How do you feel about the president's new justification for this 250-foot arch as a kind of sniper outpost?

Well, there's such a high level of absurdity around the entire thing because Washington DC already has an anti-aircraft and protection system that is in place from the military.

But that arch not only would directly block Arlington Cemetery, it also is a hazard to the airport and potentially to other military infrastructure.

But I think the biggest piece for me especially as somebody who has veterans in my life and my own partner who is a veteran of the Marines, is that it is so insulting that Donald Trump wants to build an arch to himself in front of one of the most hallowed grounds in our nation's capital, where thousands of veterans are buried.

and would obstruct the view of the unknown soldier, I find it disgraceful.

I think he's going to lose his lawsuit.

I think his public statements up until now have made this clear.

For you, what would be the priority? What would be the first thing you would want Democrats in the majority in oversight to do?

Your thoughts about that, number one, as a lawyer, number two, as a congresswoman, number three, just as a basic human person who believes in the decency of helping others, that they're refusing to cooperate.

Yeah.

Uh, thanks for the question, and I think that this kinda lends to what the conversation has been.

It's about them being complicit.

One of the reasons that I specifically spoke out against Todd Blanche, a lot of people think that if it has anything to do with Trump, then I'm just gonna be against it, which for the most part, yeah, it can be true.

But the attorney in me truly was disturbed because I sit on the Oversight Committee, and we are the ones that have kind of been the lead investigators as it relates to the Epstein files in general.

And so I've sat in these depositions, these transcribed interviews, and ultimately, when the previous attorney general, God bless her, uh, was kicked out, we had gone behind closed doors with her, and we were trying to figure out what was going on and why it was that she was failing to comply.

I mean, my, I mean, the thing I always say is alone we're afraid, together we're feared.

Number one, as a lawyer, number two, as a congresswoman, number three, just as a basic human person who believes in the decency of helping others that they're refusing to cooperate.

Yeah, thanks for the question.

And I think that this kind of lends to what the conversation has been.

It's about them being complicit.

One of the reasons that I specifically spoke out against Ty Blanch, a lot of people think that if it has anything to do with Trump, then I'm just going to be against it, which for the most part...

It can be true.

But the attorney in me truly was disturbed because I sit on the oversight committee and we are the ones that have kind of been the lead investigators as it relates to the Epstein files in general.

That is the goal with the lawsuit is to get the unredacted files with all those names.

I'm curious, are you opposed overall to the idea of closing or reforming the way that polling sites are set up in the county? Or is it just perhaps too close to the midterms to make these kinds of changes right now?

I think I have issue—I take issue with both.

I'm absolutely opposed to the idea of reducing the number of polling locations, which will lead to confusion in a very short amount of time.

We know that the Republicans pulled some games during our primary that caused for confusion and overall ultimately resulted in the disenfranchisement of voters in Dallas County.

So the reason for playing these games, they still haven't laid it out.

And so the only thing that I can tell you is that they were upset at the amount of participation that came in during those primaries where Democrats voted overwhelmingly at a higher rate than Republicans.

And therefore, they want to cause confusion and engage in voter suppression.

people you're specifically planning to campaign for that sort of illuminate that argument, that concern, that focus you're gonna have?

Mm.

Or, um, you know, the idea that Paxton is a creep because he is a grade A creep, um, and whether or not they wanna continue to support that.

I mean, what has it done for them in the past? The thing about Democrats though is I don't want Democrats to get comfortable because Paxton is just a bad candidate.

Guess what? Donald Trump is a terrible candidate, and somehow he got elected to the presidency twice.

And so whatever we do, the energy has to be kept up.

People have to understand that polls don't vote, people do.

We know that the polls have been very off.

Does that surprise you? Is that a growing issue that you're hearing about?

What's your reaction to hearing that?

Yeah, I mean, listen, the primary is five months past us, but I swear, you know, I guess it's just more clicks to mention my name because I don't think in the history of this country we've seen a race where, you know, everyone keeps talking about the person that didn't win.

But, you know, that's where we are.

I will say that...

They there are those that believe I have an Underground Railroad popping off in Texas and that I've been telling all the black folk on the Underground Railroad, don't do this or don't do that.

And it's it's it's so far from the truth.

I frankly stopped doing as many TV interviews because.

Yeah.

Mm

... that the Black community has for any politician, Democrat or Republican.

And you know, the, the reason in my mind that the, the clip that Angela was about to go into about, um, the town hall, that is a, a Black woman that I've never met in person, um, but she's very vocal online and, you know, there had been a lot of chatter because it, it didn't stop with me.

Um, in fact, I had to sit down with different Texas creators and apologize because they had never been attacked in their lives until they were being honest about their feelings about me and the race.

Then all of a sudden they were being attacked in their small local...

Like, their small-

Mm-hmm.

There was, um, you know, like, a whole caricature that was put out of Elizabeth Booker and, you know, the NAACP had to get involved and, like- That was of that page of Rogue DNC who's always on some nonsense and BS and clipping and snipping and doing all of the...

What are the challenges that we face moving forward with the family of Carmelo Anthony?

Number one, for those of you unaware, Carmelo Anthony, this is a case out of Texas.

It's out of a county that's right north of the county that I represent.

So it's right north of Dallas County.

I did a two hour live really breaking down a lot of stuff that happened with Carmelo.

People started calling my office.

They were not kind calls.

I'm so glad you said

Nope.

Okay.

No, no. Y'all, we got one now.

Now.

One.

Uh, a- anybody feel like they got a home within the Democratic Party? [audience cheering] But the reality is that there are so many people that did not clap for either, and that is the problem right now.

Even when we look at the last presidential election, we know that more people didn't vote than voted for either the Democratic or the Republican nominees.

Yes.

Enjoy.

Looking for the latest Black legal news?

And as someone who has been one of the most influential Congress people in history, what advice would you give Black folks about how they can use their voice?

Listen, the reality is that they are coming for our voices.

They are coming for our representation simply because we are always that rose that will rise through the concrete.

And so don't let them be right.

Don't let them scare us out of what we are entitled to.

We're entitled to nice things.

We're talking [laughs] about 42,000 people have voted, and the Supreme Court's like, "Have at it."

Yeah.

Yeah, that's exactly right.

Um, you know, so it is clear that while they've talked about these partisan actors sitting on the Court, the only ones that are partisan actors are the six Republican appointee justices in this moment.

Um, unfortunately, it seems like we have only gone backwards as it relates to the amount of integrity that exists even within the judiciary.

I'm sure Joyce would agree with me, when we look at some of these rulings that have taken place on lower courts and even in, um, the appellate courts, we're probably thinking, "Why in the heck did we ever pay for a law degree?" Because right now-

Do you have a message to governors in states like, say, Maryland and Illinois, and particularly Colorado and other states where they're, they could redraw maps, to try to get back to par about what those Democratic governors and the state legislature should be doing?

Yeah, well, you know where I stand on this.

Uh, whether or not this is about approving a war, it's fundamentally about, uh, Congress asserting its role as the, the, the branch of government that is con-constitutionally allowed to determine whether war occurs.

That's exactly right.

And listen, Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna have been working together quite often, um, on bip- bipartisan legislation, including the Epstein Files.

Um, and so they do have a war powers resolution that they have been working on together.

Um, and I do know that Ro Khanna has made it clear that he wants to bring that to the floor on Monday.

Um, my question to Speaker Johnson is, how many people are going to have to die because this president just decided that he was gonna do whatever he wanted to and to, um, ignore our congressional authority and our congressional powers? I don't think that we should wait till Monday, and this is being said as someone who literally has an election on Tuesday.

I've got to make sure that I am doing what I swore an oath to do as a sitting member of the House, and I think Speaker Johnson needs to call us in right now, and we need to deal with this right now.

This is not even a debate technically that has happened in Congress.

Hmm.

I really don't.

All I can tell you is that right now the governor of Texas is spending over $3 million specifically against me running ads.

So it doesn't sound like they wanna go against me, but I do also know that the Republicans are very good at throwing bombs.

They did the exact same thing when they decided to tell all the Democrats that, "Oh, Joe Biden is old," and, "Oh, he is senile.

So therefore you guys need to get rid of Joe Biden." And so what did we do? We went ahead and got rid of Joe Biden, and at the end of the day, what did they do? They elected a old, senile con man instead.

So they love to kinda stir us up and have us decide to play off of their rhetoric.

Do you have what it takes to do that?

this was off the dome?

No.

People have asked that over and over.

Um, you know, I actually sat there.

I did write it down as we were going through this, like, back and forth about whether or not she was going to be allowed to continue on in the hearing.

And as the back and forth was taking place, uh, between, like, leadership, um, I finally got word that they were going to allow her to disrespect me, and I basically understood the rules, because as a lawyer, the first thing that you're supposed to figure out is what are the rules? And then I wanted to illustrate how quickly something like this could devolve if we set this precedent, while also making sure I didn't violate the rules.

I mean, what does being yourself even mean? When you think about how you show up to politics, is this the authentic version? Are we seeing the Jasmine Crockett, uh, that's the real one?

It's, it's me.

You have Trump's DHS pushing to expedite the removal of Liam and his family from What does that tell you about what their objective here and politically how they are reading this moment?

Yeah, I mean, I don't know that we have to guess because they have been very overt with their words, not just Trump, but J.D. Vance.

It has been kind of this we don't have to hide anymore.

We are the ones that are being targeted.

We being white people.

Right.

There is a lack of respect for the contributions that all of us make to this country.

But now that you're very, very close to when folks start voting in Texas, how are you going to get this done?

But when you saw this, we can talk about that, but when you saw this meme that they posted this morning or overnight, Representative, what were your thoughts?

I mean, it's on par for who this administration is.

I mean, people consistently talk about how, um, you know, I speak about this administration and their actions, but this, this isn't a shock for me, right? Like, people are, um, more prone to try to police my speech than they are to policing the actions, um, of, of this administration.

And I'm gonna be real with you, Don, as somebody that serves on the, um, the oversight committee, you know, we know that yesterday he said, "Stop talking about the Epstein files.

Stop talking about the Epstein files.

Stop talking about the Epstein files." And guess what? He is the king of distraction, and he knows how to get us talking about something, um, other than the Epstein files.

Is it new that he's racist? Absolutely not.

Right.

(laughs)

I'll leave it at that.

He's about to become the next governor, uh, of California, so that's fantastic, and anytime that I can get to go and help him, I will be.

Um, but obviously I'm running for US Senate in Texas, and, uh, it's just been really sobering.

Um, just as every single day seems like just another hellscape in this country, not only because of the administration, but because of the impotence of the Republicans, both in the House and the Senate.

And once the Democrats take control of the House, which I feel confident they're gonna do, regardless of what we see happening with all the redistricting around the country, it's gonna be important that we can actually deliver.

And delivering looking... delivering looks like us taking the Senate as well, and having really aggressive senators that are ready to push forward with the legislation that can actually preserve our democracy.

No? You're not buying it?

Is that part of the reason why you say you have such high name recognition? And aren't you the foil that Republicans want to run against?

That's exactly what they like to put out there, um, but I don't know how many poker players normally reveal their hand before they win, um, and so that is what they're saying.

Now going to your first question about the name ID, I think it's a couple of things.

Um, number one, we've always done layered communications.

So my communications have not been limited to, uh, cable news networks.

It's been quite expansive from radio, to local radio, to nationally syndicated radio, to podcasts, to, um, news stations, local as well as national, print as well as TV, um, as well as we've built our own ecosystem.

I actually have more followers on our YouTube channel than anyone else in the House or the Senate and YouTube, the reason that I specifically bring it up is because that's where a lot of people go for a lot of their information.

She is something else." What's your response?

Yeah.

'Cause I'm, 'cause I'ma always keep it 100, um, regardless as to whether or not I'm supposed to be this person, but I, I just only know how to be real.

Um, John Cornyn when I came in was, to me, what a senator should be.

I'ma just be honest.

Like, yes, we're not the same political party, um, but he recognized and respected the fact that I was one of his House members, and I fully anticipate that once I become the senator, I will do the exact same thing for Republican members that are, um, serving their constituency, our shared constituency.

And so John Cornyn actually, um, their office reached out to ours when we couldn't swear in.

If y'all remember, the Republicans couldn't pick a speaker.

Right.

You know, I think when we see Democrats running in red states, um, as, as, you know, Texas has shown itself to be, the question I often ask candidates is what's your plan on getting Independents or Republican voters to vote for you since they have that edge, um, in terms of, you know, who their electorate actually is? Are you going for Independent or Republican voters? Are you trying to build out a new subset of the electorate that hadn't voted before? I know that I had spoken to Beto in the past and, you know, he's adamant about the fact that Texas is not necessarily a red state, it's a non-voting state, and so I'm just curious, in trying to win this state, which tack are you taking here? Are you trying to reach out to voters who would otherwise cast ballots for Republicans or, or, or are you gonna go for a different tack which is to buil- to bring about a new swath of the electorate that hadn't previously come out?

out?It's a little bit of both, but I will tell you it's more of the people that haven't been talked to than it is going and trying to win over Republicans.

Um, and I'm glad that you brought up Beto because Beto is the last Democrat that came anywhere near, um, clenching one of these statewide seats and so he thought about adding different people, um, to the mix.

Here's the deal, we're not turning away anyone who wants better access to he- health care, education, housing, jobs.

We're not turning anybody away, right? But at the same time, where we are making our investments, we're making our investments into those people that haven't been talked to and the reason is this.

Um, Texas has one of the lowest voter turnouts in the entire country.

Um, we're only turning out approximately 50% of the registered voters, so that means that there's a lot of people that you can still talk to.

And so for people who are deciding between you and James Talarico in this primary, how do you differentiate yourself from him?

What- what was your understanding of what they were doing today?

Yeah.

You know, I was actually thrown off, uh, when they started some of their questioning.

Uh, if I had to be perfectly honest, this was an opportunity for Republicans, in my opinion, to try to dig to find out how much evidence there was against them, um, if I had to kinda characterize some of the questions.

Um, because as we know, um, you know, the, we know what the Senate was trying to do as it relates to trying to rob the American people and pull out a payday for themselves, if for some reason they were involved in some way as it relates to January 6th, right? So for me, it felt like a fishing expedition, trying to figure out how much culpability (laughs), um, maybe Jack Smith, um, had decided they had as maybe, um, unindicted co-conspirators.

That's what it felt like overall to me.

What was your reaction to that?

Yeah.

Like what- take me through what pushed you over.

Yeah.

So I'll tell you that, um, I have been telling a lot of people that I was closer to a yes than a no, but I was really concerned.

Number one, I was concerned about Democratic unity.

I talked a lot about the fact that I really wanted us to have a very strong ticket, and instead of kind of having our star power but- put into one race, I wanted to see if we could somehow make it to where you could have an option for governor, say, if you had nothing but state experience, see if we could have an option for, you know, Senate, see if we could have lieutenant governor, attorney general, and really give different parts of the state of Texas someone to vote for and be excited about.

And it's kinda hard to get around a state of 30 million people.

We saw that Beto did it, he went to 254 counties, but Beto also literally worked himself into a sickness.

Um, so, so it does seem like both of those are necessary, particularly when you're looking at the numbers that you're staring down in Texas which is a, again, numerically (laughs) it's like a tough, it's not an easy place to win.

So if your prediction proves right, if, in fact, this goes back to the 2021 maps, do you think that other Democratic-led states, like California, for example, should abandon their efforts to redraw the maps in favor of Democrats?

No.

First of all, California decided that this was going to be a ballot measure that would be put to the people.

They did the work.

They invested, they canvassed, and they were able to get the people to make a decision.

The people have already decided this is the map that they are going to be running on until the next new maps need to be drawn after the census.

That is that.

There's a big question mark about whether DOJ is going to release the files, or about whether they will say, "Actually, there's an open and active investigation, and so we therefore need to withhold the files to preserve the integrity of the investigation." What, if any, recourse do you have in the House to force the release of these files if that were to happen?

What do you make of that?

Listen, they will do and say anything to cover themselves.

You know, I will admit that Donald Trump has been investigated more than the normal, but he just happens to be more corrupt and more criminal than any other president than we've had.

I will point out he is the only president who has been convicted of 34 felony convictions that we've ever had in the Oval Office.

So while we don't know exactly what crimes he may or may not have committed, just think of it this way.

if you know that you didn't do anything then why is it that you would be twisting members of your own party's arms trying to get them not to release it this would be exonerating if you know that you are free and clear then why not say you know what release the files in fact he campaigned on releasing the files because he didn't realize that anything that he was involved in whatsoever wasn't involved in the files but let me tell you something another thing that was said in that other email that he had with Michael Wolff, what he was talking about if he wants to basically play hardball.

We will make mention of the fact that he really has been on the plane and I don't remember if it mentioned the island.

No, no,

Okay.

Um, we know that African Americans under this map only have the voting strength approximately of one-fifth of their Anglo Texans, and we know that our, um, brown brothers and sisters only have about one-third the voting strength of our Anglo brothers and sisters in Texas.

But here's the deal.

Okay, so yes, Texas 30 is still safe.

Texas 33 is still safe.

I will say that Texas 32, which is the seat that Julie Johnson currently has, I think that that is a wash.

I don't think that we win it.

Why... (laughs) You know, why, why, why don't we see more of that, you know, all over the place?