October 29, 2025 • 62 mins
Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett isn’t pulling punches — especially now, as she fights a Texas redistricting plan that could erase her district and reshape democracy itself. The former civil-rights attorney opens up about the toll of being targeted, the fuel behind her fearlessness, and why she refuses to “play nice” when people’s rights are on the line. Find out what it really takes to keep showing up when the system keeps moving the goalposts... and what just might make Jasmine leave politics for good.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, everyone, It's Sophia. Welcome to Work in Progress. Hey,
whip smarties. Today we have one of my very favorite
women on the pod. Not because she's an incredible congresswoman,
(00:22):
not because she is an accomplished civil rights attorney who
defends our very ideals, not because she happens to be
one of the most whip smart people I've ever been
in a room with, and not because she's also one
of the coolest people on the House floor. It's really
for all of these things. Today we are joined by
none other than Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett. She didn't come to
(00:44):
Washington to play nice. She came to defend a true
and more gorgeous America. And right now she is standing
at the center of one of the most consequential fights,
not only in Texas but across the nation over redistricting,
access to the ballot, voting rights, and with communities of
color will be silenced or heard. As many of you know,
(01:04):
this year, Texas Republicans drew a new congressional map that
is designed to add five gup seats, which has forced
Democrats to sue in court because they're drawing this in
ways that would reduce the voting power of some Americans
to one fifth a full vote. If that sounds like
an eerie ghost of history past that we should be
(01:25):
ashamed of. It is, and Jasmine Crockett is not going
to take this one laying down. She's here to talk
about local politics, national politics, what's going on with the
government shut down, what on earth is happening with the
Epstein files, and why Speaker Johnson frankly keeps lying to us.
She is here to defend a democracy under siege, and
(01:45):
she does it with style. Let's dive in with Jasmin
crockettar my lighthouse, beacon, north star human being that reminds
me that we can speak truth to power. It feels
(02:09):
like a weird thing to ask you how you are
when twenty twenty five is twenty twenty fiving so hard
in more the project way than just the calendar year.
But how are you?
Speaker 2 (02:20):
I mean, you know what?
Speaker 3 (02:22):
I really am not going to complain. There is a
lot that I could say. But every day that I
wake up and I think about how pissed off I am,
I also think about how fortunate I am that in
this moment, unlike so many others that are sitting at home,
(02:43):
and filling the same level of frustration, if not a
higher level of frustration. I at least have a seat
at the table. And so I am not really afforded
an opportunity to kind of sit around and say, oh,
pity me. I look at this as an opportunity. I
look at as an opportunity to give people hope. I
(03:05):
look at it as an opportunity to take down the
bad guys. And when I say take down, it's the
traditional takedown. Right. So I am looking forward to the
midterms and I am trying to help other candidates right
now because I do believe we should have some oversight.
I do believe that the American people deserve real answers.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
I do believe that it is.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Our time to shine a light on all the darkness
that has come forward. And the reality is that not
everyone is in a position to do it. So as
much as sometimes I wake up and I'm ready to
bang my head against the wall, I then have that
moment of reflection and I'm so incredibly grateful to be
(03:51):
here in this moment and have the opportunities that I have.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
I really love that. That's beautiful. It's interesting, you know,
when I when I think about all the ways that
I get the privilege. Like you said, you have the
privilege of a seat at the table. I have the
privilege of being in some of the rooms sometimes where
your seats are. And I think about the years I've
been able to, you know, follow your work on the
(04:17):
hill and also now over the last I don't know
year in change, call you a friend, you know, see
you out and about in the world, whether we're at
a political rally or occasionally getting to have a very
overdue meal. I think about who you are as someone
who takes that sacred rage that I think anyone who
(04:38):
really believes in community or the constitution feels fired up
right now. And you do so from your seat, as
you mentioned, you do so from your expertise. You know,
you were a public defender, you became a civil rights attorney.
You are one of the people I look to in
leadership as being the most well versed in what America
(04:59):
is and is supposed to to be versus how she
behaves sometimes and I wonder I always ask everyone who
comes on the show this question, but I really am
excited to ask you, like if we got to, you know,
be in a great robin Williams movie, and something happened
and suddenly we were on the playground with eight year
old Jasmine, Like, would you see would you see traits
(05:24):
in your young self in that little girl that you
carry with you today? You know, was she out there
like standing up to playground bullies? What was her vibe?
What was your vibe as a young woman.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
Yeah, it's so funny because I legitimately have some friends
that I've had since elementary and many of them are like,
no surprise, we knew it, We always saw it, right.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
So I was always a smart girl. You know.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
I was always kind of testing at the top of
whatever tests we had going on, and I was always
like deeply caring. So yeah, if there was a bullety situation,
I probably would have been the one that stood up,
did not really have to run into it, thank goodness
(06:19):
on my behalf for anybody else's. But I also had
a little bit of sass that may not have been
appropriate during that time. So it's interesting because I only
recently started sharing this story about when I was in
the third grade because people are like, oh, you know,
Jasmine is all cosplay, or you know, they come up
(06:40):
with all these random things and I'm like, honestly, honey,
I've been the same.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
My entire life.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
You can go and find from me testing at the
top with all the standardized tests from elementary on to
me ended up getting a scholarship to the private school
that they loved to talk about because because of my
academic achievements to me being at the top ten percent
of my class after my first year.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
In law school.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
So I've always done really really well with the studies.
I've always had a bit of bite. So in the
third grade, I got in trouble, which I guess is
somewhere around the age eight, maybe a little bit older.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
I got in trouble for cursing out my art teacher.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
So you know, listen, I mean, and you know, I
want the kids to know you can still be successful.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
I mean, things happened, but like I was, I was.
I was a bit of a smarty and I didn't
get in trouble very much.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
It was literally like what you see now where I
am good, I am smart, I'm my own business.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
But that teacher decided to try me, and so that's
what it was.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
And you know, I got into trouble, but you know,
also the teacher didn't bother me anymore.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
So I am pretty much the same.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
I probably was a little bit more outgoing back then
right now because of just kind of the environment and
how many people know me. Like I was always like
the popular girl, like everyone knew me, that kind of stuff.
But like it was different because as a kid, you're
not worried about much of anything, so you're just like
hanging out, You're talking to everybody, and it's, you know,
(08:28):
a different world. And now it's like, you know, I
feel it's crazy. I've never told anyone this, but because
of the level of death threats that I get when
I'm out in public and people approach me, if they
walk up to me too fast, it makes me very
nervous because I don't know if you're walking up out
(08:51):
of excitement because you really like me, or you're walking
up because you feel as if you hate somebody who
you've never met. And so well, sometimes I can kind of,
you know, seem probably a little bit stand off fish
because usually there's security or staff around me that is
trying to kind of understand like what you're trying to do.
(09:15):
So obviously that has changed totally, and I wish I
could go back to being the care free little girl
that I was that knew no hate and only knew love.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
But unfortunately that's just kind of a part of growing up.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Yeah, I think it's also it's a real symptom of
a sick society. And while I am a great fan
of the promise of this country and the ideals that
it was founded on, I think, much like you and
many of the people we get to work alongside, I'm
(09:54):
never going to pretend like America has been perfect at
aiming for those ideals. And I think it's very it's
a very strong signifier of a sick society when intelligent
women or women who stand for the political power of
the masses or the working class are consistently targeted. And
(10:15):
I don't deal with it in the way that you do.
But let me tell you what I do deal with
as an outspoken you know, volunteer for Democracy has changed
my movements in public. It's changed my constitution in a way.
I gave a talk last week at World Mental Health
Day and we were talking about activism, and I said,
(10:36):
you know, we can do all these things online. We're
going to run this letter writing campaign. We're going to
overwhelm the system with paper mail, and I cracked a
joke like I'm going to I'm gonna smooch every letter.
I just need to find a lipstick called kiss of death.
And then I was like, that's a joke, to be clear,
Like I don't need Breitbart to write another article that
is going to result in like ten thousand more death
threats for me. And I'm just like an actor who
(10:59):
talks about this stuff because I'm also a trained journalist.
You are an elected official who really really stands up
against very dangerous authoritarian levers of power. And you're a woman,
and you're a black woman, so they really don't like you.
They don't like anything about the amount of power you've amassed.
(11:20):
But what's amazing to me as a you know, a
fan and a friend whatever that combo word looks like,
I'm like, am I a friend? Is that what I am?
That's kind of cute. You know, you come at this,
you come at this work as I mentioned earlier, from
your early career as a public defender, as a civil
rights attorney, Like you know what the law of the
(11:41):
land is, and you know the ways that certain ill
motivated rules or systems or laws or policies have been
implemented over and over again as people who have not
been given top power have a massed power. So whether
(12:02):
that's women, whether that's communities of color, whether that's Black Americans,
Like we see the gains made, you know, LGBTQ folks, anybody,
we see the games made, see incredible pushback. But you know,
you know what is on page sixty seven and clause
(12:23):
three C of every bill. So how does how does
your expertise and also your early career work before you
ran for office, how does that all come together for you?
Speaker 2 (12:36):
So this is such a great question.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
It's it's one of those things that I try to
encourage our caucus to think about, right because typically people
are upset with our communication or lack thereof our styles
or our messaging and whatnot. People definitely have a long
list of issues. It's usually not the substance. I will
(13:02):
say that, it's usually not the substance of what it
is that we are trying to push forward with. It's
just a matter of who all can understand what it
is that we're talking about. And sometimes it can feel
like we're just talking to one another instead of talking
to the people that we serve, and you know, there
are those that are confused, like, well, why does she
(13:22):
sound this way over here? And why does she sound
that way over there, and that kind of stuff, as
if I can't be a multifaceted person, and you know,
as a trained litigator, I would be doing a disservice
to the people that were entrusting me sometimes to literally
save their lives if I wasn't able to understand my audience.
(13:45):
So as a business major undergrad who worked in marketing,
as I was working my way through law school, the
emphasis on my business major was financed though, Like one
of the things that they always taught you in marketing
was first determine your audience. So when I would walk
into a courtroom, I would walk in and deal with
(14:07):
a bunch of strangers and we would have to pick
a jury, and I'd have to trust that these people
are going to listen to the law and just follow
the law. I would have to deal with the biases
and do my best to kind of delete as many
of the biases as possible while understanding that people are
people and they're human and there's just certain things that
(14:27):
they don't want to tell you.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
But have I walked into.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
A courtroom in Arkansas before and had multiple people admit that.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
They were racist.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
I have because I've been able to make people feel
comfortable enough to just be honest with me, and it
wasn't so much about me as it was the system.
And I would explain to them why the system mattered
and why it was important that no matter who came
through that system, you may not be the one coming
(14:59):
through right now, love when maybe coming through or having
gone through, and you would want this system to work
for everyone, and that's why we So I would explain
the why right and I would get people to admit
things that you would never ever think they would admit.
And then, of course I always knew that there were
people that just wouldn't tell me certain stuff, but I
(15:20):
also knew that it was important to build a rapport,
and building a report didn't look like me using every
form of legally as I could find, because I'm talking
to a group of people that come from all different backgrounds.
The only thing for sure that they shared in comment
is that they were number one citizens and number two
they lived within whatever jurisdiction it was that I was
trying this case in and that's it. Like you didn't
(15:43):
know anything, but you needed to trust these people. But
they knew I was a lawyer when they got in
there because I was standing there. I was presented as
the attorney for the client, and ultimately, when I went
in front of the judge and I would make arguments
to the judge on behalf of my client as it
relates to various legal arguments or motions that we were arguing,
I obviously would use the terminology that mattered for whatever
(16:08):
it was that I was arguing, because the credibility needed
to be there with the judge for the judge to say, oh, yeah,
she knows what she's talking about because she referenced the
right thing. So I've never put that much stock really
into my education to the extent that I tell people
all the time, I went to law school because that
(16:28):
was the only way that I could do the job
that I wanted to do. If I wanted to be
a plumber, then I wouldn't have gone to college at all. Right,
But that's not the job that I wanted to do.
And so I've always been a big supporter in the
trades and everything because I've never been kind of this
educational elitist. I went into law because it was a
(16:51):
way again to help people and to protect people after
I myself had become the victim of a series of
hate crimes and they brought in Cochran Firm to actually
try to investigate and help us out. And so it
was a feeling that I ended up feeling at that
moment that made me say, oh God, I don't want
(17:11):
anybody else to feel like this, and like these are
real superheroes.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Like that was the only reason I went to law school.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
But with that being said, my training as an attorney
number one taught me how to read the law. So
therefore we're talking about I now have a job where
we write the laws.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
So I'm very clear on how the law.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
Reads and where there may be issues with the interpretation,
because it was my job to interpret the laws the
legislators wrote all the time. In addition to that, I
always understood my audience and who I was communicating to.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
I have dealt with hostile witnesses.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
I know how to pivot in that moment, which also
makes me a little bit.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
Successful when it comes to committee hearings as well.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
Yeah, and now for our sponsors, it's really interesting, you
know when you say that when you talk about hostile witnesses,
and I think about all of the you know, the
hearings that I watch, you guys holding in government, and
just the blatant lying coming from the folks at the top,
(18:22):
and it makes me think a lot about the way
that in the previous administration, you know, the our side,
the left, progressive folks, you know, folks who just want
billionaires to pay as much in taxes as the rest
of us, would be accused of things that were simply untrue.
And now we know that there are things happening because
(18:44):
they printed them in a nine hundred and twenty five
page manual, and they're talking about it on camera, you know,
in back rooms, and then when they come and have
to testify, they say, oh, no, that's not true. Why
do you think there's such a double standard for the
requirements of truth telling and decorum.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
I think that when it comes to the left, we're
just a lot more forgiving. And so, you know, and
as well as as people you know, like to talk
about the left being elitist, and I don't I don't believe.
I don't buy into the fact they we're elitist. I
just know that you know, they are able to get
(19:27):
away with a lot of things because they take advantage
of what people don't know.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
Right.
Speaker 3 (19:33):
So, for instance, the people that are out there and
are screaming for yes, no due process for people that
aren't citizens, like that's constitutional, Like what are you saying, Like,
I mean, what are we doing right for?
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Right?
Speaker 3 (19:49):
Citizenship is like yes, take away burf Right citizenship is
like guys.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
How do you think you're a citizen? Sir?
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (19:55):
Yeah, and so it so it is this thing I
think for a lot of times the left where they'll say,
you know what, people will see that this is just idiotic,
or people will see that like.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
I mean, think about how we were when Hillary lost.
We were indignant. It was like there's no way Donald
Trump could beat Hillary. It's like have you seen her resume? Right?
Like it was one of those shocks to the conscience.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
And so then people argue that we're disconnected and that
kind of stuff. But it's like when it comes down
to them doing certain things, I think to a certain extent,
we shrug it off and we imagine and we believe
that people are going to see how it is not
meeting the measure of what an elected should be. But
(20:48):
I think that we at this point in time need
to be pointing that out. I don't think we can
take it for granted what people know or what people expect,
because it's been made clear that.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
We've been wrong. That's just the bottom line.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
And I think, you know, even when we think about FAFO,
it's like whatever, like FAFO, and it's like, actually, we're
all in this boat together, and maybe we need to
talk this through so that we don't end up here again.
And I think that's why we ended up suffering and
ended up with him again, is because we felt like
(21:24):
liberated when Joe Biden was he like that, it was like, yes,
finally see we told you he was awful, right Like,
it was like great, now we can move on with life.
And we had this attitude of, well, people will just
know that, like that's not what to do, instead of
us actually digging in and working and making sure that
we're constantly staying in this fight and in this thing.
(21:48):
So a little bit of it is a little bit
of an attitude of clearly, people see what we see right.
The other part of it, though, is just that we're
not believed. It is why you don't see us going
after any specific group of people. That is why I
would put money on it that you will not find
(22:11):
a group chat of young Democrats going off and calling
black folk everything but a child of God going off
and talking about Hitler going off and talking about raping people.
You know, you are hard pressed, like I would be shocked.
But when the young Republican chat was leaked, the fact
(22:34):
that it was leaked sound about right number one.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Number two, The fact that.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
They ultimately said that this happened, it didn't surprise me.
It didn't suppress me at all. And the fact that
the Vice President decided not to denounce it did not surprise.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Me at all either.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
And I don't think the President, at least at the
time of this recording, has said a thing about it.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
And imagine if that was the Democrats, they would be gone,
they would be out, Oh.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
They would be impeached, hearings, it would be bad.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
It would be all kinds of things right, and it
would be attributed to the entire party. And here's the
deal I will and I am going to attribute with
those young Republicans did to the entire party because they
have facilitated an environment of hate and white supremacy, and
they consistently fail to denounce it because that is a
(23:28):
large part of their base. Like, they actually would probably
have a lot more Black Republicans if the Republican Party
wasn't racist, because so many black folk are so entrenched
with church, like it is synonymous with who they are
and the very kind of conservative beliefs that black folk
(23:49):
tend to have when it comes to church. But the
one thing you can't change is Jaicola. You can't change
how you were born. So there's no way that you know,
most black people, they recognize that when they wake up
they are black, are like, oh yeah, I'm gonna go
hang out with the racist I'm gonna go hang out
with the people that I know are just going to
use my vote to continue to push forward with the
(24:12):
white supremacy agenda. It is the one thing that in
committee they never ever want to address. It is why
you have the President back then saying proud boys, stand
back and stand by. It is why we had to
deal with the President saying there's good people on both
sides when it came to Charlottesville. It is why we
barely could hear anything as relates to the black folk
(24:35):
that were killed in Buffalo New York out of him
or the black people, like, we never hear from him
when there's this travesty that is being perpetrated on people
of color or on the LGBTQI A community, because we
know we've had the nightclubs, whether it was Vegas shooting
or whether we're talking about down in Florida with poth like,
(24:58):
we've had all these situations, and the only time it
seemed like the president really had anything to say was
when it came.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
Down to Charlie Kirk. Yeah, don't seem like I mean
he was.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
He'd been on mute for almost any and every other thing,
and that's not what a president of the United States
should be doing. He has not been a united whatsoever.
He's been nothing more than a divider.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
No, they're incredible dividers. And I think what was so
frustrating to me, you know, when you talk about the
communities he attacks. He immediately attacked the LGBTQ community after
Charlie Kirk's murder.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
And the black community, and then in the black community.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
They went to the HBCUs uh huh the very next day, Yeah,
death threats at all the HBCUs. And then we find
out the kid grew up in a very mag of family,
and everything went quiet. There's been no autopsy, there's been
no reporting, there's been no ballistics confirmed, there's been no nothing.
But they did use his death as a white power rally,
(25:57):
and Stephen Miller literally stood up there quoting Joseph Goebbels,
while Donald Trump and JD. Vance have the nerve to say, well,
if the left wasn't calling everyone a Nazi, if you
don't want to be called a Nazi, stop quoting Nazis,
stop quoting them, stop literally quoting Joseph Goebbels and Adolf Hitler,
(26:17):
and stop disappearing people into concentration camps. You can't tell us.
It's like someone saying to you, you're not allowed to
say the sky is blue, but it is. And meanwhile,
this is happening at a time where the Orwellian don't
trust your eyes, don't trust your ears. What we're doing
(26:39):
right in front of your face, we're not really doing.
We see this power grab, you know, they see how
their numbers are plummeting. But what's really alarming to me
now is watching they're attempting to gut the Voting Rights Act. Well,
what's left of it, they've already gott it a lot
of it, And the fact that they are trying to
redistrict so many states, include your own, to establish a
(27:02):
permanent Republican victory in our country regardless of the will
of the voters, including my friend in your district. These
maps that they're proposing literally would erase your seat, the
seat you won, the seat you were elected to serve
in by the people in Texas. What the hell are.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
We gonna do?
Speaker 1 (27:29):
You know, you're in You're in the halls. So yes,
we can write the letters, and yes we can call
the reps, and yes we can show up on No
King's Day, and yes we can do these things. But
what else do you believe is the most decisive action
the citizenry can take to push back against the literal
theft of democracy? Because if we can't vote for our leaders,
(27:53):
then we don't have anything. Then we do have kings?
So like, what don't what don't we know that? You know?
Because I'm clearly very anxious that I know my listeners
are too listen.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
I don't know much I'm gonna tell you that, but
I will tell you that they want you to feel
helpless and hopeless and that's the last thing that I
want anyone to feel.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
That is when they win.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
We have to recognize that it is our power that
makes them fearful.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
That is exactly why they are doing everything that they
can to rig the system.
Speaker 3 (28:24):
But like this does present an opportunity to build back better,
to build something that actually does with this country espouses
to do, which is to be the land of free
and land of opportunity and land of immigrants for all. Right,
Like that is what we have the ability to do that.
We have the ability to be a true democracy where
everyone's voice is counted.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
Right, we have the ability to do that.
Speaker 3 (28:48):
Once they break everything, we can fix it and make
it better. Now, is it going to come back together
better as quickly as it took to break it? Now,
so we will need people to do something that they
normally or not good at. Be patient, right, but like
give us a chance and know that at a very minimum,
we are not trying to tear anything down, but we
are trying to build it up.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
We are trying to fortify it so that we don't
end up with another.
Speaker 3 (29:12):
Autocrat that decides that they are going to exploit every
loophole that relies on the American people being able to
choose a leader that really believes in who we are. Instead,
we have a crooked crook that is acting as if
he is a gangster and a thug right who is
(29:36):
robbing us blind in broad daylight, taking our dollars and
sending them to everything that doesn't help us, whether it
is you know, making Argentina great again by taking our
dollars and sending it there while we are experiencing record
bankruptcy filings by our farmers and basically saying, oh, we
(29:58):
will boost the the profitability of the farmers in Argentina,
while there's been zero out of almost thirteen billion dollars
from soybeans specifically that had historically come from China as
a purchaser of our soybeans.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
Right, they're missing those dollars. And I know we're.
Speaker 3 (30:20):
Talking about the soybean farmers a lot because the whole
Argentina thing, but all of our farmers are struggling. And
what people don't understand is that I used to serve
on the AD Committee and we used to say things
like that it's a matter of national security, and it is.
You know, I've had an opportunity to travel around the
world as a member of Congress, and we've talked about
(30:43):
how it looks when say you've got to rely on
somebody else to feed your people. That ain't something that
you want. We need our farmers to survive for a
bunch of different reasons, but one of them is literally
a matter of national security. We can not allow ourselves
to be dependent upon other people to feed us, because
(31:05):
when you end up, say in some tiff, they can
just decide we're not going to seale team anymore. We
will go and diversify and sell somewhere else and starve us.
And yes, this has happened. There is a story I
sat down and spoke with in a mirror, and the
United States actually helped them out.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
It's a whole thing. But people don't typically think of
food in that way, but we really need to.
Speaker 3 (31:31):
So while people may be upset with farmers, because for
the most part, we can say the average farmer voted
for Trump, So you can be upset, But what I
tell people all the time is that I need you
to survive. That needs to be the refrain that we
hear in our voices every time we're looking at somebody
and believing that they're the opposite of who we are.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
We need each other to survive.
Speaker 3 (31:54):
I mean I need the farmer farming because no matter
where you live, we all got to eat, right. So
I say all that to say that if we don't
start to pull together, whether it is over. You know,
the farming issues are even just kind of.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
The capitulation that we've.
Speaker 3 (32:17):
Seen around the tariffs and the Republicans right, they know
that their policies are not policies that serve the masses.
That is why they want to distract and divide. So
long as they can keep us divided, then we can't
pay attention to all of the corruption and robbing that
(32:38):
is taking place. And so it is important that we
say listen, we may not agree on ninety percent of
the things that we have to talk about, but the
ten percent those are foundational things. We all need to
eat and hopefully let it be healthy. Now that we
have this crazy HHS secretary. We all need to have
(33:01):
jobs and gainful employment. As our jobs numbers are tanking.
We all need an overall strong economy, one where costs
are not going through the roof which we're experiencing that
because of the tariffs.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
These sort of like foundational things.
Speaker 3 (33:18):
Housing, food, education, jobs, Like this is foundational stuff and
I don't really care where you fall on the political spectrum,
Like that is the foundation that is that ten percent.
We can disagree about LGBTQIA. Hell, I will let you
disagree on diversity, equity and inclusion, like I will let
you whatever, right, but like right now we don't have
(33:42):
our foundational things together. As people are saying that their
healthcare bill is going from two hundred dollars a month
to six hundred dollars or eight hundred dollars or whatever
it is that is going to we're now fighting for
a bare minimum by saying, hey, at least if they
are receiving their healthcare on the marketplace, you know, we
(34:05):
don't want the tax subsidies to expire as they are
supposed to expire in December.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
No, they don't care. So a double whammy.
Speaker 3 (34:15):
And I say double whamy because the price have already
gone up and now you're saying take away the subsidies.
But it's even more than that because we know that
the jobless numbers are going up as well. We also
know that costs are going up. We know that wages
are not like it's not even just a double whammy.
It's like quadruple like, I don't know, it's a bunch
of waiting.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
Not sustainable, and it's certainly not sustainable in a country
where the average American is one unexpected four hundred dollars
bill away from bankruptcy. Yeah, and now a word from
our sponsors that I really enjoy and I think you
will too. You know, It's it's interesting for me watching
(34:57):
a lot of people because I talk a lot about
the fact that billionaires just aren't paying their fair share,
and if they did, the country be in a different place.
I get a lot of and I'm sure you do too. Oh,
you must just be jealous that you're not a billionaire.
I'm like, bro, we are all so much closer God
forbid to being a houseless tomorrow than to ever in
our lifetime or the next five lifetimes being a billionaire. Like,
(35:20):
and it really makes me think about what you were saying.
The core of what we're supposed to be has to
be agreed upon. But I think what the Republicans are
very good at doing is making us argue about disagreements
about things like you mentioned, whether it's LGBTQ rights, whether
it's a DEI, whether it's I don't know the fact
that women are people and we should have autonomy over
(35:42):
our bodies, crazy idea. I know you know all of
these things. And it's not lost on me that the
party that fought so hard to pass a bill to
harm Americans to help people who don't need it, like
you know, the two hundred and eighteen or however many
there are billions in this country don't need another jet,
(36:03):
but all Americans need to be able to put food
on the table. It's not lost on me that they
forced that vote through and told people they couldn't leave DC,
and now they've shut the government down and won't reopen
it because A they don't want y'all to advocate for
people's subsidies, and B they know if they swear in
(36:24):
that new lady from Arizona that you're going to vote
on the Epstein files, like they are shutting down the
government to protect pedophiles and to protect the alleged kingpin
of all the pedophiles, who is as evidenced and in
his own words said the best friend of our current president. Like,
(36:45):
are are we going to get justice there? Do we
just keep our feet on the gas pedal because I
know that that is actually something as people are beginning
to really recognize the pattern of what's going on, and
they know that Mike Johnson's tying about why he won't
bring people back, like people of all walks of life
and of all voting identities are saying, we deserve to
(37:08):
know how the people in power in our country were
connected to that man. You know, we want to know
about the money, We want to know about the transfers,
we want to know what happened. What do you think
happens if and when those files come out?
Speaker 3 (37:21):
So you're right, they don't want to swear in repulec Rahalva,
And I think that this is a really good lesson
and how far they will go to obstruct and so
how can you trust these people to govern when it
seems like the only thing that it seems like they're
good at is obstruction, right, Obstructionism got us the Supreme
Court that we have, and unfortunately that is the Supreme
(37:44):
Court that is now hearing things such as what you
were talking about earlier. You know, I don't think that
they believe that they can even win, even as they're
trying to steal seats. I think that they are nervous
that they are still going to lose, which has been
my philosophy anyway, because we can talk about the masses
that have been detrimentally impacted, it's the very slim one
(38:07):
percent that has been positively impacted by this administration. And
so we know that the last time that Trump was
in it was a historic midterm as relates to the
number of Republicans that were booted, it was maybe like
forty five or something like that Republican seats that were lost.
And so that's why he started with this scheme. But
he wasn't expecting for California to push back. And so
(38:30):
you have the Supreme Court now hearing rehearing a case
as it relates to the Voting Rights Act and Section
two and whether or not those seats which I have
a Section two seat, will be upheld. And those are
the seats that basically further codify what is laid out
in the Constitution as relates to the fourteenth and fifteenth Amendment.
(38:53):
But right now we have white people saying that they
are the ones that are being discriminated against by allowing
black people to have representation, and the map that they
have drawn in the State of Texas unfortunately reduces the
voices of black Texans to one fifth of their white
Texan counterparts, as well as our Latino brothers and sisters,
(39:13):
their voices are reduced to one third. So don't tell
me that this is about equity, because frankly, if we
can roll up and just kind of be equal on
any given day, then great, like I'm good like you
can change and you can do yeah. But the problem is,
y'all don't know what equity is. That is why you're
currently in court and now trying to pretend as if
(39:34):
you are the victims. So you've got all of this
that is going on because they know that their bills
are not popular. They also know that they are losing
some of their Republicans. So besides the Epstein situation, once
they swear Grijalva and I told you that the big
Ugly bill only passed by one vote.
Speaker 2 (39:52):
Anyway, Well, now we have at least two new.
Speaker 3 (39:56):
Members that have been sworn in two of the three
that we are missing, so we're still down by one.
But literally just having one of them could have changed
the trajectory. We've now seen Marjorie Taylor Green come out
and sound like she's normal.
Speaker 2 (40:12):
We just gonna pause there.
Speaker 3 (40:14):
But nevertheless, so we've seen Marjorie come out, we've seen
her taking this stance that is like what we've been saying,
right and going against our party. But also she is
on that discharge petition that is being co led by
Rocanna and Thomas Massey. Thomas Massey also another Republican. So
(40:34):
there's four Republicans on there, which is absolutely ridiculous for
them to be in the majority and for them to
be all about law and order allegedly and them not
be you know, running to sign on to this discharge
petition because the refuser, the refuser, the speaker refuses, he
is a refuser. He refuses to bring this to the
(40:55):
floor for a vote. He could just do the bill.
We didn't have to do this, but this is the
hard way, and this is such like I want people
to understand how big and bad of a situation this is.
We have discharge petitions and basically think of it as
a ballot initiative.
Speaker 2 (41:14):
Not every state has them.
Speaker 3 (41:15):
Unfortunately we don't have them in Texas. Otherwise a lot
of things will be different.
Speaker 2 (41:19):
But it's like a ballot.
Speaker 3 (41:21):
Initiative, right, So your elected representatives are not doing what
you think they should be doing. The people can come
together collectively petition their government and change the law. Okay,
that is kind of like what a discharge petition is.
The speaker is the only one they can put a
bill on the floor. And if the speaker refuses to
put a bill on the floor that the body collectively
(41:42):
believes should be on the floor, which is represented by
the two hundred and eighteen signatures, then that's how.
Speaker 2 (41:47):
We force it to the floor.
Speaker 3 (41:50):
We do it most of the time in a very
symbolic way. This is going to be the first time,
and I don't know when, like years and years and years,
that a discharged petition actually is successful to basically override
the speaker, because most of the time people get in
line behind the party leader and they're just like, you
(42:10):
know whatever, But it's not happening. So I believe that
the speaker as well as the President are most likely
working overtime to try to get some of the Republicans
to come off. But Marjorie ain't going nowhere, nor is
Thomas Massey. So we'll see about the other two and
whether or not they waiver. Okay, once she has sworn
in and we vote on this. This is going to
(42:32):
be bigger than the subpoenas that have been put out
by the Oversight Committee. It was a subcommittee that came
together and outsmart at them and they were able to
get a subpoena.
Speaker 2 (42:44):
Ordered out of committee.
Speaker 3 (42:46):
When the Speaker tried to kick us out of DC
early to avoid a vote on the Epstein files, he
didn't want any in. This committee was already set up
and so they were able to do it. So it
was brilliant. It worked kind of. So then we get
some documents, but it's really nothing new, right And basically
at this point in time, if you saw cash Buttel testify,
(43:10):
he's decided what he legally can let out and what
he can and you know, instead of going to a
court and saying, hey, I have this lawful subpoena from
the Congress, I don't believe that these items can be disclosed.
We need the opinion of the court. He has not
done that. He is making his own opinions. And what
we received was representative of somewhere between one and three
(43:33):
percent of the entirety of the file.
Speaker 2 (43:36):
That is it. That is it.
Speaker 3 (43:38):
He is acting like the rest of it cannot come out,
and that's just not true. And some of the things
that we talked to the survivors with about is that
they had made calls to the FBI, they had made reports,
and obviously with people that experienced trauma, as they're going
(43:59):
through and saying, because at least one of them is
actually like a trauma counselor at this point, you know,
there's different mechanisms that people engage in to kind of
like the human brain is going to protect you in
different ways. It looks different for every different person, and
so some of them really want to see, like in
that moment, like what I reported, Like I want to
(44:22):
see like and I want to see what they did
after I made that report, Like I want to see
who got involved, who followed up, who did what. They
won't even allow them to see their own files, like
their lawyers were like, can you just ask them to
allow them to see their own files to see what
when they were the victims that made reports and they
(44:43):
want to know what work, if any, was done, like
they should have a right, and they.
Speaker 2 (44:48):
Don't even want to do that.
Speaker 3 (44:49):
So I will tell you that I fully anticipate there
are photos obviously lud photos as we heard, you know,
one of his cabinet members talking the other day about
being his next door neighbor and talking about the videos
that you know he anticipated existed to blackmail people.
Speaker 2 (45:11):
I anticipate there is some video footage.
Speaker 3 (45:14):
We know in our conversations or our inquiry with alex
Acosta about what took place in Florida in two thousand
and eight, we know in talking to him that they're
definitely like there's memos and conversations about video footage even
back then. So we've not received any video tapes anything
(45:38):
like that.
Speaker 1 (45:38):
Can I ask you about that? Because there's a big
GOP talking point that they don't want the files to
come out because they would never publish material of sexual abuse.
That is not what you're talking about. You're talking about committee,
like the people who are legally supposed to have oversight
over this material reviewing it.
Speaker 3 (45:59):
So what I would anticipate is we would go in
to whomever is holding whatever and we would review there,
and then what I would anticipate is the majority and
minority would come together and report out what we saw
(46:20):
and or if the Republicans don't want to talk about it,
you know, we would potentially do a minority report that
laid out for the public exactly kind of what was depicted,
because we wouldn't want names and faces anyway, right, like
to be out there if they're not. So no, it
would be about us safeguarding and even you know, making
(46:45):
sure again, many of these women were girls when they
went through this, and there may have been video footage
of them that they've never seen. They may have been
recorded without them knowing, and so at least supporting them
also an opportunity to go and sit and see what
(47:05):
all is in the files and that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1 (47:08):
Right, and now a word from our wonderful sponsors. Well,
and I think that's a really important thing for the
public unversity that all of you serve in a similar
way to you know, the things we've seen in film
(47:32):
and television. You know, you become the Olivia Benson of
SVU in a way. You review the materials and then
you can testify on what's in them, But what's in
them does not get released to further traumatize a victim
or do harm. The report on what is in that
material is entered into the record so the perpetrators can
(47:52):
accurately be charged and that's what we're calling for, and
I just think it's a really important piece of information
to give to people who are seeing a lot of
you know, clickbait, rage bait stuff on the internet that
isn't actually true. Now, I'm curious as we see them
trying to hold on to power with dirty tactics like
(48:14):
staving off this vote, like trying to read district states
like yours. You know, we see this power play happening
in my home state in California. You know, I appreciate
that Gavin Newsom is really coming at it and saying, Okay,
you do this in Texas, We'll do this in California,
like we're going to fight fire with fire, no more
insane behavior on one side and decorum on the other.
(48:36):
How do you feel about Prop fifty? Do you support
this initiative? Do you believe that this is a good
way to fight back? Give us the inside baseball?
Speaker 3 (48:45):
Yeah, I'm I'm a big fan of Prop fifty. I've
raised money for Cop fifty. I was just in California
last week, both in the Bay Area and LA making
sure that I could raise awareness and hopefully answer questions
about Prop fifty, especially as it kind of correlates to Texas,
and I want people to you know, I know we're
(49:06):
using the same words. So we're saying fire with fire,
and it is a fight. But I will tell you
that even in the way that California is fighting, there
is so much more integrity in what they're doing.
Speaker 2 (49:19):
It is not the same. It is not insidious. It
is in.
Speaker 3 (49:24):
Response, but it is not the same. We don't have
an out of control legislature and governor that just rely, oh.
Speaker 2 (49:34):
Here, this is what it is.
Speaker 3 (49:36):
Instead, they are taking a grassroots approach.
Speaker 2 (49:40):
They are giving it to the people. The people ultimately
get to decide.
Speaker 3 (49:45):
And as they went through and they drew their lines,
they actually honored the Voting Rights Act. They did not
do things to minimize the voices of people of color.
Whereas when we look at the map in Texas, the
state of Texas is sixty one percent people of color
(50:05):
and thirty nine percent Anglo. But under this current map,
over seventy percent, closer to eighty percent of the seats
out of Texas will be chosen by Anglos. They are
given an oversized voice in our government, and it is
antithetical to our principles of equity. But we knew that
(50:28):
this was coming because they've been attacking diversity, equity, civil rights,
right and for people that don't understand, they are about
to understand, like how bad it is.
Speaker 2 (50:39):
Like those that have.
Speaker 3 (50:41):
Uniquely abled children, they are affected by civil rights issues,
right like, So this isn't just about black folk, It's
not just about you know, the LGBTQIA community.
Speaker 2 (50:54):
It is bigger than that.
Speaker 3 (50:56):
And so by allowing them to attack certain gross and
being silent, you know, it's it's like the saying goes,
you know, they came for this group, and I was silent,
and they came for the you know what I mean,
Like ultimately, yeah, there's not even going to be anybody
to speak for you, right like, you'll be all by yourself.
(51:16):
So it is important again for us to focus on
that grounds us, that unites us. And even if ninety
percent of everything else we disagree on, those are small
things compared to our foundational issues, and we are losing
our foundation right now. And I mean, you know, I
(51:38):
will accept some of the blame, not that I was
in office at the time, but Democrats should have been
fighting harder. They should have been fighting harder earlier. It
seems like there was just too much goodwill that was
given or expected of the other side, and again us
(52:00):
being good willed people, expected that of the opposition. And
the problem is they played us, and we had the
clues to see that they were playing us, and they
still did not adjust and fight back. We know that
most people were introduced to me when I broke quorum
(52:23):
as a state representative down in Texas and we were
fighting for voting rights then, and we were ringing the alarms,
and this is right before we went through redistricting, and
we were trying to tell them when we came to
DC and they passed the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act,
and they passed the Freedom of Vote Act. Freedom to
Vote would have meant that you could not have an
Elon Musk buy an election. Yes, the House, we know
(52:45):
that the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act actually would
replace the Voting Rights Act because they had started to
tear it apart. It would replace it and fortify it.
And it passed the House, but the Senate refused to
go around the filibuster for something as foundational as our
voting rights, and because we did.
Speaker 2 (53:06):
Not decide that it was that important.
Speaker 3 (53:11):
We now are stuck in this position because we could
have a situation where the Supreme Court would have to
bend over backwards to undo law that was written in
and signed. We could be in that position, but we're
not right. We could have a situation where Elin could
not have spent the amount of money that he spent
(53:31):
in that election. We could have had a situation where
every state was required to have online voter registration so
that the access to your ballot looks similar, if not,
actually it would have equalized it and been the same.
Because in the state of Texas, we don't have online
voter registration, we don't have same day voter registration, we
(53:52):
don't have no excuse vote by mail. These are things
that California has. So California is able to stay blue
because they promote participation. But Republicans that the longest have
been pushing voter suppression because that is the only way
that they can win is if they minimize who it
is that is able to participate. But when we look
(54:13):
at the state of Georgia, Georgia ended up with two
Democratic senators once they increase their voter participation to something
like eighty something percent.
Speaker 1 (54:23):
Thanks to Stacy Abrams.
Speaker 3 (54:25):
Thanks to Stacy Abrams, Texas in twenty eighteen had an
opportunity to flip a Senate seat. Bettel or Work should
have won. Bettel lost by less than three points. But
what most people don't talk about is that we only
had seventeen percent voter turnout, seventeen percent and he only
lost by a little less than three points. Imagine if
(54:47):
we had gotten to twenty or twenty five percent.
Speaker 2 (54:50):
I am telling you we could have won. We would win.
Speaker 3 (54:53):
I am telling y'all that we are a majority minority
state and all they do is silence us and take
our power. And that is exact exactly what we are
experiencing now throughout this entire country, is that they want to.
Speaker 2 (55:06):
Have minority rule. We have minority rule in Texas.
Speaker 3 (55:11):
Not I can guarantee you if we had eighty five
percent voter participation, Texas would not be a red voting state.
Speaker 2 (55:20):
We would be blue.
Speaker 1 (55:21):
I agree with you, and then you might not be
dealing with the kinds of you know, disasters with everything
down to your power grid that you're dealing with now,
because you have people more interested in owning the Libs
than they do in serving their constituency. Now I know
I've kept you over, so I'm gonna skip to the end.
I always like to ask everybody this wonderful final question.
(55:46):
I want to ask you ten thousand more questions, but like, no,
you have elected official business to do. I've never told
someone what I want my work in progress to be
before I hear theirs. But I'm like, I just this
isn't even about me. This is just me being like
work in progress on the pin board of America in
Sofia's brain is please tell me at some way I'm
going to get to vote for Jasmine Crockett for president,
(56:09):
what is your work in progress? Because that's mine. I'm ready.
I'm like, I'm I'm tribute number one on the campaign.
But I want to know for you whether it's you know,
service oriented, oriented for the people, or like even just
something personal like sometimes I want to be like, girl,
have you had a have you been able to go
for a walk? Do we need to get you a
(56:30):
gift card for a massage? Like you need a minute?
So it can really across the spectrum of personal to professional.
What feels like you're work in progress?
Speaker 3 (56:40):
My work in progress is getting this country back on
track so that I can get out of politics. I mean,
I you know, I promise you, I ask myself over
and over and over, and then I get to go
home and I see the faces of the people that
I represent, or even as I travel of the country,
(57:02):
and the pure excitement and enthusiasm and hope that exist
even in the eyes of some of the youngest folks
that can't even vote yet, the inspiration that makes people
say I saw you and learn that you're a lawyer,
and I decided I'm going back to school, or I
decided now that I want to be a lawyer. Like
those are the things that keep me going. But I
(57:25):
never woke up any day of my life saying, you
know what, I want to grow up and be a politician.
That is not what I did, and it is not
where I stand today. But I truly believe that I
am necessary in this moment. I don't want to be necessary.
I just want to go out and do fun stuff.
(57:47):
And yes, I'm a dork, so doing fun stuff means like,
you know, practice in law, right, Like I actually liked
going into the courtroom. And I'm pretty sure people probably
read that all on me when I'm in committee. But
I would like a more low key life, one where
my friends and family get to see me more often,
(58:09):
one where I get to take more trips because I
always with someone and I.
Speaker 2 (58:14):
Actually travel a lot.
Speaker 3 (58:15):
I mean I travel a lot now, but it is
not for pleasure. It is all for work, and so
you know, I would like a more low key existence.
Speaker 2 (58:28):
I really am a girl's girl.
Speaker 3 (58:31):
You know this. You know I love my friends, and
I feel like I'm always cheating my friends because I
put people that, honestly, a lot of them I've never
met before, seemingly ahead of them. But the great thing
about my real friends is that they have drunk the
(58:52):
kool aid as well, and they all believe in this
mission that is on my life, and so I get
great support. But it still doesn't stop me from being
very human and feeling like I'm just not doing enough
for the people that love me the most. So yeah,
I would love to get out. It seems like it's
(59:14):
not going that way, but.
Speaker 2 (59:16):
But that that would that would be my hope.
Speaker 3 (59:19):
If I woke up tomorrow and everything was right side
up in this country, Uh, not perfect, but normal, I
would probably resign.
Speaker 2 (59:30):
I probably would. I believe that this is a great.
Speaker 3 (59:35):
Honor, and I've learned so much, but I also believe
that I should make space for others to come behind
me and for them to learn and experience as well.
And so yeah, I'm not tied to the title. I
am tied to the mission, and it is it is
my hope that home that the mission is complete, Sony now,
(01:00:00):
and that you know, God doesn't tell me, whoop, You're
gonna have to go to another level to get more done.
I can't say yeay or nay whether or not there
will be another level, but I can guarantee you that
if for some reason, Trump wakes up tomorrow and he
hit his head and he fires everyone around him who
(01:00:22):
has been engaged in all of the fraudulent and illegal
activities that they are doing, and he somehow wakes up,
finds Jesus and decides that he wants to try to
get into the pearly gates that he said he knows
he is not going to get into.
Speaker 2 (01:00:38):
At least he knows he's the devil.
Speaker 3 (01:00:41):
You know, Listen, if he woke up tomorrow and just
turn a new leaf and became the president that we deserve,
I would be out.
Speaker 2 (01:00:53):
I would be thankful and I would be out.
Speaker 1 (01:00:56):
I think when you are a really dedicated public servant,
you can put your own life on the back burner.
But the people that you miss and that miss you
also know you're doing it for them too, And so
no matter how hard it gets, before it gets better,
you give so many of us hope, and you fight
(01:01:17):
with such love at the core of your spirit, and
then you know you've got all the legal ease to
back it up. And I'm just gone stillly like this
watching you on the TV. So thank you. I'm going
to let you get back to the floor and all
the things that you're doing. I love and adore you.
(01:01:38):
I'm so proud to be in the same timeline as you,
even if our timeline sucks right now, And next time
you come to New York, I'm taking you out.
Speaker 2 (01:01:47):
Okay, it's good to see you, my friend.
Speaker 1 (01:01:49):
You too, Thank you for your time today.
Speaker 3 (01:01:51):
All right bye, Oh,
Hi, everyone, It's Sophia. Welcome to Work in Progress. Hey,
whip smarties. Today we have one of my very favorite
women on the pod. Not because she's an incredible congresswoman,
(00:22):
not because she is an accomplished civil rights attorney who
defends our very ideals, not because she happens to be
one of the most whip smart people I've ever been
in a room with, and not because she's also one
of the coolest people on the House floor. It's really
for all of these things. Today we are joined by
none other than Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett. She didn't come to
(00:44):
Washington to play nice. She came to defend a true
and more gorgeous America. And right now she is standing
at the center of one of the most consequential fights,
not only in Texas but across the nation over redistricting,
access to the ballot, voting rights, and with communities of
color will be silenced or heard. As many of you know,
(01:04):
this year, Texas Republicans drew a new congressional map that
is designed to add five gup seats, which has forced
Democrats to sue in court because they're drawing this in
ways that would reduce the voting power of some Americans
to one fifth a full vote. If that sounds like
an eerie ghost of history past that we should be
(01:25):
ashamed of. It is, and Jasmine Crockett is not going
to take this one laying down. She's here to talk
about local politics, national politics, what's going on with the
government shut down, what on earth is happening with the
Epstein files, and why Speaker Johnson frankly keeps lying to us.
She is here to defend a democracy under siege, and
(01:45):
she does it with style. Let's dive in with Jasmin
crockettar my lighthouse, beacon, north star human being that reminds
me that we can speak truth to power. It feels
(02:09):
like a weird thing to ask you how you are
when twenty twenty five is twenty twenty fiving so hard
in more the project way than just the calendar year.
But how are you?
Speaker 2 (02:20):
I mean, you know what?
Speaker 3 (02:22):
I really am not going to complain. There is a
lot that I could say. But every day that I
wake up and I think about how pissed off I am,
I also think about how fortunate I am that in
this moment, unlike so many others that are sitting at home,
(02:43):
and filling the same level of frustration, if not a
higher level of frustration. I at least have a seat
at the table. And so I am not really afforded
an opportunity to kind of sit around and say, oh,
pity me. I look at this as an opportunity. I
look at as an opportunity to give people hope. I
(03:05):
look at it as an opportunity to take down the
bad guys. And when I say take down, it's the
traditional takedown. Right. So I am looking forward to the
midterms and I am trying to help other candidates right
now because I do believe we should have some oversight.
I do believe that the American people deserve real answers.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
I do believe that it is.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Our time to shine a light on all the darkness
that has come forward. And the reality is that not
everyone is in a position to do it. So as
much as sometimes I wake up and I'm ready to
bang my head against the wall, I then have that
moment of reflection and I'm so incredibly grateful to be
(03:51):
here in this moment and have the opportunities that I have.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
I really love that. That's beautiful. It's interesting, you know,
when I when I think about all the ways that
I get the privilege. Like you said, you have the
privilege of a seat at the table. I have the
privilege of being in some of the rooms sometimes where
your seats are. And I think about the years I've
been able to, you know, follow your work on the
(04:17):
hill and also now over the last I don't know
year in change, call you a friend, you know, see
you out and about in the world, whether we're at
a political rally or occasionally getting to have a very
overdue meal. I think about who you are as someone
who takes that sacred rage that I think anyone who
(04:38):
really believes in community or the constitution feels fired up
right now. And you do so from your seat, as
you mentioned, you do so from your expertise. You know,
you were a public defender, you became a civil rights attorney.
You are one of the people I look to in
leadership as being the most well versed in what America
(04:59):
is and is supposed to to be versus how she
behaves sometimes and I wonder I always ask everyone who
comes on the show this question, but I really am
excited to ask you, like if we got to, you know,
be in a great robin Williams movie, and something happened
and suddenly we were on the playground with eight year
old Jasmine, Like, would you see would you see traits
(05:24):
in your young self in that little girl that you
carry with you today? You know, was she out there
like standing up to playground bullies? What was her vibe?
What was your vibe as a young woman.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
Yeah, it's so funny because I legitimately have some friends
that I've had since elementary and many of them are like,
no surprise, we knew it, We always saw it, right.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
So I was always a smart girl. You know.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
I was always kind of testing at the top of
whatever tests we had going on, and I was always
like deeply caring. So yeah, if there was a bullety situation,
I probably would have been the one that stood up,
did not really have to run into it, thank goodness
(06:19):
on my behalf for anybody else's. But I also had
a little bit of sass that may not have been
appropriate during that time. So it's interesting because I only
recently started sharing this story about when I was in
the third grade because people are like, oh, you know,
Jasmine is all cosplay, or you know, they come up
(06:40):
with all these random things and I'm like, honestly, honey,
I've been the same.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
My entire life.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
You can go and find from me testing at the
top with all the standardized tests from elementary on to
me ended up getting a scholarship to the private school
that they loved to talk about because because of my
academic achievements to me being at the top ten percent
of my class after my first year.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
In law school.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
So I've always done really really well with the studies.
I've always had a bit of bite. So in the
third grade, I got in trouble, which I guess is
somewhere around the age eight, maybe a little bit older.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
I got in trouble for cursing out my art teacher.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
So you know, listen, I mean, and you know, I
want the kids to know you can still be successful.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
I mean, things happened, but like I was, I was.
I was a bit of a smarty and I didn't
get in trouble very much.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
It was literally like what you see now where I
am good, I am smart, I'm my own business.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
But that teacher decided to try me, and so that's
what it was.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
And you know, I got into trouble, but you know,
also the teacher didn't bother me anymore.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
So I am pretty much the same.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
I probably was a little bit more outgoing back then
right now because of just kind of the environment and
how many people know me. Like I was always like
the popular girl, like everyone knew me, that kind of stuff.
But like it was different because as a kid, you're
not worried about much of anything, so you're just like
hanging out, You're talking to everybody, and it's, you know,
(08:28):
a different world. And now it's like, you know, I
feel it's crazy. I've never told anyone this, but because
of the level of death threats that I get when
I'm out in public and people approach me, if they
walk up to me too fast, it makes me very
nervous because I don't know if you're walking up out
(08:51):
of excitement because you really like me, or you're walking
up because you feel as if you hate somebody who
you've never met. And so well, sometimes I can kind of,
you know, seem probably a little bit stand off fish
because usually there's security or staff around me that is
trying to kind of understand like what you're trying to do.
(09:15):
So obviously that has changed totally, and I wish I
could go back to being the care free little girl
that I was that knew no hate and only knew love.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
But unfortunately that's just kind of a part of growing up.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Yeah, I think it's also it's a real symptom of
a sick society. And while I am a great fan
of the promise of this country and the ideals that
it was founded on, I think, much like you and
many of the people we get to work alongside, I'm
(09:54):
never going to pretend like America has been perfect at
aiming for those ideals. And I think it's very it's
a very strong signifier of a sick society when intelligent
women or women who stand for the political power of
the masses or the working class are consistently targeted. And
(10:15):
I don't deal with it in the way that you do.
But let me tell you what I do deal with
as an outspoken you know, volunteer for Democracy has changed
my movements in public. It's changed my constitution in a way.
I gave a talk last week at World Mental Health
Day and we were talking about activism, and I said,
(10:36):
you know, we can do all these things online. We're
going to run this letter writing campaign. We're going to
overwhelm the system with paper mail, and I cracked a
joke like I'm going to I'm gonna smooch every letter.
I just need to find a lipstick called kiss of death.
And then I was like, that's a joke, to be clear,
Like I don't need Breitbart to write another article that
is going to result in like ten thousand more death
threats for me. And I'm just like an actor who
(10:59):
talks about this stuff because I'm also a trained journalist.
You are an elected official who really really stands up
against very dangerous authoritarian levers of power. And you're a woman,
and you're a black woman, so they really don't like you.
They don't like anything about the amount of power you've amassed.
(11:20):
But what's amazing to me as a you know, a
fan and a friend whatever that combo word looks like,
I'm like, am I a friend? Is that what I am?
That's kind of cute. You know, you come at this,
you come at this work as I mentioned earlier, from
your early career as a public defender, as a civil
rights attorney, Like you know what the law of the
(11:41):
land is, and you know the ways that certain ill
motivated rules or systems or laws or policies have been
implemented over and over again as people who have not
been given top power have a massed power. So whether
(12:02):
that's women, whether that's communities of color, whether that's Black Americans,
Like we see the gains made, you know, LGBTQ folks, anybody,
we see the games made, see incredible pushback. But you know,
you know what is on page sixty seven and clause
(12:23):
three C of every bill. So how does how does
your expertise and also your early career work before you
ran for office, how does that all come together for you?
Speaker 2 (12:36):
So this is such a great question.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
It's it's one of those things that I try to
encourage our caucus to think about, right because typically people
are upset with our communication or lack thereof our styles
or our messaging and whatnot. People definitely have a long
list of issues. It's usually not the substance. I will
(13:02):
say that, it's usually not the substance of what it
is that we are trying to push forward with. It's
just a matter of who all can understand what it
is that we're talking about. And sometimes it can feel
like we're just talking to one another instead of talking
to the people that we serve, and you know, there
are those that are confused, like, well, why does she
(13:22):
sound this way over here? And why does she sound
that way over there, and that kind of stuff, as
if I can't be a multifaceted person, and you know,
as a trained litigator, I would be doing a disservice
to the people that were entrusting me sometimes to literally
save their lives if I wasn't able to understand my audience.
(13:45):
So as a business major undergrad who worked in marketing,
as I was working my way through law school, the
emphasis on my business major was financed though, Like one
of the things that they always taught you in marketing
was first determine your audience. So when I would walk
into a courtroom, I would walk in and deal with
(14:07):
a bunch of strangers and we would have to pick
a jury, and I'd have to trust that these people
are going to listen to the law and just follow
the law. I would have to deal with the biases
and do my best to kind of delete as many
of the biases as possible while understanding that people are
people and they're human and there's just certain things that
(14:27):
they don't want to tell you.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
But have I walked into.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
A courtroom in Arkansas before and had multiple people admit that.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
They were racist.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
I have because I've been able to make people feel
comfortable enough to just be honest with me, and it
wasn't so much about me as it was the system.
And I would explain to them why the system mattered
and why it was important that no matter who came
through that system, you may not be the one coming
(14:59):
through right now, love when maybe coming through or having
gone through, and you would want this system to work
for everyone, and that's why we So I would explain
the why right and I would get people to admit
things that you would never ever think they would admit.
And then, of course I always knew that there were
people that just wouldn't tell me certain stuff, but I
(15:20):
also knew that it was important to build a rapport,
and building a report didn't look like me using every
form of legally as I could find, because I'm talking
to a group of people that come from all different backgrounds.
The only thing for sure that they shared in comment
is that they were number one citizens and number two
they lived within whatever jurisdiction it was that I was
trying this case in and that's it. Like you didn't
(15:43):
know anything, but you needed to trust these people. But
they knew I was a lawyer when they got in
there because I was standing there. I was presented as
the attorney for the client, and ultimately, when I went
in front of the judge and I would make arguments
to the judge on behalf of my client as it
relates to various legal arguments or motions that we were arguing,
I obviously would use the terminology that mattered for whatever
(16:08):
it was that I was arguing, because the credibility needed
to be there with the judge for the judge to say, oh, yeah,
she knows what she's talking about because she referenced the
right thing. So I've never put that much stock really
into my education to the extent that I tell people
all the time, I went to law school because that
(16:28):
was the only way that I could do the job
that I wanted to do. If I wanted to be
a plumber, then I wouldn't have gone to college at all. Right,
But that's not the job that I wanted to do.
And so I've always been a big supporter in the
trades and everything because I've never been kind of this
educational elitist. I went into law because it was a
(16:51):
way again to help people and to protect people after
I myself had become the victim of a series of
hate crimes and they brought in Cochran Firm to actually
try to investigate and help us out. And so it
was a feeling that I ended up feeling at that
moment that made me say, oh God, I don't want
(17:11):
anybody else to feel like this, and like these are
real superheroes.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Like that was the only reason I went to law school.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
But with that being said, my training as an attorney
number one taught me how to read the law. So
therefore we're talking about I now have a job where
we write the laws.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
So I'm very clear on how the law.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
Reads and where there may be issues with the interpretation,
because it was my job to interpret the laws the
legislators wrote all the time. In addition to that, I
always understood my audience and who I was communicating to.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
I have dealt with hostile witnesses.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
I know how to pivot in that moment, which also
makes me a little bit.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
Successful when it comes to committee hearings as well.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
Yeah, and now for our sponsors, it's really interesting, you
know when you say that when you talk about hostile witnesses,
and I think about all of the you know, the
hearings that I watch, you guys holding in government, and
just the blatant lying coming from the folks at the top,
(18:22):
and it makes me think a lot about the way
that in the previous administration, you know, the our side,
the left, progressive folks, you know, folks who just want
billionaires to pay as much in taxes as the rest
of us, would be accused of things that were simply untrue.
And now we know that there are things happening because
(18:44):
they printed them in a nine hundred and twenty five
page manual, and they're talking about it on camera, you know,
in back rooms, and then when they come and have
to testify, they say, oh, no, that's not true. Why
do you think there's such a double standard for the
requirements of truth telling and decorum.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
I think that when it comes to the left, we're
just a lot more forgiving. And so, you know, and
as well as as people you know, like to talk
about the left being elitist, and I don't I don't believe.
I don't buy into the fact they we're elitist. I
just know that you know, they are able to get
(19:27):
away with a lot of things because they take advantage
of what people don't know.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
Right.
Speaker 3 (19:33):
So, for instance, the people that are out there and
are screaming for yes, no due process for people that
aren't citizens, like that's constitutional, Like what are you saying, Like,
I mean, what are we doing right for?
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Right?
Speaker 3 (19:49):
Citizenship is like yes, take away burf Right citizenship is
like guys.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
How do you think you're a citizen? Sir?
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (19:55):
Yeah, and so it so it is this thing I
think for a lot of times the left where they'll say,
you know what, people will see that this is just idiotic,
or people will see that like.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
I mean, think about how we were when Hillary lost.
We were indignant. It was like there's no way Donald
Trump could beat Hillary. It's like have you seen her resume? Right?
Like it was one of those shocks to the conscience.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
And so then people argue that we're disconnected and that
kind of stuff. But it's like when it comes down
to them doing certain things, I think to a certain extent,
we shrug it off and we imagine and we believe
that people are going to see how it is not
meeting the measure of what an elected should be. But
(20:48):
I think that we at this point in time need
to be pointing that out. I don't think we can
take it for granted what people know or what people expect,
because it's been made clear that.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
We've been wrong. That's just the bottom line.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
And I think, you know, even when we think about FAFO,
it's like whatever, like FAFO, and it's like, actually, we're
all in this boat together, and maybe we need to
talk this through so that we don't end up here again.
And I think that's why we ended up suffering and
ended up with him again, is because we felt like
(21:24):
liberated when Joe Biden was he like that, it was like, yes,
finally see we told you he was awful, right Like,
it was like great, now we can move on with life.
And we had this attitude of, well, people will just
know that, like that's not what to do, instead of
us actually digging in and working and making sure that
we're constantly staying in this fight and in this thing.
(21:48):
So a little bit of it is a little bit
of an attitude of clearly, people see what we see right.
The other part of it, though, is just that we're
not believed. It is why you don't see us going
after any specific group of people. That is why I
would put money on it that you will not find
(22:11):
a group chat of young Democrats going off and calling
black folk everything but a child of God going off
and talking about Hitler going off and talking about raping people.
You know, you are hard pressed, like I would be shocked.
But when the young Republican chat was leaked, the fact
(22:34):
that it was leaked sound about right number one.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Number two, The fact that.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
They ultimately said that this happened, it didn't surprise me.
It didn't suppress me at all. And the fact that
the Vice President decided not to denounce it did not surprise.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Me at all either.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
And I don't think the President, at least at the
time of this recording, has said a thing about it.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
And imagine if that was the Democrats, they would be gone,
they would be out, Oh.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
They would be impeached, hearings, it would be bad.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
It would be all kinds of things right, and it
would be attributed to the entire party. And here's the
deal I will and I am going to attribute with
those young Republicans did to the entire party because they
have facilitated an environment of hate and white supremacy, and
they consistently fail to denounce it because that is a
(23:28):
large part of their base. Like, they actually would probably
have a lot more Black Republicans if the Republican Party
wasn't racist, because so many black folk are so entrenched
with church, like it is synonymous with who they are
and the very kind of conservative beliefs that black folk
(23:49):
tend to have when it comes to church. But the
one thing you can't change is Jaicola. You can't change
how you were born. So there's no way that you know,
most black people, they recognize that when they wake up
they are black, are like, oh yeah, I'm gonna go
hang out with the racist I'm gonna go hang out
with the people that I know are just going to
use my vote to continue to push forward with the
(24:12):
white supremacy agenda. It is the one thing that in
committee they never ever want to address. It is why
you have the President back then saying proud boys, stand
back and stand by. It is why we had to
deal with the President saying there's good people on both
sides when it came to Charlottesville. It is why we
barely could hear anything as relates to the black folk
(24:35):
that were killed in Buffalo New York out of him
or the black people, like, we never hear from him
when there's this travesty that is being perpetrated on people
of color or on the LGBTQI A community, because we
know we've had the nightclubs, whether it was Vegas shooting
or whether we're talking about down in Florida with poth like,
(24:58):
we've had all these situations, and the only time it
seemed like the president really had anything to say was
when it came.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
Down to Charlie Kirk. Yeah, don't seem like I mean
he was.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
He'd been on mute for almost any and every other thing,
and that's not what a president of the United States
should be doing. He has not been a united whatsoever.
He's been nothing more than a divider.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
No, they're incredible dividers. And I think what was so
frustrating to me, you know, when you talk about the
communities he attacks. He immediately attacked the LGBTQ community after
Charlie Kirk's murder.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
And the black community, and then in the black community.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
They went to the HBCUs uh huh the very next day, Yeah,
death threats at all the HBCUs. And then we find
out the kid grew up in a very mag of family,
and everything went quiet. There's been no autopsy, there's been
no reporting, there's been no ballistics confirmed, there's been no nothing.
But they did use his death as a white power rally,
(25:57):
and Stephen Miller literally stood up there quoting Joseph Goebbels,
while Donald Trump and JD. Vance have the nerve to say, well,
if the left wasn't calling everyone a Nazi, if you
don't want to be called a Nazi, stop quoting Nazis,
stop quoting them, stop literally quoting Joseph Goebbels and Adolf Hitler,
(26:17):
and stop disappearing people into concentration camps. You can't tell us.
It's like someone saying to you, you're not allowed to
say the sky is blue, but it is. And meanwhile,
this is happening at a time where the Orwellian don't
trust your eyes, don't trust your ears. What we're doing
(26:39):
right in front of your face, we're not really doing.
We see this power grab, you know, they see how
their numbers are plummeting. But what's really alarming to me
now is watching they're attempting to gut the Voting Rights Act. Well,
what's left of it, they've already gott it a lot
of it, And the fact that they are trying to
redistrict so many states, include your own, to establish a
(27:02):
permanent Republican victory in our country regardless of the will
of the voters, including my friend in your district. These
maps that they're proposing literally would erase your seat, the
seat you won, the seat you were elected to serve
in by the people in Texas. What the hell are.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
We gonna do?
Speaker 1 (27:29):
You know, you're in You're in the halls. So yes,
we can write the letters, and yes we can call
the reps, and yes we can show up on No
King's Day, and yes we can do these things. But
what else do you believe is the most decisive action
the citizenry can take to push back against the literal
theft of democracy? Because if we can't vote for our leaders,
(27:53):
then we don't have anything. Then we do have kings?
So like, what don't what don't we know that? You know?
Because I'm clearly very anxious that I know my listeners
are too listen.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
I don't know much I'm gonna tell you that, but
I will tell you that they want you to feel
helpless and hopeless and that's the last thing that I
want anyone to feel.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
That is when they win.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
We have to recognize that it is our power that
makes them fearful.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
That is exactly why they are doing everything that they
can to rig the system.
Speaker 3 (28:24):
But like this does present an opportunity to build back better,
to build something that actually does with this country espouses
to do, which is to be the land of free
and land of opportunity and land of immigrants for all. Right,
Like that is what we have the ability to do that.
We have the ability to be a true democracy where
everyone's voice is counted.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
Right, we have the ability to do that.
Speaker 3 (28:48):
Once they break everything, we can fix it and make
it better. Now, is it going to come back together
better as quickly as it took to break it? Now,
so we will need people to do something that they
normally or not good at. Be patient, right, but like
give us a chance and know that at a very minimum,
we are not trying to tear anything down, but we
are trying to build it up.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
We are trying to fortify it so that we don't
end up with another.
Speaker 3 (29:12):
Autocrat that decides that they are going to exploit every
loophole that relies on the American people being able to
choose a leader that really believes in who we are. Instead,
we have a crooked crook that is acting as if
he is a gangster and a thug right who is
(29:36):
robbing us blind in broad daylight, taking our dollars and
sending them to everything that doesn't help us, whether it
is you know, making Argentina great again by taking our
dollars and sending it there while we are experiencing record
bankruptcy filings by our farmers and basically saying, oh, we
(29:58):
will boost the the profitability of the farmers in Argentina,
while there's been zero out of almost thirteen billion dollars
from soybeans specifically that had historically come from China as
a purchaser of our soybeans.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
Right, they're missing those dollars. And I know we're.
Speaker 3 (30:20):
Talking about the soybean farmers a lot because the whole
Argentina thing, but all of our farmers are struggling. And
what people don't understand is that I used to serve
on the AD Committee and we used to say things
like that it's a matter of national security, and it is.
You know, I've had an opportunity to travel around the
world as a member of Congress, and we've talked about
(30:43):
how it looks when say you've got to rely on
somebody else to feed your people. That ain't something that
you want. We need our farmers to survive for a
bunch of different reasons, but one of them is literally
a matter of national security. We can not allow ourselves
to be dependent upon other people to feed us, because
(31:05):
when you end up, say in some tiff, they can
just decide we're not going to seale team anymore. We
will go and diversify and sell somewhere else and starve us.
And yes, this has happened. There is a story I
sat down and spoke with in a mirror, and the
United States actually helped them out.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
It's a whole thing. But people don't typically think of
food in that way, but we really need to.
Speaker 3 (31:31):
So while people may be upset with farmers, because for
the most part, we can say the average farmer voted
for Trump, So you can be upset, But what I
tell people all the time is that I need you
to survive. That needs to be the refrain that we
hear in our voices every time we're looking at somebody
and believing that they're the opposite of who we are.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
We need each other to survive.
Speaker 3 (31:54):
I mean I need the farmer farming because no matter
where you live, we all got to eat, right. So
I say all that to say that if we don't
start to pull together, whether it is over. You know,
the farming issues are even just kind of.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
The capitulation that we've.
Speaker 3 (32:17):
Seen around the tariffs and the Republicans right, they know
that their policies are not policies that serve the masses.
That is why they want to distract and divide. So
long as they can keep us divided, then we can't
pay attention to all of the corruption and robbing that
(32:38):
is taking place. And so it is important that we
say listen, we may not agree on ninety percent of
the things that we have to talk about, but the
ten percent those are foundational things. We all need to
eat and hopefully let it be healthy. Now that we
have this crazy HHS secretary. We all need to have
(33:01):
jobs and gainful employment. As our jobs numbers are tanking.
We all need an overall strong economy, one where costs
are not going through the roof which we're experiencing that
because of the tariffs.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
These sort of like foundational things.
Speaker 3 (33:18):
Housing, food, education, jobs, Like this is foundational stuff and
I don't really care where you fall on the political spectrum,
Like that is the foundation that is that ten percent.
We can disagree about LGBTQIA. Hell, I will let you
disagree on diversity, equity and inclusion, like I will let
you whatever, right, but like right now we don't have
(33:42):
our foundational things together. As people are saying that their
healthcare bill is going from two hundred dollars a month
to six hundred dollars or eight hundred dollars or whatever
it is that is going to we're now fighting for
a bare minimum by saying, hey, at least if they
are receiving their healthcare on the marketplace, you know, we
(34:05):
don't want the tax subsidies to expire as they are
supposed to expire in December.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
No, they don't care. So a double whammy.
Speaker 3 (34:15):
And I say double whamy because the price have already
gone up and now you're saying take away the subsidies.
But it's even more than that because we know that
the jobless numbers are going up as well. We also
know that costs are going up. We know that wages
are not like it's not even just a double whammy.
It's like quadruple like, I don't know, it's a bunch
of waiting.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
Not sustainable, and it's certainly not sustainable in a country
where the average American is one unexpected four hundred dollars
bill away from bankruptcy. Yeah, and now a word from
our sponsors that I really enjoy and I think you
will too. You know, It's it's interesting for me watching
(34:57):
a lot of people because I talk a lot about
the fact that billionaires just aren't paying their fair share,
and if they did, the country be in a different place.
I get a lot of and I'm sure you do too. Oh,
you must just be jealous that you're not a billionaire.
I'm like, bro, we are all so much closer God
forbid to being a houseless tomorrow than to ever in
our lifetime or the next five lifetimes being a billionaire. Like,
(35:20):
and it really makes me think about what you were saying.
The core of what we're supposed to be has to
be agreed upon. But I think what the Republicans are
very good at doing is making us argue about disagreements
about things like you mentioned, whether it's LGBTQ rights, whether
it's a DEI, whether it's I don't know the fact
that women are people and we should have autonomy over
(35:42):
our bodies, crazy idea. I know you know all of
these things. And it's not lost on me that the
party that fought so hard to pass a bill to
harm Americans to help people who don't need it, like
you know, the two hundred and eighteen or however many
there are billions in this country don't need another jet,
(36:03):
but all Americans need to be able to put food
on the table. It's not lost on me that they
forced that vote through and told people they couldn't leave DC,
and now they've shut the government down and won't reopen
it because A they don't want y'all to advocate for
people's subsidies, and B they know if they swear in
(36:24):
that new lady from Arizona that you're going to vote
on the Epstein files, like they are shutting down the
government to protect pedophiles and to protect the alleged kingpin
of all the pedophiles, who is as evidenced and in
his own words said the best friend of our current president. Like,
(36:45):
are are we going to get justice there? Do we
just keep our feet on the gas pedal because I
know that that is actually something as people are beginning
to really recognize the pattern of what's going on, and
they know that Mike Johnson's tying about why he won't
bring people back, like people of all walks of life
and of all voting identities are saying, we deserve to
(37:08):
know how the people in power in our country were
connected to that man. You know, we want to know
about the money, We want to know about the transfers,
we want to know what happened. What do you think
happens if and when those files come out?
Speaker 3 (37:21):
So you're right, they don't want to swear in repulec Rahalva,
And I think that this is a really good lesson
and how far they will go to obstruct and so
how can you trust these people to govern when it
seems like the only thing that it seems like they're
good at is obstruction, right, Obstructionism got us the Supreme
Court that we have, and unfortunately that is the Supreme
(37:44):
Court that is now hearing things such as what you
were talking about earlier. You know, I don't think that
they believe that they can even win, even as they're
trying to steal seats. I think that they are nervous
that they are still going to lose, which has been
my philosophy anyway, because we can talk about the masses
that have been detrimentally impacted, it's the very slim one
(38:07):
percent that has been positively impacted by this administration. And
so we know that the last time that Trump was
in it was a historic midterm as relates to the
number of Republicans that were booted, it was maybe like
forty five or something like that Republican seats that were lost.
And so that's why he started with this scheme. But
he wasn't expecting for California to push back. And so
(38:30):
you have the Supreme Court now hearing rehearing a case
as it relates to the Voting Rights Act and Section
two and whether or not those seats which I have
a Section two seat, will be upheld. And those are
the seats that basically further codify what is laid out
in the Constitution as relates to the fourteenth and fifteenth Amendment.
(38:53):
But right now we have white people saying that they
are the ones that are being discriminated against by allowing
black people to have representation, and the map that they
have drawn in the State of Texas unfortunately reduces the
voices of black Texans to one fifth of their white
Texan counterparts, as well as our Latino brothers and sisters,
(39:13):
their voices are reduced to one third. So don't tell
me that this is about equity, because frankly, if we
can roll up and just kind of be equal on
any given day, then great, like I'm good like you
can change and you can do yeah. But the problem is,
y'all don't know what equity is. That is why you're
currently in court and now trying to pretend as if
(39:34):
you are the victims. So you've got all of this
that is going on because they know that their bills
are not popular. They also know that they are losing
some of their Republicans. So besides the Epstein situation, once
they swear Grijalva and I told you that the big
Ugly bill only passed by one vote.
Speaker 2 (39:52):
Anyway, Well, now we have at least two new.
Speaker 3 (39:56):
Members that have been sworn in two of the three
that we are missing, so we're still down by one.
But literally just having one of them could have changed
the trajectory. We've now seen Marjorie Taylor Green come out
and sound like she's normal.
Speaker 2 (40:12):
We just gonna pause there.
Speaker 3 (40:14):
But nevertheless, so we've seen Marjorie come out, we've seen
her taking this stance that is like what we've been saying,
right and going against our party. But also she is
on that discharge petition that is being co led by
Rocanna and Thomas Massey. Thomas Massey also another Republican. So
(40:34):
there's four Republicans on there, which is absolutely ridiculous for
them to be in the majority and for them to
be all about law and order allegedly and them not
be you know, running to sign on to this discharge
petition because the refuser, the refuser, the speaker refuses, he
is a refuser. He refuses to bring this to the
(40:55):
floor for a vote. He could just do the bill.
We didn't have to do this, but this is the
hard way, and this is such like I want people
to understand how big and bad of a situation this is.
We have discharge petitions and basically think of it as
a ballot initiative.
Speaker 2 (41:14):
Not every state has them.
Speaker 3 (41:15):
Unfortunately we don't have them in Texas. Otherwise a lot
of things will be different.
Speaker 2 (41:19):
But it's like a ballot.
Speaker 3 (41:21):
Initiative, right, So your elected representatives are not doing what
you think they should be doing. The people can come
together collectively petition their government and change the law. Okay,
that is kind of like what a discharge petition is.
The speaker is the only one they can put a
bill on the floor. And if the speaker refuses to
put a bill on the floor that the body collectively
(41:42):
believes should be on the floor, which is represented by
the two hundred and eighteen signatures, then that's how.
Speaker 2 (41:47):
We force it to the floor.
Speaker 3 (41:50):
We do it most of the time in a very
symbolic way. This is going to be the first time,
and I don't know when, like years and years and years,
that a discharged petition actually is successful to basically override
the speaker, because most of the time people get in
line behind the party leader and they're just like, you
(42:10):
know whatever, But it's not happening. So I believe that
the speaker as well as the President are most likely
working overtime to try to get some of the Republicans
to come off. But Marjorie ain't going nowhere, nor is
Thomas Massey. So we'll see about the other two and
whether or not they waiver. Okay, once she has sworn
in and we vote on this. This is going to
(42:32):
be bigger than the subpoenas that have been put out
by the Oversight Committee. It was a subcommittee that came
together and outsmart at them and they were able to
get a subpoena.
Speaker 2 (42:44):
Ordered out of committee.
Speaker 3 (42:46):
When the Speaker tried to kick us out of DC
early to avoid a vote on the Epstein files, he
didn't want any in. This committee was already set up
and so they were able to do it. So it
was brilliant. It worked kind of. So then we get
some documents, but it's really nothing new, right And basically
at this point in time, if you saw cash Buttel testify,
(43:10):
he's decided what he legally can let out and what
he can and you know, instead of going to a
court and saying, hey, I have this lawful subpoena from
the Congress, I don't believe that these items can be disclosed.
We need the opinion of the court. He has not
done that. He is making his own opinions. And what
we received was representative of somewhere between one and three
(43:33):
percent of the entirety of the file.
Speaker 2 (43:36):
That is it. That is it.
Speaker 3 (43:38):
He is acting like the rest of it cannot come out,
and that's just not true. And some of the things
that we talked to the survivors with about is that
they had made calls to the FBI, they had made reports,
and obviously with people that experienced trauma, as they're going
(43:59):
through and saying, because at least one of them is
actually like a trauma counselor at this point, you know,
there's different mechanisms that people engage in to kind of
like the human brain is going to protect you in
different ways. It looks different for every different person, and
so some of them really want to see, like in
that moment, like what I reported, Like I want to
(44:22):
see like and I want to see what they did
after I made that report, Like I want to see
who got involved, who followed up, who did what. They
won't even allow them to see their own files, like
their lawyers were like, can you just ask them to
allow them to see their own files to see what
when they were the victims that made reports and they
(44:43):
want to know what work, if any, was done, like
they should have a right, and they.
Speaker 2 (44:48):
Don't even want to do that.
Speaker 3 (44:49):
So I will tell you that I fully anticipate there
are photos obviously lud photos as we heard, you know,
one of his cabinet members talking the other day about
being his next door neighbor and talking about the videos
that you know he anticipated existed to blackmail people.
Speaker 2 (45:11):
I anticipate there is some video footage.
Speaker 3 (45:14):
We know in our conversations or our inquiry with alex
Acosta about what took place in Florida in two thousand
and eight, we know in talking to him that they're
definitely like there's memos and conversations about video footage even
back then. So we've not received any video tapes anything
(45:38):
like that.
Speaker 1 (45:38):
Can I ask you about that? Because there's a big
GOP talking point that they don't want the files to
come out because they would never publish material of sexual abuse.
That is not what you're talking about. You're talking about committee,
like the people who are legally supposed to have oversight
over this material reviewing it.
Speaker 3 (45:59):
So what I would anticipate is we would go in
to whomever is holding whatever and we would review there,
and then what I would anticipate is the majority and
minority would come together and report out what we saw
(46:20):
and or if the Republicans don't want to talk about it,
you know, we would potentially do a minority report that
laid out for the public exactly kind of what was depicted,
because we wouldn't want names and faces anyway, right, like
to be out there if they're not. So no, it
would be about us safeguarding and even you know, making
(46:45):
sure again, many of these women were girls when they
went through this, and there may have been video footage
of them that they've never seen. They may have been
recorded without them knowing, and so at least supporting them
also an opportunity to go and sit and see what
(47:05):
all is in the files and that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1 (47:08):
Right, and now a word from our wonderful sponsors. Well,
and I think that's a really important thing for the
public unversity that all of you serve in a similar
way to you know, the things we've seen in film
(47:32):
and television. You know, you become the Olivia Benson of
SVU in a way. You review the materials and then
you can testify on what's in them, But what's in
them does not get released to further traumatize a victim
or do harm. The report on what is in that
material is entered into the record so the perpetrators can
(47:52):
accurately be charged and that's what we're calling for, and
I just think it's a really important piece of information
to give to people who are seeing a lot of
you know, clickbait, rage bait stuff on the internet that
isn't actually true. Now, I'm curious as we see them
trying to hold on to power with dirty tactics like
(48:14):
staving off this vote, like trying to read district states
like yours. You know, we see this power play happening
in my home state in California. You know, I appreciate
that Gavin Newsom is really coming at it and saying, Okay,
you do this in Texas, We'll do this in California,
like we're going to fight fire with fire, no more
insane behavior on one side and decorum on the other.
(48:36):
How do you feel about Prop fifty? Do you support
this initiative? Do you believe that this is a good
way to fight back? Give us the inside baseball?
Speaker 3 (48:45):
Yeah, I'm I'm a big fan of Prop fifty. I've
raised money for Cop fifty. I was just in California
last week, both in the Bay Area and LA making
sure that I could raise awareness and hopefully answer questions
about Prop fifty, especially as it kind of correlates to Texas,
and I want people to you know, I know we're
(49:06):
using the same words. So we're saying fire with fire,
and it is a fight. But I will tell you
that even in the way that California is fighting, there
is so much more integrity in what they're doing.
Speaker 2 (49:19):
It is not the same. It is not insidious. It
is in.
Speaker 3 (49:24):
Response, but it is not the same. We don't have
an out of control legislature and governor that just rely, oh.
Speaker 2 (49:34):
Here, this is what it is.
Speaker 3 (49:36):
Instead, they are taking a grassroots approach.
Speaker 2 (49:40):
They are giving it to the people. The people ultimately
get to decide.
Speaker 3 (49:45):
And as they went through and they drew their lines,
they actually honored the Voting Rights Act. They did not
do things to minimize the voices of people of color.
Whereas when we look at the map in Texas, the
state of Texas is sixty one percent people of color
(50:05):
and thirty nine percent Anglo. But under this current map,
over seventy percent, closer to eighty percent of the seats
out of Texas will be chosen by Anglos. They are
given an oversized voice in our government, and it is
antithetical to our principles of equity. But we knew that
(50:28):
this was coming because they've been attacking diversity, equity, civil rights,
right and for people that don't understand, they are about
to understand, like how bad it is.
Speaker 2 (50:39):
Like those that have.
Speaker 3 (50:41):
Uniquely abled children, they are affected by civil rights issues,
right like, So this isn't just about black folk, It's
not just about you know, the LGBTQIA community.
Speaker 2 (50:54):
It is bigger than that.
Speaker 3 (50:56):
And so by allowing them to attack certain gross and
being silent, you know, it's it's like the saying goes,
you know, they came for this group, and I was silent,
and they came for the you know what I mean,
Like ultimately, yeah, there's not even going to be anybody
to speak for you, right like, you'll be all by yourself.
(51:16):
So it is important again for us to focus on
that grounds us, that unites us. And even if ninety
percent of everything else we disagree on, those are small
things compared to our foundational issues, and we are losing
our foundation right now. And I mean, you know, I
(51:38):
will accept some of the blame, not that I was
in office at the time, but Democrats should have been
fighting harder. They should have been fighting harder earlier. It
seems like there was just too much goodwill that was
given or expected of the other side, and again us
(52:00):
being good willed people, expected that of the opposition. And
the problem is they played us, and we had the
clues to see that they were playing us, and they
still did not adjust and fight back. We know that
most people were introduced to me when I broke quorum
(52:23):
as a state representative down in Texas and we were
fighting for voting rights then, and we were ringing the alarms,
and this is right before we went through redistricting, and
we were trying to tell them when we came to
DC and they passed the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act,
and they passed the Freedom of Vote Act. Freedom to
Vote would have meant that you could not have an
Elon Musk buy an election. Yes, the House, we know
(52:45):
that the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act actually would
replace the Voting Rights Act because they had started to
tear it apart. It would replace it and fortify it.
And it passed the House, but the Senate refused to
go around the filibuster for something as foundational as our
voting rights, and because we did.
Speaker 2 (53:06):
Not decide that it was that important.
Speaker 3 (53:11):
We now are stuck in this position because we could
have a situation where the Supreme Court would have to
bend over backwards to undo law that was written in
and signed. We could be in that position, but we're
not right. We could have a situation where Elin could
not have spent the amount of money that he spent
(53:31):
in that election. We could have had a situation where
every state was required to have online voter registration so
that the access to your ballot looks similar, if not,
actually it would have equalized it and been the same.
Because in the state of Texas, we don't have online
voter registration, we don't have same day voter registration, we
(53:52):
don't have no excuse vote by mail. These are things
that California has. So California is able to stay blue
because they promote participation. But Republicans that the longest have
been pushing voter suppression because that is the only way
that they can win is if they minimize who it
is that is able to participate. But when we look
(54:13):
at the state of Georgia, Georgia ended up with two
Democratic senators once they increase their voter participation to something
like eighty something percent.
Speaker 1 (54:23):
Thanks to Stacy Abrams.
Speaker 3 (54:25):
Thanks to Stacy Abrams, Texas in twenty eighteen had an
opportunity to flip a Senate seat. Bettel or Work should
have won. Bettel lost by less than three points. But
what most people don't talk about is that we only
had seventeen percent voter turnout, seventeen percent and he only
lost by a little less than three points. Imagine if
(54:47):
we had gotten to twenty or twenty five percent.
Speaker 2 (54:50):
I am telling you we could have won. We would win.
Speaker 3 (54:53):
I am telling y'all that we are a majority minority
state and all they do is silence us and take
our power. And that is exact exactly what we are
experiencing now throughout this entire country, is that they want to.
Speaker 2 (55:06):
Have minority rule. We have minority rule in Texas.
Speaker 3 (55:11):
Not I can guarantee you if we had eighty five
percent voter participation, Texas would not be a red voting state.
Speaker 2 (55:20):
We would be blue.
Speaker 1 (55:21):
I agree with you, and then you might not be
dealing with the kinds of you know, disasters with everything
down to your power grid that you're dealing with now,
because you have people more interested in owning the Libs
than they do in serving their constituency. Now I know
I've kept you over, so I'm gonna skip to the end.
I always like to ask everybody this wonderful final question.
(55:46):
I want to ask you ten thousand more questions, but like, no,
you have elected official business to do. I've never told
someone what I want my work in progress to be
before I hear theirs. But I'm like, I just this
isn't even about me. This is just me being like
work in progress on the pin board of America in
Sofia's brain is please tell me at some way I'm
going to get to vote for Jasmine Crockett for president,
(56:09):
what is your work in progress? Because that's mine. I'm ready.
I'm like, I'm I'm tribute number one on the campaign.
But I want to know for you whether it's you know,
service oriented, oriented for the people, or like even just
something personal like sometimes I want to be like, girl,
have you had a have you been able to go
for a walk? Do we need to get you a
(56:30):
gift card for a massage? Like you need a minute?
So it can really across the spectrum of personal to professional.
What feels like you're work in progress?
Speaker 3 (56:40):
My work in progress is getting this country back on
track so that I can get out of politics. I mean,
I you know, I promise you, I ask myself over
and over and over, and then I get to go
home and I see the faces of the people that
I represent, or even as I travel of the country,
(57:02):
and the pure excitement and enthusiasm and hope that exist
even in the eyes of some of the youngest folks
that can't even vote yet, the inspiration that makes people
say I saw you and learn that you're a lawyer,
and I decided I'm going back to school, or I
decided now that I want to be a lawyer. Like
those are the things that keep me going. But I
(57:25):
never woke up any day of my life saying, you
know what, I want to grow up and be a politician.
That is not what I did, and it is not
where I stand today. But I truly believe that I
am necessary in this moment. I don't want to be necessary.
I just want to go out and do fun stuff.
(57:47):
And yes, I'm a dork, so doing fun stuff means like,
you know, practice in law, right, Like I actually liked
going into the courtroom. And I'm pretty sure people probably
read that all on me when I'm in committee. But
I would like a more low key life, one where
my friends and family get to see me more often,
(58:09):
one where I get to take more trips because I
always with someone and I.
Speaker 2 (58:14):
Actually travel a lot.
Speaker 3 (58:15):
I mean I travel a lot now, but it is
not for pleasure. It is all for work, and so
you know, I would like a more low key existence.
Speaker 2 (58:28):
I really am a girl's girl.
Speaker 3 (58:31):
You know this. You know I love my friends, and
I feel like I'm always cheating my friends because I
put people that, honestly, a lot of them I've never
met before, seemingly ahead of them. But the great thing
about my real friends is that they have drunk the
(58:52):
kool aid as well, and they all believe in this
mission that is on my life, and so I get
great support. But it still doesn't stop me from being
very human and feeling like I'm just not doing enough
for the people that love me the most. So yeah,
I would love to get out. It seems like it's
(59:14):
not going that way, but.
Speaker 2 (59:16):
But that that would that would be my hope.
Speaker 3 (59:19):
If I woke up tomorrow and everything was right side
up in this country, Uh, not perfect, but normal, I
would probably resign.
Speaker 2 (59:30):
I probably would. I believe that this is a great.
Speaker 3 (59:35):
Honor, and I've learned so much, but I also believe
that I should make space for others to come behind
me and for them to learn and experience as well.
And so yeah, I'm not tied to the title. I
am tied to the mission, and it is it is
my hope that home that the mission is complete, Sony now,
(01:00:00):
and that you know, God doesn't tell me, whoop, You're
gonna have to go to another level to get more done.
I can't say yeay or nay whether or not there
will be another level, but I can guarantee you that
if for some reason, Trump wakes up tomorrow and he
hit his head and he fires everyone around him who
(01:00:22):
has been engaged in all of the fraudulent and illegal
activities that they are doing, and he somehow wakes up,
finds Jesus and decides that he wants to try to
get into the pearly gates that he said he knows
he is not going to get into.
Speaker 2 (01:00:38):
At least he knows he's the devil.
Speaker 3 (01:00:41):
You know, Listen, if he woke up tomorrow and just
turn a new leaf and became the president that we deserve,
I would be out.
Speaker 2 (01:00:53):
I would be thankful and I would be out.
Speaker 1 (01:00:56):
I think when you are a really dedicated public servant,
you can put your own life on the back burner.
But the people that you miss and that miss you
also know you're doing it for them too, And so
no matter how hard it gets, before it gets better,
you give so many of us hope, and you fight
(01:01:17):
with such love at the core of your spirit, and
then you know you've got all the legal ease to
back it up. And I'm just gone stillly like this
watching you on the TV. So thank you. I'm going
to let you get back to the floor and all
the things that you're doing. I love and adore you.
(01:01:38):
I'm so proud to be in the same timeline as you,
even if our timeline sucks right now, And next time
you come to New York, I'm taking you out.
Speaker 2 (01:01:47):
Okay, it's good to see you, my friend.
Speaker 1 (01:01:49):
You too, Thank you for your time today.
Speaker 3 (01:01:51):
All right bye, Oh,
Host
Sophia Bush
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