Rep. Jasmine Crockett on CNN: Republicans Chose Chaos Over Care. Now Americans Are Paying the Price

Let's begin this conversation with Democratic Congresswoman from Texas, Jasmine Crockett. Congresswoman, thank you for being here. A lot has happened. We've now learned the Senate may stay in D.C. over the weekend to address this obvious longest shutdown ever. What kind of agreement, though, would Democrats need to get from Republicans to make this end?

In my mind, they need a trigger. We know that this particular president, he may sign it into law and then just do whatever he wants to. And we need to have an automatic trigger in this bill. It is one of those things that we saw under the Biden administration is that if certain things weren't met by a certain amount of time, the things that Democrats really want,

which is like more money for the people, they automatically kicked in. So we're going to have to do something so that if he signs it into law, that ultimately if he fails to distribute all the things that the American people want,

the things that the Democrats are negotiating for, that there will be some sort of backlash or trigger, something that we can go to court about. Do you trust that those triggers being in place would actually be followed? I don't know, but if we put the triggers in place and it's something that he signs into law, then those organizations that are supposed to be the beneficiaries of those items can then go ahead and go to court and at least get a court order now.

Obviously, we're dealing with SNAP benefits right now, and we have an administration that wants to fight against feeding over 40 million people. So granted, we still would have a lot of fighting on our hands, but we at least need to make sure that we are in a better position than we historically

have found ourselves with this administration. You know a judge today ordered the administration to fully fund SNAP benefits. They were told earlier that it'd be a partial payment which helps not the 40 million people who need everything about it. The vice president, though, Vice President J.D. Vance

called it an absurd ruling. They are vowing to appeal in the Justice Department.

I can see from your facial expression that you are either not surprised or dumbstruck by this. I I'm not surprised It you know, it honestly breaks my heart like I don't really care how people feel about me as an individual I'll be real with you. I Signed up to do this work because I care. And we are in a position to really make people recognize

and realize the American dream. And instead, every day people are waking up with nightmares. And these nightmares are because we have decided that we are going to be the ones to deal them to them. And when I say we, I have to take this as a collective because I am a part of the federal government

at this point in time and It is so frustrating to me to have people that believed in me to represent a district of seven hundred and sixty six thousand people And to know the numbers to know that the people that will be more Impacted Detrimentally knowing that it's their elected officials. We know when it comes to health care, whether we're talking about SNAP benefits,

we know that we are fighting so much harder for the people that Republicans elected to represent them than the Republicans that were elected to represent them. And I just want people to remember this because it seems like there was a bit of amnesia by the time we got to this last presidential.

And right now we saw amazing results on November 4th. But it doesn't stop there. It can't stop there. As soon as you relax and believe that everything is all good, I am here to tell you that the Grim Reaper is lurking.

And sadly enough, the Grim Reaper is the president and his minions at this point. Is it concerning you that it's not the SNAP benefits or even the ACA that might be the straw that breaks the camel's back, but instead the flight situation? You've seen the footage of Houston. You've heard about flights being reduced,

chaos at the airports, coming to an airport near every American. Is that what's going to move the needle?

I personally believe it is. We know that this president definitely is good as set in certain records. And they're usually losing issues. He had the longest shutdown before. And as you opened up, you talked about the fact

that we are sitting in now the longest. So he topped his old record. But when you look back at history It was the air traffic controllers that were able to finally bring this thing to a halt last time Now what they did is they modified the law instead of allowing these federal workers to do what is best not only for them But best for the rest of federal workers best for the rest of the country

They decided that they wanted to minimize their ability to organize in that same way so that they could not ultimately stop a shutdown going forward. So it is no surprise. And honestly, I applaud all federal workers that have consistently decided to show up with no guarantee that they'll get their money anytime soon, right, knowing that they could probably go and get a job somewhere else,

knowing that they were never paid their due in the first place, and knowing that the members of Congress, especially the House, that we are continuously being paid. And if there is anybody that is not working,

it is the House. And we know that the House Republican speaker has failed to bring us in. He could have brought us in and passed all 12 appropriation bills and sat them right there on the desk of the Republicans in the Senate. And they could have been voting.

They could have been opening up different parts of the government gradually. We could have been doing work. But because he's decided to prioritize protecting pedophiles, we couldn't get it done.

You know who agrees with you? Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. Listen to what she had to say just this night.

With this upcoming crisis with health insurance premiums skyrocketing, I think this is like a five alarm fire. And to me, it is incredibly embarrassing and I find absolutely pathetic really that all of us are not here in Washington, D.C. working every single day to make sure that we can get the government open but also solve the problem of affordability for the American people and come up with a good solution once and for all for health insurance.

Your reaction? Yeah, hell may have frozen over. Because we are agreeing more than we're not. But I will tell you that while there is a new Marjorie, as some people have said, I do want to give people an opportunity to do their research. And the reality is that the big ugly bill,

it only passed with one vote. And if one more Republican would have defected, which we had maybe two Republicans that defected, if we would have just had one more, then we would not be talking about higher insurance premiums. Marjorie Taylor Greene voted for this. Point blank period.

Her constituents were the ones that were on the receiving end of this. In fact, I'm sure that we can find tape in committee of me going down and talking about how many people in their Republican districts were going to lose healthcare, how many children were going to lose healthcare because of that bill. Now maybe she didn't care about those on Medicaid and Medicare, and Democrats spent a lot of time talking about the fact that 15 to 17 million were going to lose their

health care, but they didn't fully understand, I guess, that when you remove $1 trillion from the health care ecosystem, everybody else has to pay in. Also that the top 1 percenters can keep more money in their pockets at the same time that we've not raised the minimum wage, we're seeing record breaking profits from those at the top. We know that there are talks about Elon

becoming the first trillionaire that we've ever seen in the world. So you tell me if I am feeling so sad for Marjorie or buying into this because I don't understand why she didn't do the right thing when she had a chance. So there's two issues that we have going on.

The big ugly bill is what caused our insurance premiums to go up. But in addition to that, Republicans have decided to kick people while they're down. So if you are on the marketplace, if that's where you get your health care Then that tax subsidy is set to expire at the same time that they made the tax cuts permanent For those at the top and they have decided they don't want to talk about giving them subsidies So while your insurance may go from say $200 a month to say a thousand dollars a month But if you are on the marketplace, you are going to get say

$250 credit a month. Now they're saying we also want to take that away.

I hear affordability to what you're talking about, which is the precise message in the mayoral election and a lot of Tuesday night's victories for Democrats. Do you see that as instructive of what will happen for the midterms?

I do. If we keep it up and we make sure that people understand, right now we know that the Supreme Court is looking at whether or not they are going to overturn the tariffs. That in my opinion, there is no question about the fact that they have been illegally inflicted upon all of us. These tariffs have been one of the many reasons that our lives are more unaffordable.

So what I don't want to happen is once and if the Supreme court decides to save Donald Trump from himself and things may be reduced in cost that people say, everything's going well and they don't fully understand. It wasn't him. It wasn't him. If it was up to him, you still would be suffering. He still will be telling you, maybe you won't have 10 baby dolls, but instead two for Christmas, he would still be looking at you crazy every time you're like, well, Mr. President, Canada

is our friend or Mexico is our friend. So why is it that you're making it more difficult? Why is it that we are not going to have the great trade partners even when you're in Texas? Our biggest trade partner is Mexico, you know, so I want to make sure that we communicate. If there is any kind of relief that comes because of tariffs, that it was the Supreme Court. And y'all know I don't love the Supreme Court.

So I mean, if I'm giving credit there, then that means they deserve the credit.

Well talking about communication in the form of advice you would give to mayor-elect, Mamdani, you've been at the receiving end of a great deal of criticism, a lot of visceral reactions and vile rhetoric thrown your way. He receives a great deal of it. What is your advice to Mamdani?

Listen, I don't know that he needs my advice. He has been a master, and frankly, he could do a master class for all Democrats on communication, whether you're talking about speaking with passion and heart and just talking to the working class, not worried about the billionaires. They're gonna be fine. In fact, the better that the working class does, the better they do. That means that they've got the employees that they need to make the profits that they need and ultimately we

are the ones that spend the money. I don't think he needs me. What I think is that our party needs to learn from Mamdani. They need to learn about organizing people on all levels. They need to learn to talk to everyone, and not just those double Ds or triple Ds, which are the people that always come out.

They need to not necessarily give up on anybody. They need to go to places that they aren't used to seeing Democrats. Like one of the things that I did on the presidential was I kept telling them, send me to rural America. I have things that I need to say. I lived in East Texas and I understand it.

Will you use that advice possibly for a run for the Senate?

We were still evaluating that. But yeah, I think that it is about expanding the electorate and making sure that people know, especially as Texans, number one, that I'm Texas tough and that ultimately my priority will be Texans, whether you are in rural Texas or urban Texas. People need to understand that we have more in common than divides us and that is exactly what I would hope to do is to bridge that gap.

bridge that gap.

Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, thank you.