Bulwark Takes - Hegseth Disaster! Trump’s Big Parade! Rep. Jason Crow Talks All

Episode Date: June 11, 2025

Rep. Jason Crow joins Sam Stein to discuss Trump’s upcoming military birthday parade and the massive cost of the spectacle. They also discuss the administration’s use of force against protesters in Los Angeles and how Democrats can respond in this charged moment.

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at the pinnacle of their careers. If you're starting your career in finance, check out cbvinstitute.com slash become a CBV. Your future self will thank you for it. Hey guys, me Sam Stein, managing editor at The Bullwork and I'm joined by Congressman Jason Crowe of Colorado. He is kind enough to talk about, well, when we booked this, we were going to talk about

Trump's military parade. But like all things, there's like four or five existential stories. They wake up every morning and decide what we're going to do the rest of the day these days. Yeah, there's a lot of things that intervened. There's a lot of things. There's a lot of stuff. I appreciate you joining me and us. So Congressman, let's start with the parade. It's happening, we're recording this on Tuesday, it's happening on Saturday.

Tanks are rolling into our dear city. I've seen them. The appetite here is one of, I don't know, how would you put it? It feels very ominous to a degree, but maybe you have a different take. Yeah. Well, I mean, there's a cloud, there's an ominous cloud hanging over the city generally, so it's hard to tell whether it's a parade cloud or just the general Trump cloud.

Listen, I'm an army veteran, you know that. I love my home branch. It is the best branch in the military by far. The 250th anniversary of the army, which we're celebrating on the 14th, which actually precedes the country, right? We're older than the country. It's something to honor.

It's something to actually hold up and to celebrate. And I'm gonna be celebrating it too But there's a right way in a wrong way to do this and like so many things the administration does it's overkill It goes overboard and it loses the force through the trees You know, we're gonna in what ways in what ways do you think it's overkill? Is it that he's also celebrating his birthday or is there something more to it? Well, there is that and we all know the real thing Listen the 250th anniversary of the Marine Corps is coming up too.

And my guess is they're not going to be rolling tanks past the White House for that one, right? So yeah, I mean, there's no coincidence here. The man wants pomp and circumstance and to have his ego stroked on his birthday. There's no doubt about it. We've never done anything remotely like this in the country, right? We literally, I mean, I just went for a run down the national mall yesterday and it's all gated off. There are concrete barricades.

They're going to be lying the streets with steel. There are, you know, tanks being pre-positioned that have been sent by rail from Texas that are in the Navy yard. Like, this is crazy. This is crazy. And it's going to cost $50 million. They are blowing through money. Like it's free in this administration 50 million dollars for a parade 140 million dollars to send Marines and National Guard to LA

25 billion dollars for Golden Dome and Missile Defense System that nobody asked for a billion dollars for airstrikes against the Houthis which were completely ineffective like Money is free and doesn't mean anything, apparently, to this administration. Now, I don't know if I want to call it a trap, but I think for the purpose of this, it's called a trap. It seems like there's a trap being set, frankly, which is this whole patriotic fervor.

We're celebrating 250 anniversary. We have tanks rolling in. And Trump's telling, celebrate the victories that we've had, including in World War II, which we've never celebrated before, according to him. And it makes Democrats, puts Democrats in a bit of a bind, or at least that's what he wants, in which you complain about the cost. You say, well, this is overkill. This is over the top.

And he gets to say, well, you don't want to celebrate our country. How do you navigate what seems to be a fairly obvious trapping set for you? Yeah. Well, what I do is I talk about the fact that Trump has repeatedly maligned veterans and our combat soldiers. He's called us suckers and losers. He's refused to go to the cemetery where our brothers and sisters are buried in Europe because it was raining that day.

This man has no understanding of selfless service. He has no comprehension of what it means to serve and do something bigger than yourself. And obviously that's why he's throwing a parade on his birthday. He sure as hell wouldn't be doing it if it weren't his birthday. That's my opinion. Yeah. And listen, that's why I also say honoring these things is important, right? But there's a right way and wrong way to do it.

You know, I just talked about all the money that's being spent on this. When, you know, the secretary of the Navy just went to Guam a couple of weeks ago and visited barracks and he has initiated a Navy wide review of barracks. Cause he said they were, they were inexcusable. He was shocked by the state of the barracks. And I've seen that myself in my visits. excusable. He was shocked by the state of the barracks. And I've seen that myself in my visits around posts. Our service members are living in places that nobody should be living in in some barracks. And this administration

literally just took this, this, this is crazy. Literally just took a billion dollars that's specifically earmarked for barracks, repair and construction to fix this crisis of housing for our service service members and they're reallocating it for the border. Right a border that they say is already secure yes it's something that they did so and then all the other money we're spending so it's great and then they're cutting veterans jobs slashing VA healthcare and services. care and services and I have veterans in my district who are having a hard time even getting appointments and getting through to anybody and they're going to cut another 80,000 jobs at the VA. It's crazy. And then turn around and spend 40 to 50 million on this parade.

Trump today was talking about the parade and he had this kind of ominous line about protests. Didn't distinguish between nonviolent and violent protests. It's just a protest in general. He said, if you show up in protests, we're going to confront you with, you know, forceful, you know, forceful confrontation for the protesters. Obviously, that seems well beyond, you know, the law. I think Chris Murphy had a response to it being like, he's just trying to intimidate you, show up, make your voices heard. Putting, you know, I know you're going to say, yes, do that, but like, talk a little bit about in the abstract, this idea that protests should be confronted, that you can't

protest this. And what would you say to Democrats who are kind of curious about going out on Saturday? Because I know just from talking to them, a lot of them are worried about showing up in DC. They're going to show up in other cities and there's all these non-king protests in other cities. But them are worried about showing up in DC. They're going to show up in other cities and there's all these in non-king protests in other cities. Yeah. But they are worried about showing up in DC. Well, let's look at some of the history here, which is really important.

You know, when the January 6th insurrectionists were attacking the capital and threatening the lives of me and my colleagues and trying to derail the certification and brutally beating 140 police officers, several of whom later died from their wounds. They slow walked the mobilization of the guard. Then fast track to when there was a protest outside of Lafayette Square protesting him when he wanted the active duty military to clear that out and shoot the protesters. Remember this is why he ended up not liking Chairman Milley,

Mark Milley, because Milley said, no. He's not going to do that. And Esper recounted that in his book. He said, this is the, so, no, but I get that. And I understand there's no, I mean, there's no through line for Trump. It's all about, you know, are the protests of him or with him? But what is your message to those Democrats who are, and they do exist,

who say, I don't feel comfortable showing up in Washington, DC on Saturday. Yeah, I can understand that. I can really understand that. Right. Um, because so much of what this administration does is about intimidation, is about suppression. I mean, look at the, the mobilization of the guard and sending them, you know, active duty Marines to LA. Right.

Uninvited the mayor and the governor have been very clear that they're not needed. Right. There's very questionable legality around this mobilization. They're doing it to send a message. They're doing it to chill protests and dissent. And if somebody disagrees with them, guess what? We have a bigger stick is their message. Right. That's the message. So I understand why some folks would feel uncomfortable. And that's why I'm

encouraging people to find other ways to honor our army and to find real ways, you know go to a veterans nursing home and Volunteer serve a meal go plant a flag at your local veterans cemetery go visit of VFW Chip in you know service is the best way to honor folks in my opinion Rather than sitting there and watching a bunch of tanks roll down Pennsylvania Avenue, which by the way We've learned from Russia Ukraine that tanks really don't work anymore. You got to use drones, man. Get with it.

You know, there's nothing, there's nothing with a shorter lifespan along the forward line of troops in Ukraine than a tank right now. Seriously, it's nuts. It is nuts. That actually is a good segue to Pete Hegseth, He was on on the hill today talking to the appropriators asked both about the Ukrainian use of drones, which he had some sort of diplomatic answers, but also about what's happening in LA. And the money that's going to that and I think is $140 million to deploy this unit to LA. What do you make of Hegseth post the Signalgate scandal

now having to deal with this? Obviously very little confidence from Democrats in his ability to do the job and a lot of fear frankly that he's just acquiescing to whatever Trump wants with respect to the use of military on American citizens in America's second biggest city. Yeah, well the man is a disgrace. First of all, most of his senior staff.

What do you really think? Yeah. I'm going to try not to hold back, Sam. OK. I know I have a big filter. This is YouTube, so you can let it go. It's not cable. I didn't sleep well last night.

Whatever little filter I had is completely gone. OK. I mean, listen, the man is a disgrace, right? I mean, let's look at this, right? Most of his senior staff have resigned and become disgruntled employees, right? He said, well, they're disgruntled. Like, well, listen, you hired these people

literally weeks ago. Literally weeks ago, you hired these people. I mean, you are disgruntling people at a rapid pace, right? They shut down all media reporting, literally a right-wing blogger and media person known as the Mega Girl who was hired into the DOD resigned and says, this is a, I can't use that word, I can't use this word on, this is a circus, it's a circus, it's a blank show. You could use shit show, it's fine.

I'm like, okay, I choose Joe. She's like, this is a shit show. A mega world should be up in arms because there's no transparency in the DOD. How is that a conservative value, or even a mega value, that there's no transparency in accountability in DOD? They've called for accountability in DOD, and there's none. So no personnel, nobody's mind in the shop

They shut down any public reporting and transparency all the guy tends to do is run around and do PT with troops Does do a lot of that? Yeah, there's a lot of that But while he's skipping NATO meetings by the way to do that listen, I love doing that I actually PT whenever I have the chance When I'm traveling around with the troops, it's fun and they they love it. I love doing that. I actually PT whenever I have the chance, uh, when I'm traveling around with the troops, cause it's fun and they, they love it. I love it. It's a good thing to do, but you know, don't skip a NATO meeting to do it.

Would be my general guideline, right? Show up to important meetings that bear on our national security. Should be a, you know, a no brainer. Yeah. Uh, and, um, the guy is operating with impunity. Well, it's a thing. it's the impunity, right? It's like, we this kind of has exposed to a degree how much we just sort of rested on the good intentions of the people that serve, right?

Because when it was Esper or anyone else in that role, we're like, well, they're rational people, and they will say no. And in this case, we very quickly within a couple months got to a place where the DOD secretary said, Yes, they're rational people and they will say no. And in this case, we very quickly, within a couple of months, got to a place where the DOD secretary said, yes, we will send the military. And I want to challenge you a little bit, because I think this does raise some real questions for people in your position, the opposition party.

Which is, I've heard a lot of people say, you know, the situation in LA, it's a distraction. They don't want to talk about Medicaid. They don't want to talk LA, it's a distraction. They don't want to talk about Medicaid. They don't want to talk about budget cuts and doge. They want to talk about Elon. They don't talk about cutting taxes rich. They want to talk about immigration and they want to have this fight. And I guess there's something to it, right?

He pulls better on immigration than he does on the other stuff and so on and so forth. But to a lot of other people, it's not a distraction. It's existential. It really comes down to like what we stand for as a country and checks and balances. What do you make of this tension? Is it a distraction? Well, it's really hard for our country right now to actually have nuanced conversations about difficult issues.

Right? And so I'm going to try to have one. Sure. And this is what I'm going the say is overwhelmingly those protesters for peaceful overwhelmingly they they they said you know not in our name you're using our community

you're targeting innocent people and women and children and i stand by those folks what was there some violence and and probably national yes should is that unacceptable yes mention law enforcement crack down on that? I saw the pictures burning cars, vandalism, people going, you know, going after police. That is unacceptable, right? But that doesn't represent the vast majority of the people out there that were standing up and exercising their First Amendment right.

And local law enforcement has the duty to enforce the laws and to restore order when they need to, and they were doing that. And the mayor was very clear and the governor was very clear. So this administration was just looking for the opportunity, just chomping at the bit for an opportunity to send troops in and flex its muscle and send a message in intimidate. That's what this is about. This isn't about restoring law and order is not about. You know the some kind of rebellion right there are three criteria three instances in which the president can do this right and invasion by a foreign nation.

Rebellion or when local law enforcement is unable to perform their duties and restore order. or when local law enforcement is unable to perform their duties and restore order. Those are the three criteria by which the president can mobilize the National Guard. None of those three are met here. So that leads us to the obvious conclusion is why, and the why is because they want to intimidate. Well, also it sounds, and what you're saying is they want to bait you into this argument, which I think is fair. They do.

But my question again is, is this something where Democrats should say, fine, bait us, like we, this is an argument we have to have. I'm down with that. I'm somebody that feels like if there's something that needs to be said or an argument you need to have, then have it with strength and conviction

and don't back down. Right. I mean, so much of this is this perception that Democrats are weak. Right. This isn't my opinion, by the way, this is what data show, right? Like there were actually, it was just the poll. They're like, who's strong, who's weak and being strong and having the strength of convictions and being affirmative matters.

Right. And I think people have this perception that we think about things too much and we're too academic and- Yeah, your hands are too nuanced. And we're in a waffle lane and I'm like, you know what? Okay, if something's right, it's right. If it's wrong, it's wrong. Let's weigh in and have the fight.

Yeah, I hear you. All right, Congressman, I appreciate this. Thank you so much. Let us know how your celebration goes on Saturday. Let's get you back on the show to really do appreciate this. Thank you guys for watching the feed as well. We get conversations just like this. Congressman Jason Crowe. Take care, man. Thanks, Sam. Appreciate it.