserve it.

06:28I want to add one more point. As a civil rights attorney, I have had to sue law enforcement.

06:39There have been times that I can truly say that law enforcement has crossed the line,

06:46and I truly believe that there can be one or two in a bunch that can ruin every one.

06:54The problem that I have right now, though, is that we have decided to focus in on something that

07:00my Republican colleagues have decided to term as being political. What is political is when

07:08somebody says that they are going to come back and seek retribution. What is political is firing

07:14people because they simply were following the evidence and doing their jobs as law enforcement

07:21has been trained to do. Ultimately, regardless of whether or not anyone believes that it was right

07:29to indict the president, not once, not twice, not three, but four times he was indicted, ultimately,

07:37each of you knows enough to know that at the end of the day, it is citizens that sit on a grand jury

07:44that are the ones that decide whether or not evidence exists to go forward with an indictment.

07:51Ultimately, when this president was convicted by a jury on the state level,

07:58it was a jury of his peers. I want to say thank you so much for your time. Thank you so much

08:05for your commitment, and thank you so much for the testimony that you will provide.

'Here We Go Again': Jasmine Crockett Absolutely Flames Republicans Over Hearing On The 'Biden FBI'

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