Katie’s One-on-One with Rep. Jasmine Crockett

Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett is having a moment. The rising Democratic star sits down with Katie for a candid, no-holds-barred conversation about what drives her, what frustrates her, and why she refuses to play by the old political rules. From her viral moments on Capitol Hill to the serious challenges facing democracy, Crockett shares what’s on her mind and why this moment demands leaders who won’t back down.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Who will become the Democratic nominee for president will be
someone that has been out there and has shown that
they won't allow themselves to be punched in the face
and just say thank you.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
They will punch back. I think that that's what's going
to happen. Hi.

Speaker 3 (00:19):
Everyone, I'm Kitty Kuric and this is next question. Texas
Representative Jasmine Crockett has only been in Congress since twenty
twenty three, but she's quickly become one of the most
talked about Democrats in the country. She got into politics
to help change an unfair criminal justice system she witnessed

(00:42):
as a public defender. Now she's using her growing national
platform to challenge the status quo and at times punch back,
as we saw during her now famous encounter with Marjorie
Taylor Green. But as you'll hear, her backstory is just
as fascinating as her current one. Congresswoman, thank you so

(01:06):
much for being here.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
Absolutely, it's my pleasure.

Speaker 3 (01:09):
We have so much to talk about, so much going
on in this crazy world of ours, but I wanted
to start by talking about your background.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
Yeah. May I call you Jasmine?

Speaker 3 (01:20):
Yes, absolutely, because I really enjoyed reading about you. I'm
always interested in what has shaped people and how they
have become the person they are. And I know you
grew up in Saint Louis and your dad was a
Baptist preacher. Tell us a little bit about your early
years and your childhood.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
Yeah, so growing up in Saint Louis, it was a
pretty simple life. I mean, you know, definitely compared to
being in New York right now, right Like, there wasn't
this crazy hustle and bustle. But I had two college
educated parents. My mom actually is near genius as far
as I'm concerned. She graduated high school at the age

(02:02):
of sixteen, skipping ahead and became the salutatorian of the
class she skipped into. And then she got a full
ride to go to WashU and was done with undergrad
at the age of nineteen. The reason that I say
all that is that my parents were really big into education,
and so I remember I was going to public school,

(02:22):
great public school in my opinion, I mean, it laid
the foundation for me to be where I am now.
But my grades were too good and so my mom
was like, it's not it's not Jane enough, right, And
I was like, what is this?

Speaker 2 (02:35):
You know why are you guys not proud of me? Right?

Speaker 1 (02:37):
Like any other parent is happy because you're top of
the class. And for them, it was like, no, it's
just not enough. And so they ended up putting me
in private school.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
So I ended school.

Speaker 1 (02:47):
I ended up going to Catholic school. It was interesting
because I was just here for the Lion of Lenox
Avenue's funeral and we were.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
At a Catholic.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
And I was like, oh goodness, it's back to being
like that Catholic school girl because there was lots of
kneeling and standing and all the things. But anyway, so yeah,
so they put me in a Catholic middle school, and
then my parents decided that it would be great if
I went to a Catholic all girl high school. And

(03:22):
I was at that age where like, you just don't
want me to have a life, and so I ended
up at Rosetti. Kane went there for a little bit,
but then my parents divorced. So they divorced right before
I turned sixteen, so it was about fifteen years old.

Speaker 2 (03:37):
And it was that hard for you. It wasn't at
the time.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
At the time of the divorce, it was a bit
of a relief because my parents just weren't getting along.
It wasn't anything too extraordinary, but growing up where they
seemingly had always loved each other and then kind of
getting into this kind of cold space. I just wanted
them to be happy, and I think because I was

(04:03):
almost sixteen, it was like, all right, whatever, I'm almost
out the house myself, you know. So they divorced, and
the concern was that my mom was not going to
necessarily they weren't going to necessarily be able to.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
Afford for me to go to my school anymore.

Speaker 1 (04:20):
And so at that point in time, my mom actually
applied me to a school they cost a lot more money,
because that's what makes sense. But she applied me to
a country day school and they gave me a scholarship.
And so while you know that school costs a lot
of money, I was on a scholarship able to attend
school there. And so, despite what some may think, I

(04:42):
was a private school kid really from junior high through college,
because even when I was to Rhodes, it was another
private institution.

Speaker 3 (04:50):
That's where you went to college in Memphis and Memphis. Yeah,
and throughout your childhood, you were super close to your grandmother,
who you called, oh my Annie, yes, and that sounds
like it was an incredible formative relationship.

Speaker 2 (05:01):
Oh man, I miss her every day.

Speaker 1 (05:05):
She truly was my biggest fan, and I don't think
there ever will be anyone that will fangirl out over
me as much.

Speaker 2 (05:14):
And that was way before any viral moment.

Speaker 1 (05:18):
My grandmother kept me from six weeks of age. My
mom went back to work after I was about six
weeks old, and my grandmother kept myself and all my cousins.
So even though I was an only child, I grew
up with my cousins. And my grandparents were originally from Arkansas,
so even though I was in Saint Louis, I had

(05:38):
a pretty country upbringing. When I would get to my
granny's house, my poppa he worked for Pepsi Cola really
his entire career. This was back when people would get
a job and they would stay with it, and by
the time he retired, they were shutting down the plant
that he worked at, and it wasn't that far from

(06:00):
their house. And my bike used to stay at my grandparents'
house because my Papa would ride bikes with me, and
so we would ride down to where the plant used
to be located, and they allowed him.

Speaker 2 (06:13):
They still owned the land, so they allowed him to
do some farming.

Speaker 1 (06:17):
So I guess this was probably the first urban farm
that I became familiar with. And so my grandmother was
a cook, and she had been like a cleaning lady
as well. She used to cook and clean when I
was super small for some very wealthy families in Saint Louis.
But my papa would like grow all kinds of food
and then bring it in and my granny would cook it.

(06:39):
So here it is, we're like they were inner cities
Saint Louis, but it was a little bit of their
Arkansas roots. And my papa every once in a while
would load us up in his van and take us fishing.
So for me, like a real man has to know
how to fish, because that's what you know, my papa
did with me as a little girl.

Speaker 3 (07:01):
Sounds like they both had a huge influence on you.
Oh yeah, both of your grandparents.

Speaker 1 (07:05):
Yeah, they were truly my biggest fans. And I remember
when my grandmother died. My grandfather had actually been in
the hospital and one of my cousins called me at
six am. And anybody that knows anything about me, they
know that I'm not a morning person. So if you're
calling me at an extraordinary hour, there's something that's going on.

(07:28):
And so I was concerned that something had happened to
my grandfather because he was in the hospital. And I
remember I was actually trying to lose weight at the time,
you know how we go through those phases, And so
I was actually up walking a trail, Katie trail in Dallas,
and my cousin called and so I said, what happened
to Papa? And she said, Noah's granny And I said,

(07:50):
what about her? And the day that my grandfather was
being discharged, they could not get a hold of my grandmother,
and it was because she actually just randomly passed away.

Speaker 2 (08:02):
So I was pretty devastated.

Speaker 1 (08:05):
And at that time I had been practicing law for
some time, but my grandma was like she had been saying,
I want to come see you in court, you know,
And so we had made plans for the summer because
normally during the summertime is when we would really try
a lot of cases.

Speaker 2 (08:25):
And so she ended up dying in that spring before
she could come.

Speaker 1 (08:30):
And I remember being at the funeral and so many
people saying all she could talk about was she couldn't
wait to see her She's called me Jazzy bou couldn't
wait to see her Jazzy Boo in court. So again,
an original fan who truly felt like I could do
no wrong. And I can only imagine what she think
of me now. I'm sure she'd be very proud. And

(08:53):
it sounds like you were so lucky to have such
loving grandparents and parents, because honestly, it make all the
difference in terms of giving you this strong foundation confidence,
kind of feeling comfortable in your own skin. I feel
so bad when I meet people who weren't lucky enough

(09:15):
to have that kind of love growing up. You know,
you talk about your law career, Jasmine, but you came
to law kind of I guess in a circumlocucious route.
I like that word, and it's because you found it
a little bit later, because initially, I know, when you
went to Rose College you were interested first in being

(09:36):
an anesthesiologist, which made me laugh, not because there's anything
funny about being an anesthesiologist, but your reason was you
didn't want to talk to people. And I thought, wait
a second, Jasmine Crockett doesn't want to talk to people.

Speaker 2 (09:50):
That sounded so out of character to me.

Speaker 1 (09:52):
Yeah, No, did not want to talk to people. I
thought it would be great just put people to sleep
and I have to talk to them. So that was
really for it. I mean, math and science nerd. I
mean that's why, you know, when it comes down to it,
when I'm in committee hearings, I always want to have
my data in my facts because that's just how my

(10:12):
brain works, right. But I did not want to talk
to people, and now I can't stop. I would like
to to a certain extent. We get asked to kind
of do speaking engagements a lot, and I'm like, I'm
really okay, like I don't have to guys.

Speaker 3 (10:32):
But but were you shy or introverted at some point? No, no,
just not interested.

Speaker 2 (10:37):
No, yeah no.

Speaker 1 (10:38):
I was like, I've got my friends, I'm fine, and
you know, I just want to do the work and
go home.

Speaker 2 (10:44):
That was.

Speaker 1 (10:46):
My attitude about it. So I think it is kind
of odd that I am in this type of profession.
And even when I was practicing law, I actually really
really loved it.

Speaker 2 (10:58):
And I mean I would, you know, talk to clients
one on one.

Speaker 1 (11:02):
Fine, But I actually really love jury trial, which is
really weird because I'm walking in and it's a bunch
of strangers, and we've got to somehow get them down
to who actually is going to be on the jury.
And then convincing a bunch of strangers to like believe
me and take my side. I like the challenge of it.

(11:22):
But again, it was as I was speaking. I was speaking,
and I was just kind of giving them facts and
kind of walking them through a story versus kind of
what I do a lot of now, which is just
kind of pumping people up. But I think, honestly, the
reason that I get requested to speak a lot is
because I do actually stick to as many facts as possible.

Speaker 3 (11:46):
But you also, I think speak your mind, which we'll
talk about in a moment, because I want to talk
about how you became a lawyer, and it was very
difficult circumstances that kind of opened your eyes. You're at
Rose College and mem this soon and you are really
the victim of I guess you would even call it

(12:06):
hate crimes. Tell us what happened at Rhodes and then
how that led you to a path of wanting to
pursue being a lawyer.

Speaker 1 (12:15):
Yeah, so you know again, I mean grew up in
Saint Louis, Saint Louis is a pretty segregated place, to
be perfectly honest, and you know, going to the private schools,
it was nothing for me to be potentially the only
black person in my class, right like in a specific class,
so definitely was not necessarily in a super black environment.

(12:37):
When I went to Rhodes, there were eighteen black students
in my freshman class, that is, that's it. And by
the time I graduated, we were down to ten, and
we were actually one of the larger classes. The senior
class at that time had three or four African Americans.
But I didn't feel a certain way because I had
gone to these private schools where the numbers were few anyway,

(13:02):
But it's interesting that I never felt racism until I
got to a very black city, Memphis and on campus
in my little bubble. And it's interesting because it's in
North Memphis, which is very black, and they decided to
target myself as well as a number of other black students.
If you had a car, it was keyed with the

(13:23):
N word.

Speaker 2 (13:24):
And in our on.

Speaker 1 (13:26):
Campus mailboxes they put these Jack the Rippers type style
type letters, right so where they would cut letters from
magazines and that kind of stuff. And they were making
up sentences and none of it said that I was
a child of God. I can tell you that, just
really ugly stuff. But I felt very vulnerable because you're

(13:46):
on campus mailbox. It's not something that is publicly known.
So this meant it was someone who absolutely knew me,
knew my friends. And then again, who would know who
drives what car?

Speaker 2 (14:00):
What ear was this? Jasmine? I was in my junior
but what year night?

Speaker 1 (14:06):
It was twenty oh I graduated three, so this was
one ish maybe a one o twoish. So it was
just the first time that I felt racism. I'd heard
about racism, but I didn't really understand it because I
was always in environments in which I would be one

(14:28):
of a few. But I mean it didn't matter, like
my friends were my friends, and you know, whatever sounds terrifying,
it was. It was awful. It was truly awful.

Speaker 3 (14:39):
And Johnny Cochrane, who I knew very well, really yes,
because I covered the OJ trial and also Reginald Denny. Anyway,
Johnny and I became very close friends, and his law
firm came to represent you, all right, and that's when
you met someone. I'm wondering if I know the person

(15:01):
you met from Johnny's law firm.

Speaker 1 (15:03):
And it's crazy because I've told this story a million
times and I do not remember the lawyer's name, even
though she was so influential.

Speaker 2 (15:10):
I hope one day she reaches out.

Speaker 3 (15:12):
Well, you know what, I can probably find that out.
I know Dale Cochran, Johnny's wife, and I'll ask her
for you. Yeah, yes, I think I know who it
is too. But anyway, one of Johnny's associates or lawyers,
maybe she was a partner at that time, came to
Memphis and helped you all.

Speaker 2 (15:31):
I think she was.

Speaker 1 (15:32):
So they had a Memphis office at the time, so
I think she was out of the Memphis office. But
they had a team of them, and I don't know
who all was assigned to who, but the attorney assigned
to me, And I can.

Speaker 2 (15:44):
See her good enough.

Speaker 1 (15:45):
She was tall, bright skinned black woman and she wasn't
too old at the time, and she was assigned to me.
And they were trying to do the investigation. And this
was a part of the school saying, hey, we're going
to bring in somebody independently to try to figure out,
you know, what happened.

Speaker 2 (16:06):
And they never figured out what happened.

Speaker 3 (16:09):
I was going to say, they never found out who
did this. They never found out.

Speaker 1 (16:14):
And it's funny because I'm thinking, I feel like she
had like a Nicole or a Michelle, like a.

Speaker 2 (16:19):
Name like that.

Speaker 1 (16:20):
But anyway, she graduated from University of Houston School of Law,
and you know, being with people in this moment, I thought, Man,
this is the work that I need to be doing,
is to be that person that can be helpful even
if you're not solving it, just knowing that you're not

(16:42):
alone and that there's somebody that you can turn to.
So I tell people all the time that God has
to yell at me to move me. And so you know,
I ended up having this incident and meeting that attorney.
In addition to I have been recruited to do mock
trial after doing a play a musical on campus, and

(17:07):
so my mockschow coach was like, hey, you really should
consider a law school. I become an All American and
mock trial as well the one year that I did it,
and so you know, it was just a culmination. Everything
was pointing that way. And then when I applied to
law school, I got a full ride to go to
Texas Southern and so.

Speaker 2 (17:25):
And then you're transferred, right, and then I.

Speaker 1 (17:27):
Transferred yep, and so I was like, all right, this
is clearly what God wants me to do, because everything
was leading me down that path.

Speaker 3 (17:41):
Hi everyone, it's Katie Couric. You know I'm always on
the go between running my media company, hosting my podcast,
and of course covering the news. And I know that
to keep doing what I love, I need to start
caring for what gets me there, my feet. That's why
I decided to try the Good Feet stores personalized arch

(18:01):
support system. I met with a Good Feet arch support
specialist and after a personalized fitting, I left the store
with my three step system designed to improve comfort, balance
and support. My feet. Means and back are thanking me already.
Visit goodfeet dot com to learn more, find the nearest store,

(18:21):
or book your own free personalized fitting. When you became
a public defender, Jasmine, I know that really opened your
eyes about the criminal justice system and how it treats

(18:43):
some people versus others. And you worked you represented such
a cross section of people. What impact did that have
on you?

Speaker 1 (18:52):
It truly led me down the political path being a
public defender.

Speaker 2 (18:58):
You know there's one case that I always looked.

Speaker 1 (19:02):
There's a number of cases, but there was one case
that in my mind, was the catalyst for me deciding
to get into politics. And I represented a seventeen year
old kid who had stolen candy out of the concession
stand at his high school. And in Texas, it can
technically be a felony, and it just depends on who's

(19:24):
prosecuting the case. The prosecutor at the time decided to
prosecute this kid, who was stolen less than twenty dollars
worth of candy for a state jail felony where he
was facing up to two years in prison, and I
just was like, this isn't right. I mean, like my
mind was like, this doesn't make sense. But I didn't
represent the kid initially, he had a different attorney, and

(19:49):
then he ended up with a probation violation and that's
when I ended up being assigned to him. And I
was so frustrated because it was the type of case
that I felt like, should just go to a jury trial,
because no jury, I think that a seventeen year old
kid should go to prison. But he ended up on
a probation violation because his mom was struggling and working

(20:10):
and wasn't able to go to school and pick him
up and take him to go see his po in
the middle of the day. And so we had technical violations.
He didn't commit any new crimes, he didn't have dirty ways,
he had technical violations for not showing up to his
probation officer. In the judge gave maximum sentence, and I

(20:31):
just was like, this just cannot be right. And it's
funny because I've told that story a number of times
and I'm sure the MAGA world would think that this
was a black kid, but this wasn't. This was a
young white male. And for me, justice has truly always

(20:52):
been a blind thing. I ultimately got into politics because
of an injustice that was served upon someone who literally
was more so service in justice because he was poor.

Speaker 2 (21:05):
And I think that.

Speaker 1 (21:07):
When I reflect on the various injustices that I've experienced
or seen firsthand, it's really been more socio economic than anything. Obviously,
our criminal justice system definitely has issues when it comes
to color as well.

Speaker 3 (21:24):
And there's a lot of overlap between races, so soolic circumstances.

Speaker 1 (21:29):
Absolutely, and I think that there are those that don't
realize that the socio economics ends up impacting so many people,
and it does cross the color barriers. But you can
definitely see kind of the straight line a lot of times,
whether we're talking about any.

Speaker 2 (21:49):
People of color. To be perfectly honest.

Speaker 3 (21:51):
When you were serving as a public defender, did you
also witness people who were being treated differently because of
their stature, their wealth, or socioeconomic status.

Speaker 2 (22:04):
All of that. I mean, the injustices ran rampant.

Speaker 1 (22:08):
And as someone who's licensed to practice in Texas and
Arkansas who's done both urban as well as rule, I mean,
you know, the amount of time that someone would get
in rural Texas versus the amount of time for the
same thing in urban Texas just night and day.

Speaker 2 (22:28):
You know.

Speaker 1 (22:29):
So that's even another divide that we see, and a
lot of it comes down to, really, you know, Democrats
versus Republicans and how they choose to offer sentences, what
it is that they're willing to consider as mitigation. I
just see a lot of heartlessness where it's just a
matter of like just lock them up and throw away

(22:50):
the key. Like again, that kid got a maximum sentence,
and I just kept remembering he wasn't a criminal. Not
excuse him? What he did, but I don't know what
else is childish but still in candy, Like I mean, like,
I don't know what is more childish. And so I
remember tracking him a bit and he ended up getting

(23:13):
into more serious trouble because of his incarceration, right, and
the people that he ended up being around and that
kind of stuff. And so you know, when I ultimately
went to the state legislature, I was really focused on
fixing the criminal justice system with smart legislation because I

(23:34):
knew the real impacts. Like, you have a lot of
lawmakers on all levels that do things theoretically it's like, oh,
I should do this because this seems like it's good
for criminal justice, but they have never walked a day
in so many people's shoes, and they've never taken the
time to even examine the impact of their legislation. And so,

(23:57):
you know, these are the things that inform me. These
are the things that really created this pathway for me
to have this desire to kind of do something more.
It's just witnessing the injustices seeing how you know, I've
had clients that died because they didn't take them seriously enough.
You know, I remember having a client that was accused

(24:18):
of killing his mom, and they didn't have evidence that
he killed his mom, and I kept there was a
type of hearing that I could have to challenge probable cause,
and I remember having it and the judge just ruled
against me, and I'm like, I'm right, you know, like
it was. It was terrible and really this is these

(24:41):
are white folk again. But he was prosecuted because he
was poor. Essentially, they were like, oh, when they went
and got his mother, who was elderly, she had a
mattress that was on the floor and the place was
not clean, and so they were like, you're living with
your mom and this is you know, how she's living.

Speaker 2 (25:00):
You did something a killer with no evidence.

Speaker 1 (25:04):
And this guy, you know, in my opinion, probably struggled
a little bit mentally because he was in his fifties
or sixties and he was still living with mom and
some other things, and he was depressed and he was
overweight and he stopped eating. And I remember telling him

(25:26):
in the jail, I'm like, my client's not eating, Like
we need to do something.

Speaker 2 (25:32):
We need to make sure that you know, he's alive.

Speaker 1 (25:36):
And they kind of looked at him, thinking he's overweight,
he'll be fine, and he died, and after he died,
they determined that his mom died of natural causes, and
so like, it's just hard to imagine a world where
you don't have enough people that care to do right

(26:02):
by people. And so that same kind of like passion
that carried me through as a public defender, that led
me to want to change laws, is the same passion
this many years later. These are the real life experiences
that I know can take place when there's bad people

(26:23):
that are in power or just people that just don't care.
So when we go through things like the Reconciliation Package
and thinking about the harm that will happen not just
to my constituents but just generally, I carry that weight
with me.

Speaker 2 (26:43):
Because you've seen it up close.

Speaker 3 (26:45):
Yeah, and you mentioned Republican and Democrat attitudes. But I
also think it's interesting to note that Democrats don't have
a great track record necessarily of criminal justice reform. When
you think about the three strikes law being passed under
Bill Clinton, right, yeah, yeah, so I think that for

(27:05):
a long time this criminal justice reform wasn't looked on
kindly by either party.

Speaker 1 (27:14):
No, no, that you know, the answer, especially to the
crack epidemic was just lock everybody up, block everybody up,
lock everybody up. And we've seen a similar situation with
meth and now we're saying, you know, I mean they
continue to do it with every new kind of dangerous drug.
I mean, you know, it's like the issue with the borders,

(27:37):
all the drugs, and I'm like, there's all kinds of
drugs that have always come across the border, and they
will continue to come across the border. Like that's just
kind of a thing. And this idea of incarcerating, incarceratingcarc rate,
it's never fixed it. It's never fixed it. Like we're
still trying to do the same thing to fix the
same problem and it's still not being fixed. And so

(28:00):
instead of getting to the root cause of the problems, right,
like figuring out why is it that addiction is not
fixed by incarceration, and like working on addiction so that
you can drive down the demand for this illegal kind
of narcotics circle that we find ourselves in, or finding

(28:20):
out like what causes someone to be more inclined to
even engage in drugs, and like fixing those things, fixing
the environments because for some people it's environmental for some people,
it's literally self medication, you know, when we look at
so many of our unhoused people, and when we look
at our veterans, and we look at like the fact

(28:42):
that we don't have adequate access to healthcare, especially when
we start to talk about mental health care, Like, I'm
just like, there's a lot that we could do. We
could maybe invest in mental health and maybe take a
little bit out of incertion and maybe we will get
a bigger and better results.

Speaker 3 (29:04):
So addressing the root causes of a lot of these
social ills really made you want to go into politics
to try to see what you could do, obviously fueled
by your experience as a lawyer. And you have only
been in Congress since twenty twenty three, right, And I'm

(29:26):
curious when you got there, I'm sure you had big
aspirations for fixing the system or addressing some of these
root causes. I'm curious, Jasmine, what you found when you
got to Washington and had this opportunity. Did you feel
like you could actually do some of the things you

(29:47):
set out to do or were you immediately frustrated?

Speaker 2 (29:52):
What did you think?

Speaker 1 (29:53):
So I was green going into the Texas House by
the time I came to the US House, I understood.

Speaker 2 (30:00):
So you started obviously at the state level.

Speaker 1 (30:03):
Yes, So when I went into the Texas House, that's
where I was like, Okay.

Speaker 2 (30:06):
This is my time. You know.

Speaker 1 (30:08):
I was absolutely positive that because I had actual experience
in these spaces, that people would say, oh, she's the
experienced one, and they would listen, and boy was I wrong.
And so it's interesting by the time I got to
the federal level, I would say that my expectations had

(30:28):
been tempered. But one of the kind of things that
really made me say, you know what, I can go
ahead and go for the federal level is that there
was a former ambassador under Clinton actually who was really
trying to convince me that I should consider going to
the federal level. And I was like, no, I mean,

(30:49):
stuff is messed up enough in Texas. I'll just deal
with this nonsense down here, like, I don't want to
go to a bigger mess. And he said, at least
if you go to the federal level, there's a chance
that you may end up in the majority.

Speaker 2 (31:03):
You are not going to be in the majority in Texas.

Speaker 1 (31:06):
And he was like, and even when you're not in
the majority, you have so much more access to resources
to be able to send to your district. He was like,
I think that you'll like it better from that vantage point,
just being able to do more. And true, I've been
able to do more.

Speaker 2 (31:23):
Is it enough? No?

Speaker 1 (31:26):
Am I competitive? And do I want us to end
up in the majority so.

Speaker 2 (31:30):
That I can actually get things done? Yeah? Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (31:34):
You know I know how to play defense, I mean,
for sure, but that's not where I want to be.

Speaker 2 (31:40):
I want to be on offense.

Speaker 3 (31:42):
You have been clearly one of the rising stars of
the Democratic Party. You have an enormous social media following.
We'll talk about some of your strong responses on Capitol
Hill in a moment. But why do you think you
have been able to connect with people, especially young people,
because you have a big following among younger voters gen

(32:05):
Z voters especially. What is it you think, Jasmine?

Speaker 1 (32:08):
I think it's the fact that I don't sound like
a politician all the time. Instead, I sound more relatable
and like a frustrated American. You know, as everything has
kind of fallen apart around us, we still have some
very good political figures that are seemingly holding it together
in front of the camera.

Speaker 2 (32:28):
And I'm looking like, what the hell, you know. And
I think that how.

Speaker 3 (32:34):
Can they hold it together? How can they be so controlled?

Speaker 2 (32:39):
Exactly?

Speaker 1 (32:40):
And I think that when people are reading the room
or reading them, they're thinking, Okay, something's wrong with you,
Like you are straight up just political, like you're a machine.
And people are more trusting, in my opinion, of people
that they feel like are relating to their feelings. And
I am completely frustrated.

Speaker 2 (33:02):
But also who are unvarnished and emotional and direct and
talk like you talk to your neighbor over a cup
of coffee exactly.

Speaker 1 (33:14):
So I think ultimately, you know, one of the things
that I've talked to the caucus is about consistently is
being authentic. And my authentic self is not going to
be who everyone else is in the caucus. But your authenticity,
whoever you are, it comes through, and there's someone that
can relate to you. There's someone that can relate to

(33:36):
all of us.

Speaker 3 (33:36):
Isn't it interesting that that's what people credit Donald Trump
with being authentic, not sounding like a politician, being unedited, unvarnished,
you know, no four second delay between his brain and
his mouth. But it's interesting, isn't it? He's authentic? But

(33:59):
I guess the question is authentically what. I don't think
he's authentic, You don't.

Speaker 1 (34:04):
I don't because he lies all the time, and I
think that you have to be honest to be authentic.
I will say that people were more inclined to be
accepting of him because he did not sound like a politician,
and so for them they read it as authenticity. But
as so many people are getting frustrated with him because

(34:25):
they're like, well, wait a minute, you said you were
going to do this, but you're doing something else. He's
not a true and honest kind of person. And I
think to be authentic you have to be that. You know,
there were people that felt like, oh, he's one of me, right,
Like he's like me. And it's like, no, he's a
NEPO baby. He's not like you, you know what I mean.

(34:47):
And so I think that there are you know, NEPO
babies that come across authentic. But he was able to
connect with I do think he had an authentic connection
with certain people's frustration in general, right, I.

Speaker 2 (35:03):
Think, Well, I mean I think he recognized it.

Speaker 3 (35:06):
He certainly didn't have a connection yeah right, yeah, So
he was almost costplain in a way.

Speaker 2 (35:10):
Was it he or isn't he? Yes.

Speaker 1 (35:13):
I think that that's the best way to say it,
is that he's costplaying, But he wasn't costplaying as a politician,
and I think people were more inclined to believe, well,
this guy must be honest. Who would say half of
these things unless they're being honest?

Speaker 2 (35:27):
Right like?

Speaker 1 (35:27):
Because he says the craziest things and does the craziest things,
so it was read as honesty, and they would even
give them passes for things that are completely inappropriate because
they'd say, oh, well, I mean, at least he's being honest,
right at least I know what I'm getting with him,
And it's like, no, you don't, and now you're finding out.

Speaker 3 (35:48):
I want to talk more about the Trump administration, but
I will also want to talk about President Biden, because
when other people were pressuring him to step down, even
when your caucus was wavering, you stood firmly behind him.
And I'm curious how you feel with some of these
revelations about his decline and energy and perhaps even mental

(36:14):
acuity that we've been reading about, and if it's given
you any pause and any regret, not a single one.

Speaker 1 (36:24):
I still stand by the decision to stand with President
Joe Biden and then ultimately standing with Vice President Kamala Harris,
and I'll tell you why the average person has not
been given the level of access that the average member
of Congress has to the president. I never saw anything

(36:45):
in Joe Biden that made me wonder whatsoever. And it's
not that I was with Joe Biden every single day,
that's for sure. But as I talked about my grandparents,
the way that I would describe Joe is, I mean,
he's a granddaddy, right, and so like you know, the

(37:05):
way that my granny was when she was younger versus
ultimately kind of where she was at eighty one when
she ended up passing away. Mentally she was still there,
but like her attitude about certain things like whether or
not she was looking to be as polished or cared
to be as polished, or even if she moved as fast,
it just wasn't there. We all slow down. But I

(37:27):
will tell you that I will take a broken or
however they want to describe Joe Biden over Donald Trump
any given day, because number one, I know Joe Biden's heart,
and I can tell you that when you look at
the legislation that he was able to push forward with
This wasn't legislation that was about him and his rich friends.
It was legislation that was for the good of the

(37:49):
American people. And when you look at the people that
he surrounded himself with, even if you're saying that there
was a mentally deficient Joe Biden, I know that he
apptsolutely had a mental acuity that is supreme when it
comes to comparing him to Donald Trump, because at least
he kept good people around him. He kept people that

(38:11):
would keep us safe in this country. He kept people
that would make sure that even as tensions were rising
all around the world, that we were keeping those tempered.
He was able to understand with his level of mental acuity,
who our friends were. He was not getting us into
unwarranted terrafors and things like that. So even if we

(38:33):
want to say, which I refuse to accept, that Joe
Biden was mentally deficient, let me tell you something. His
mental deficiency is still a thousand times better than what
we currently have. And so, you know, I just wish
that ultimately this country would judge each of our leaders
with the same measuring stick we do not.

Speaker 2 (38:56):
There was a lot of pressure that was put on
Joe Biden.

Speaker 1 (38:59):
There were a lot of criticisms that were lodged at
him as well as Kamala Harris. Now, the question is
why is it that none of these critiques came about
for Donald Trump? Right, Because when you think about it,
Kamala Harris light years ahead of Donald Trump, as relates
to qualifications, as relates to her overall resume, and as

(39:22):
it relates to the fact that she was a lot younger.
Everybody said that they wanted to get rid of Joe
Biden because he was too old. Then you had a
younger qualified, non felon candidate, and somehow the people still
chose the old white man. So like for me, I
don't think it was ever about that. I think Democrats

(39:44):
have for a very long time allowed Republicans to play them.
So essentially, Republicans came up with a narrative and Democrats
decided to play into that, and that only hurt the
Democrats because ultimately they still went with a very old man.

Speaker 2 (40:03):
Right, what was the narrative? You think the narrative was.

Speaker 1 (40:06):
That Joe Biden was too old and that he was
seen now, right, like that was the narrative that the
Republicans went with and the Democrats picked up on it
and bought it. I mean, think about the number of
resignations that we've seen out of Democrats right, like, oh,
you know, one person gets accused of something, they're like, oh,
you got to step down, just an accusation, right, And

(40:27):
it's usually like the right will kind of fuel it
because they know the Democrats will eat their own. And
it's not to say that we shouldn't have standards, but
it is to say that we should understand what we're
being played. And so I kept saying, we stand by
Joe Biden because he has a record to run on.

Speaker 2 (40:44):
Now, whether or not we were getting.

Speaker 1 (40:46):
Out there and communicating effectively about that record, I say
we didn't. And I say that it had to be
a team sport. It couldn't just be that, you know,
we were relying on the president to get all the
information out.

Speaker 2 (40:58):
It was incumbent upon us.

Speaker 1 (41:00):
We were supposed to go into our districts with these
big fake checks and make sure all the local media
was there and we talk about the investments that were
being made and make sure that they knew Joe Biden
did this, that new facility, Joe Biden did that, like
it was up to us to really be good partners.

Speaker 2 (41:16):
And you don't think Democrats were.

Speaker 1 (41:18):
I don't think that we were. Instead, if we spent
half as much time beating down Joe Biden as we
did uplifting, all that was accomplished, and it got accomplished
in only two years because he only had the House
in the Senate for two years. Ultimately, when the history
books are written, he will go down as a very
accomplished president, as one of our best presidents. But if

(41:42):
people don't know, if we're not communicating, then it's almost
like we didn't do anything. And I still think that
we are struggling with figuring out how to communicate out
to the general public.

Speaker 3 (42:02):
Hi everyone, it's me Katie Couric. You know, if you've
been following me on social media, you know I love
to cook, or at least try, especially alongside some of
my favorite chefs and foodies like Benny Blanco, Jake Cohen,
Lighty Hoyke, Alison Roman, and Ininegarten. So I started a
free newsletter called Good Taste to share recipes, tips and

(42:23):
kitchen mustaves. Just sign up at Katiecuric dot com slash
good Taste that's k A T I E c o
U r ic dot com slash good Taste. I promised
your taste buds will be happy you did. Let me

(42:47):
ask you about the Democratic Party because obviously it has
gotten tons of criticism and you're saying that Democrats should
have supported Joe Biden. But I think many Americans feel
like the Democratic Party is lost, feckless, cannot get their
shit together to be just to say it, you know, real,

(43:10):
what do you think the Democratic Party needs to do
to reinvigorate itself, to have a leader, to have some
organizing principle.

Speaker 1 (43:20):
Yeah, so, first of all, I think we need to rebrand.
I don't know that we've ever invested in branding. I
can't really tell you what our brand is.

Speaker 2 (43:28):
Well, I don't know.

Speaker 3 (43:29):
It's diverse, and maybe that's part of the problem, right,
it doesn't speak with one voice. There are a lot
of different voices it is, which isn't necessarily bad.

Speaker 1 (43:38):
No, I think that it's actually one of our strengths.
But I do think that the Republicans have branded us
as weak, right that I mean when people like you say,
e feckless, right, Like, I mean, we've been branded as weak,
and I think when people are looking for leadership, you
don't ever when you go through and you say list

(43:59):
the act of a leader week is not one of
those attributes that anyone will ever list as a descriptor.

Speaker 2 (44:07):
So I think that number one, we.

Speaker 1 (44:09):
Have to brand ourselves as something other than we've been
branded as elitist and weak, and I think that we
have to be branded as strong as well as for everyone.

Speaker 3 (44:24):
You know, I hear weak, But I think it's interesting
because why is tolerance and acceptance branded is weak?

Speaker 1 (44:34):
I can't tell you why is branded is weak, but
it has been and I think I think because we
have had kind of a turn the cheek type of
attitude like we're going to always be the adults in
the room.

Speaker 2 (44:46):
And we are. We are still going to be the
adults in the room.

Speaker 1 (44:48):
But you know, when you've got people that are beating
you down and then you don't really respond, I think
that people are like, okay, like are you gonna fight
for me? You're not fighting for yourself, right, And so
I think that there are ways to do it, and
I think we're starting to get our footing. But I

(45:09):
think for the longest, we have so many institutionalists that
believe that if I just show you how the institution
is supposed to work, then Marjorie Taylor Green and others,
you will come into the fold and you'll start to
respect the institution.

Speaker 2 (45:22):
They don't care.

Speaker 1 (45:24):
Like you need to evaluate some of these kind of
new actors, including the president himself, and say like no,
like we can't play foot. See like this guy is
like punching people in the face, whether we're talking about
presidents and leaders of other countries. I mean, he's completely
disrespectful and ignores all norms, and I think we have

(45:47):
to deal with him in the way that he is.
I think that we go back to showing the world
and the country what leadership should look like, which is thoughtful,
which is compassionate, while also being very strong. When we
got the White House bag like we do it like
once we're the ones in the seats.

Speaker 2 (46:06):
But I don't think that we do it from afar.

Speaker 1 (46:08):
And I think that ultimately who will become the Democratic
nominee for president will be someone that has been out
there and has shown that they won't allow themselves to
be punched in the face and just say thank you,
like they will punch back.

Speaker 2 (46:23):
I think that that's what's going to happen.

Speaker 3 (46:25):
That's a perfect segue to your encounter. Obviously you're infamous,
famous encounter with Marjorie Taylor Green.

Speaker 2 (46:33):
Let's listen. Do you know what we're here for? You
know we're here. What you're here for? Well, you do
want talking about?

Speaker 1 (46:40):
I guess order.

Speaker 4 (46:47):
I do have a point of order, and I would
like to move to to take down miss Green's words.
That is absolutely unacceptable. How dare you, I mean, are
your feelings her words down?

Speaker 2 (47:00):
Oh? Oh girl, baby girl?

Speaker 4 (47:03):
Oh really, don't even play, baby girl. We are gonna
move and we're gonna take your words down there second motion.

Speaker 1 (47:12):
I'm just curious, just to better understand your ruling. If
someone on this committee then starts talking about somebody's bleach blonde,
bad built, butch body, that would not be engaging in personalities.

Speaker 2 (47:23):
Correct. Oh what now?

Speaker 3 (47:26):
All right, take us back to that moment, Jasmine. First
of all, how you had kind of the hutzpah to
come back at her and sort of what that whole
experience was like for you.

Speaker 2 (47:41):
Yeah, I was really annoyed. That was a bad day.

Speaker 1 (47:44):
On that day, the vast majority of the Republicans on
the Oversight Committee decided that they would venture up to
New York, so we did not have committee when we
were supposed to have committee earlier in the day. So
the Democrats were at work while the Republicans were on
a field trip to support there soon to be felonious candidate.

(48:06):
And so we had to have our hearing at eight pm,
and she was still talking about Judge Mrshawan, And that's
not what the hearing was about, whatsoever.

Speaker 2 (48:18):
The hearing was about.

Speaker 1 (48:19):
Our attorney general and whether or not he should be
held in content. And so I was like, what are
we doing? You know, like, you guys finally show up
to work and then you don't even know what you're
here for.

Speaker 2 (48:31):
And then that's when she decided to kind of insult you.

Speaker 1 (48:36):
Yeah, And so the thing is, it was a clear
violation of the rules, and Comer didn't quite understand that
he would lose a vote. So it was my understanding
he was going to rule against her if she failed
to apologize, but she was going to apologize. Then she
was like, I'm not gonna apologize, Like I'm not apologizing,
and so then Jamie Raskin was like, well, she's gonna

(48:59):
have to go because that's the rule like, once we
take down your words, then you you got to go.

Speaker 2 (49:05):
You can't rule is if you attack someone personally.

Speaker 1 (49:09):
Yeah, then you are engaging in personalities and then you
take down their words and so it's a part of
the record and then what happens is they're not allowed
to participate for the rest of that committee hearing. Well,
he was concerned about his numbers because not everyone has
showed up for this eight pm he vote, and he

(49:29):
needed her vote and so next thing, you know, they
were like, oh, he's gonna, you know, change his ruling.
I was like what And so you know, I looked
over and I was like, I cannot let this like
slad like it was so pissed because I was like,
you guys are ignored the rules. And so that's when
I looked over at her and wrote it down on
a piece of paper and from hand to toe, trust

(49:51):
her down and I asked, and I did it in
the form of a parliamentary inquiry because I did not
want to violate the rules, but I also wanted to
teach a lesson about how bad this could go.

Speaker 3 (50:03):
And so yeah, yeah, and you credit your granny, yes
for coming up with some of the bad monology.

Speaker 1 (50:12):
Yes, she used to call people bad built. See, once
they get to a certain age, they just say whatever.
And that was one of the things that she used
to do in her older age. She would look at
people and call them bad built.

Speaker 3 (50:23):
You got a lot of feedback for that exchange or
that comment or that what did you call it? Parliamentary
and it was a skit on SNL And I'm sure
you heard from a lot of people. I'm sure you
heard both positive and negative. But was it mostly positive?
It was mostly positive?

Speaker 2 (50:42):
And what were people saying to you?

Speaker 1 (50:44):
People were really happy that the bully finally got bullied,
but in a very creative, classy way that kind of
showed my mental superiority. So people were really happy, I
mean even Republicans. I was getting high fives from Republican
colleagues and winks and different people being like, I think.

Speaker 2 (51:05):
Your eyelashes are great, you know.

Speaker 1 (51:07):
Like, so there was a lot of positivity really from
both sides of the aisle, not just in the chamber
but also like outside, And you know, the one response
I didn't really expect to have was just the number
of like women of color that talked about some of
their work spaces and just the level of disrespect that

(51:29):
they get and just being able to see me stand
up for myself and Congress really made them feel like
that they could stand up for themselves as well, and
that they needed to dig into their own kind of
rules in their own organizations. But they felt like, you
know what, if a congresswoman can do this, I can
as well. Now they weren't going out calling people Bleachmond

(51:52):
that built bitch bodies, but you know, just at least
standing up for themselves and feeling confident to do it.

Speaker 3 (51:58):
But what, you know, what do you say to those
who believe this is kind of a breakdown of decorum
and civility in Congress? There's that argument, you know, the
Michelle Obama when they go low, we go high attitude.
You know, this whole idea that I'm sure you grew
up with your mom seeing this, you know, you don't

(52:19):
want to sync to their level type thing. Yeah, did
it give you any pause to say, you know what
you were talking about, these people who want to protect
the institution, or do you think that that's not at
this point in time or at this moment in history,
the way to go.

Speaker 2 (52:37):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (52:37):
I still think that, you know, I did it in
such a way that kind of walked a line of
sorts because that was not my first thought. Oh, when
I got insulted, it was to you know, throw an
insult like right back. And so I think, I think
that there are ways to do this, but I definitely

(52:59):
think that we've got to do something. So I think
that this is just kind of where we are. And
I recall when my predecessor chose me. One of the
things that she talked about, and she had been there
for thirty years, she said, Congress isn't what it used
to be. And that's saying a lot when you've been
there for thirty years. I mean, she was basically like,

(53:22):
this place is going to hell in a hand basket,
is basically what she was telling me. So I think
that we have different generations of fighters for different fights,
and I think that we will get back on track.

Speaker 2 (53:35):
I do. I think that people will get weary of.

Speaker 1 (53:37):
This, and you know, I feel like there's a little
bit of that that's already kind of sinking in. But
until we get these type of bad actors out, I
think that it needs to be clear that if y'all
want to fight, we can fight. But honestly, I just
want The only type of fighting that I want to
do is in the form of legislation that will better

(53:57):
the lives of my constituents in front, better the labs
of the vast majority of theirs as well.

Speaker 3 (54:03):
Do you find other Democrats are more willing to take
the gloves off now than they used to be?

Speaker 1 (54:10):
I think those of us that haven't been in institutions
too long are more willing and more apt.

Speaker 3 (54:18):
Yeah, I want to talk to you about some of
the things that are going on in this country, Jasmine,
before you go, what do you think about what has
happened in la and calling up the National Guard, the
Marines and basically saying this could happen in every state
in our country.

Speaker 2 (54:38):
I truly have no words.

Speaker 1 (54:42):
You know, you grow up as a little girl in
this country and you think, man, this is a great
place to live and it's only going to get better,
and then you become the adult version of me, and
you have a president that is openly just a criminal,

(55:02):
like not just the convictions he's got, consistently breaking laws,
ignoring court orders, violating the Constitution, and doing it all
because he really is seeking this retribution, this retribution that
he campaigned on.

Speaker 2 (55:16):
He said, I will be your retribution.

Speaker 1 (55:19):
And so this idea that we don't care how many
people get hurt, we don't care how we prostitute our
service members, you know, thinking that you have your own
special little army that's for you. I mean, it is
just it is sick. It is really sick, and anybody
that supports it is also sick. And so you know,

(55:42):
we've got a mental health crisis in this country because everyone,
no matter how you affiliate yourself, should be against Trump.

Speaker 2 (55:51):
Period.

Speaker 1 (55:51):
This is not partisan for me, Like I would give
anything to have sad to say, George Bush, I like,
give me any regular repat Republican nowadays and I would
be happy. But right now we have someone who does
not care, and he is being enabled by the fact
that there are you know, people that follow him and

(56:16):
they pump him up as well as the people that
are surrounding him. And so, you know, my heart breaks
for service members. People that signed up to protect democracy
and freedom not only here but abroad, and we're willing
to risk their lives and now literally the very thing

(56:39):
that they signed up to fight against is now their
commander in chief. It really breaks my heart and I
don't know how far he has to go before we
can come together and just say enough is enough, like
this should not be partisanship. The final point that I'll

(56:59):
make is that Tribeca just ended and they did a
screening of a documentary that I'm in and Scott the Inquisitor,
and it's about Barbara Jordan, and you know.

Speaker 2 (57:17):
It's amazing.

Speaker 1 (57:18):
It is an amazing, amazing documentary. But to watch her
in the age of Nixon, and to see and hear
about her thought process about Nixon, and to know that
there were members of his party they were like, no, right,
Like it wasn't partisanship. It was right versus wrong. It's

(57:42):
the things that they teach you when you're in elementary school,
and somehow we don't have that right now. Behind closed doors,
Republicans will say, you know, I remember them telling me
how much they hated Elon, but they would not do
that out front. They wanted us to take Elon down right,
and they will even say things about Trump.

Speaker 2 (58:00):
They won't do what's right.

Speaker 1 (58:01):
They won't honor their oath, the oath that they swore
to the Constitution.

Speaker 2 (58:04):
Why not.

Speaker 1 (58:07):
I have no idea other than their cowards bottom line
on their cowards, anyone that potentially would do right, They
would rather preserve their opportunity to still be associated with
the Republican Party and not be ostracized and not be
targeted by MAGA and just resign. You know, we've got
a new resignation that was just announced here just about

(58:29):
two weeks ago.

Speaker 2 (58:31):
I think he's charing Homeland.

Speaker 1 (58:33):
He's only been in Congress since eighteen and he's like,
I'm out. But instead of just doing what's right because
you disagree with what's happening, he's like, I'll leave.

Speaker 2 (58:43):
We had a number of retirements.

Speaker 1 (58:45):
Unfortunately, like the ones that you see retire on the
Republican side are people that probably are like I just
can't be a.

Speaker 3 (58:51):
Part of this, instead of just say why yeah, how
do you see this whole chapter in American history coming
to a close? Are you positive that sanity and adherence
to the Constitution will prevail or do you worry what's

(59:13):
down the road if we continue on this path.

Speaker 1 (59:17):
There are no absolutes, and we know that democracy and
freedom have to be one and fought four and one
in every generation. This is our generational fight. I can
tell you that I was elated to see the outpouring
of people for no kings versus the lack of attendance

(59:38):
for you know, the birthday parade. But you know, right
now we have a party that is held bent on
rigging the system. Right now, the President has called down
to my governor and wants him to find a way
to do mid He wants to do redistricting right now,
and it is so that mid decade, sorry mid decade

(01:00:02):
redistricting so that he can get five additional seats out
of Texas. We have thirty eight seats in Texas, only
thirteen belong to Democrats.

Speaker 2 (01:00:10):
The numbers are already.

Speaker 1 (01:00:12):
Completely skewed, and they want to cheat to get five
more seats.

Speaker 2 (01:00:16):
We know that the.

Speaker 1 (01:00:16):
Democrats should have been in control of the House but
for the Republican controlled newly Republican controlled Supreme Court in
North Carolina deciding to redistrict again once they got control
in taking three seats.

Speaker 2 (01:00:32):
So they are held bent on power no matter what.
And you know, I don't know that.

Speaker 1 (01:00:39):
The American people fully understand that, but I say that
the most patriotic thing that anybody can do, regardless of
your political affiliation, is to vote for whoever is not
the Republican in every single ballot for the next at
least three, four or five ballots, to at least restore
some sense of calm, to at least make Republicans nervous

(01:01:00):
that the people are not going to stand for this
and just blindly vote for the person that has r
Because you may want to put all the blame on Trump,
but the reality is that he's got a lot of
co conspirators and accomplices that have allowed him to do this.

Speaker 3 (01:01:16):
I can't let you go without asking you about the
events of this weekend. The same weekend the No Kings protests,
I guess they're saying thirteen million Americans turned out all
over the country, and that very same weekend, State Representative
Melissa Hortman was murdered in her home along with her

(01:01:37):
husband and two others obviously critically wounded. These are really
scary times for elected officials. Jasmine, and I'm curious how
you're feeling about if you're personally nervous, and how the rhetoric,

(01:01:58):
the violent rhetoric, can be toned down.

Speaker 1 (01:02:03):
You know, I'm not nervous. You know, I tell people
all the time, God has not given me a spirit
of fear. I am of the opinion stay ready so
you don't have to get ready. The number of death
threats that I get are a little bit higher than average,
so we have consistently had to figure out our safety.

(01:02:25):
I think I'm more frustrated than anything. I'm frustrated that,
you know, I have colleagues that will engage in certain
rhetoric and then come and high five to you and
talk to you and you know things, and it's like, dude,
like we should be shutting down some of this stuff, right.
You know the fact that on that day, Marjorie Taylor
Green had the audacity to you know, post a picture

(01:02:46):
of her with this, you know, ridiculously Siah's gun and
that kind of stuff, Like that's just ridiculous, exactly, like
all of that, Like this isn't a game, Like you
had people that died. And maybe it's funny to you
because they're Democrats, but honestly, again, you talk about being
a patriot or an American, like you should not be

(01:03:08):
okay with this.

Speaker 2 (01:03:09):
You should not be okay with lawlessness. You should not.

Speaker 1 (01:03:11):
Be okay with you know, encouraging killers or potentially inciting
other killers because they know that you'll give them a
pat on the back, like you should not be engaging
in that at the same time that you're pretending as
if all the crime in our country is caused by immigrants,
immigrants that have come over and somehow you're having to
go to their jobs to grab them up and round

(01:03:33):
them up and throw them who knows where, But they
are the ones that are causing the crime. Like the
hypocrisy is astounding, but also the heartlessness, whether it is
in their rhetoric or whether it's in their bills, the
fact that they go around and they say that they're
Christians and there is nothing Christian or loving or compassionate

(01:03:54):
or merciful about anything that they do. And so for me,
I just want the American people to wake up. If
you really, like I tell people all the time, if
you want Jesus go to church. You really shouldn't look
for us in your politics. But if you are, don't
listen to just somebody saying or proclaiming that they're a Christian.

(01:04:16):
Like I don't care who you are, you should not
be okay with you know, Mike Lee posting it. I
mean just it's absolutely astounding. And I remember I messaged
a Republican that I consider to be a friend. Can't
say his name because then he'll lose all of his
you know, Republican bouta fides. But I text him, I say, yo,

(01:04:38):
get your people in line, Like we are not protected.
You know, the only people that can afford to be
protected are people that raise enough money to actually pay
for security, because they don't do anything to protect us,
like at all. I have been asking for a while
put extra money into our MRA, which is a our

(01:05:00):
official account, our budget, so that we can have protection,
like they don't give us capital police officers, Like you
have to be a high ranking Democrat regardless of your threats,
you just have to be like in a certain or
Democrat or a Republican to end up getting a team.

Speaker 2 (01:05:19):
That's it.

Speaker 3 (01:05:19):
They're the only You have to have a certain amount
of money. You're saying, basically you can pay for it.

Speaker 2 (01:05:24):
Well no, no, no, no, they supply it. So if you
are like the minority leader, so you have to be
at a certain level, yes.

Speaker 1 (01:05:31):
You have to be at a certain level, or you
have to pay for your own out of your campaign funds.
And I think that that's unfair because it's like I'm
just trying to serve people, like and when I go
out to campaign, like, I want to make sure that
I'm giving people the information about why am my candidacy matters?
Not having to look out for my security because my

(01:05:52):
job is a security risk, like you should just like
they are protecting the thug that's in the White House,
Like we could get one person, you know what I mean, Like,
just like he could have forty five million dollars to
have this stupid parade, forty five million dollars going across
four hundred and thirty five members of the House. You

(01:06:13):
could have gave us that money to protect us. It
would be I mean literally, that would have been more
than enough. There's so many things that could have been
more worthwhile. And this is after, you know, Steve Scalise
is still serving, but this is after he literally was
shot in the congressional baseball game. Like, I mean, how
many members have to die or how many.

Speaker 2 (01:06:36):
Political figures have to be targeted?

Speaker 1 (01:06:38):
We put in more money for the protection detail of
Donald Trump after those attempts in a bipartisan way, because
it was the right thing to do. So I'm just like,
I don't understand why we're not making movement, and so
you know, I'm gonna continue to beat the drum, but
I think I'm probably gonna beat it more publicly now

(01:06:59):
because I have been trying to go through the process
of saying, yo, we need more protection.

Speaker 2 (01:07:06):
And it's fallen on deafairs.

Speaker 3 (01:07:09):
Are you optimistic this whole thing is going to end
in a positive way ultimately? Do you think democracy will prevail?

Speaker 2 (01:07:22):
That's my hope. All I got is hope right now.
I don't have anything beyond that. You're still excited about
public service.

Speaker 1 (01:07:37):
I'm excited about the people that I have an opportunity
to serve. I don't know about the mechanics of service itself,
but definitely very excited to go home or even just
travel the country and know that people are having their
faith restored in politicians.

Speaker 3 (01:07:57):
Jasmine Crockett, thank you so much. This was so great
to be able to get to know you and talk
to you about these issues. Of course I have a
million more questions, but you've got people to see in
places to go, so.

Speaker 2 (01:08:09):
Yes, I do. Thanks so great, Thank you so much.

Speaker 3 (01:08:17):
Thanks for listening everyone. If you have a question for me,
a subject you want us to cover, or you want
to share your thoughts about how you navigate this crazy world,
reach out send me a DM on Instagram. I would
love to hear from you. Next Question is a production
of iHeartMedia and Katie Kuric Media. The executive producers are Me,

(01:08:38):
Katie Kuric, and Courtney Ltz. Our supervising producer is Ryan Martz,
and our producers are Adriana Fazzio and Meredith Barnes. Julian
Weller composed our theme music. For more information about today's episode,
or to sign up for my newsletter, wake Up Call,
go to the description in the podcast app, or visit

(01:08:59):
us at Katiecuric dot com. You can also find me
on Instagram and all my social media channels. For more
podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Hi everyone, it's Katiekuric.
You know I'm always on the go between running my

(01:09:20):
media company, hosting my podcast, and of course covering the news.
And I know that to keep doing what I love,
I need to start caring for what gets me there,
my feet. That's why I decided to try the Good
Feet Stores personalized arch support system. I met with a
Good Feet Arch support specialist and after a personalized fitting,

(01:09:43):
I left the store with my three step system designed
to improve comfort, balance and support. My feet, knees, and
back are thanking me already. Visit goodfeet dot com to
learn more, find the nearest store, or book your own
free personalized fitting.