The Breakfast Club - INTERVIEW: Jasmine Crockett Talks Gun Reform, Charlie Kirk, The Harris Campaign, Texas Redistricting + More

Episode Date: September 12, 2025

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BreakfastClubPower1051FMSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Hi, my name is Enya Umanzor. And I'm Drew Phillips. And we run a podcast called Emergency Intercom. If you're a crime junkie and you love crimes, we're not the podcast for you. But if you have unmedicated ADHD... Oh my God, perfect. And want to hear people with mental illness, psychobabble. Yes, yes.

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We ended up talking for hours and I was like, this girl is my best friend. Let's talk about safety and strategies to protect yourself. your loved ones listen to intentionally disturbing on the iHeart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts hold up every day i wake up wake your ass up the breakfast club you're all finished or y'all's done yep it's the world most dangerous morning show the breakfast club charlemagne the god dj envy and jess hilarious on here but loren la rosa is and we got a special guest she goes by the name of congresswoman jasmine crockett how are you uh i'm making it how you feeling it's tough it's a tough time it's a tough time in this country for all people in general but

obviously as someone who isn't afraid to speak her mind our country is truly falling apart and it is devolving into next level chaos as well as next level violence I hate to say it you were one of the first people that I thought about after I saw what happened with Charlie Kirk because you know I don't I don't want that to happen to anybody I don't think anybody should be killed because of their opinion or attacked because of their opinion and, you know, what happens over there definitely will happen, you know, on this side.

Yeah. And that definitely makes somebody like you were target. Yeah, I mean, there were so many people that immediately reached out from all over and was like, what is going on with your security? Like, we need to make sure that you're good. Like, are you somewhere safe? And I had to make sure that I called my mom

because I knew that my mom would just want to hear my voice. It really shouldn't be that way. and we now are engaging in conversations again about the safety or lack there of for elected officials that are in Congress. I mean, I have to pay for my own security. So I have to raise money to keep myself safe because they will not pay to take care of us

even though the other two branches of government they pay for their protection. So hopefully we can engage in some real conversations around what it looks like to get us some real safety. But also we need to engage and like, what really does cross the line, right? Like, so we do have free speech in this country, but are you free to say just any and everything, right?

Like, I mean, there are limits to all of our constitutional protections as well as, like, what kind of standard are we going to hold ourselves too when you are sitting, say, in the Oval Office or, you know, in the House, like, how far will you go? And so, you know, I hate that some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle immediately came out and they were like, oh, you know, this is on the Democrats. Like we don't even know who did what and y'all are like this is on the Democrats, right? Like I mean, obviously the first thing that, you know, anybody would say and you didn't have any Democrat that went out there and said otherwise is like we're denouncing political violence.

But we're just assuming like and we just want to be clear like that we're not down for political violence, but that doesn't mean that that's what it was, right? Like we know that people, especially me, I'm having done criminal defense, most offenses like this were personal. in the first place. Now, I'm not saying that this was a personal thing, but I'm saying, like, the fact that this can't be personal is wild, right? Like, the fact that they are presuming that this is somebody that came from our side of the aisle,

we know that in the two... That's dangerous. That's very dangerous. It is dangerous. And even still, even if it came from our side of the aisle, let's assume the worst. Okay, so let's talk about it. Let's talk about what, quote-unquote, radicalized him, right?

Like, we've seen writings and manifesto. and we've seen where it looks like the two people that went after the president before he was the president had ties to the Republican Party like they had not voted Democratic. They were registered as Republicans. So let's talk about it.

We know that there were members of Congress that left the House last session because they received threats. Not from liberals. They received threats from MAGA because literally they would not vote for the MAGA candidate to become speaker of the House. So we've got to talk about

like what it means when you're running for president or you're running for one of these higher offices and you go out there and you talk about beating people up, you go out there and you say things like, I could shoot somebody in the middle of the street in New York and I could still win. We've got to talk about like that is next level. Me disagreeing with you, me calling you, you know, I want to be Hitler.

All those things are like not necessarily saying go out and hurt somebody. But when you're literally telling people at rallies, yeah, beat them up. And that kind of stuff, like you are promoting like a culture of violence. So we need to talk about, like, what it looks like when you don't promote a culture of violence. I think, I mean, the funny part is, it's not funny,

but both sides of the aisle do it. So it's like, you know, they'll get on y'all for, you know, saying that, hey, we call them wannabe Hitler, blah, blah, blah, but they call Democrats, fascists. Yeah, they call us socialists. They call us all things. But I don't think that that actually evokes an environment of violence. I think literally saying things about, like,

oh, these people don't deserve to live, or the images of what we're seeing right now as ICE is going into communities and dragging people and kicking them and taking them down to the ground and busting windows out. Like that is the call. We have never seen these types of images of ice, right?

Or the idea that you had people that went in on January 6th and they literally beat law enforcement. We had people that died. And on day one, and they were convicted. We're talking about over 1,000 people arrested. We're talking about convictions that they either pled to or they went to trial and they were found guilty and some of

them got 20 years or so and then on day one you say let me let them go and we know that since those people have been let go that at least one got caught up for a murder plot another one ended up with a reckless homicide another one ended up with child porn we know that at least 10 of them ended up with new cases for doing other things and so it's like Like, we have the criminal that I would call injustice system. But the idea is supposed to be that, like, you know, you do bad, we're going to put you up so that people maybe will be deterred from doing bad. But it's almost like bad behavior is being rewarded. And if, like, the worst that I can say is, like, that I understand history that you're trying to take out of, like, the schools and that the balance of power is out of balance and that you are operating as a dictator by invoking.

quote unquote, emergency powers illegally consistently, that you are constantly violating the Constitution. These are just facts. That doesn't mean that I want somebody to go out and hurt the President of the United States. In fact, when those attempts took place, in a bipartisan way, we voted to raise the amount of money that is allowed and allotted to protect him. So no, I can say that your policies are bad. I can say you're a criminal. because you have been found guilty of 34 convictions. Like, I can say all these things because they are true. That's not even just free speech.

These are just facts. So don't get mad that I speak the truth and I speak facts, but I literally have never said anything to invoke violence. And I challenge somebody to go and find a clip of a Democrat invoking violence. Right now, everybody's gotten so sensitive. I woke up and a friend sent me a text message. where somebody else had been fired for repeating Charlie Kirk's words, right? Like, they're firing people and they're canceling people because people have gone out

and looked at some of the things that he said. I'm going to be honest. I never said a word about Charlie Kirk. Like, he wasn't on my radar. Like, I don't go and follow the right wing special people. Like, I don't. Like, it's just not, I got other things to do. And some of my friends who had never heard of him were like, let's dig.

Let's figure who is he, right? because people are like, this is coming up on our feet, and we don't know what's going on, we don't know who it is. And literally, I didn't know he had ever talked about me. And I guess it was recently. But, like, I had never seen it. I had never paid attention to it. Whatever.

You know what I mean? And that's kind of where we got to get to. But I think ever talking about who should die, ever saying who should be beat up, ever saying who doesn't deserve to live, you know, taking people and throwing them in cages to the extent that they're literally dying. I mean, we've had more in custody deaths as relates to ICE.

We're on record to hit a record for that. And so, like, are we going to have these real conversations? On that same day, we had kids that were shot again at another school. And there's been no conversation around those kids. And the thing is, what did they do wrong? Nothing. They showed up to school. That's what happened with them, right?

And so, you know, we've got to talk about the culture of guns in this country and what it looks like to truly understand what the Second Amendment stands for. And it doesn't mean that everybody got to be the Wild Wild West. And now can we have a conversation about everybody having guns doesn't necessarily prevent gun violence? I was going to actually do you think now we'll see some change in gun reform and all the things since it's happening on the other side. No. No.

I mean, it has become to the extent that people worship. their weapons. I said that yesterday. And it's, it's crazy, right? Like, I mean, and we're not talking about, you know, they always want to say if, if Democrats talk about gun reform, they're like, oh, they're taking your guns. And I'm like, yo, I'm licensed to carry. Same.

And I mean, I'm licensed and I got guns, right? And this, you know, goes back to my days and doing criminal defense. So, like, yes, I know how to shoot. You know, obviously, I never want to have to shoot. Can we stay there for a second Because you said a lot But I want to stay there for a second Please explain to people

Because I believe in the Second Amendment too When we talk about common sense gun reform What does that look like? Nobody wants to take guns away No nobody's trying to take your guns away So we can talk about the fact that they Are currently seemingly struggling a little bit As it relates to the Charlie Kirk shooting

In general, right? Because they're trying to figure out who bought what Like this is about simple things like you can't buy it, you know, unless there is a background check. You can't buy it unless like we literally have you documented on that weapon. And we have so many ways for weapons to get into people's hands and it's not documented. And so in this particular circumstance, it clearly isn't clear. The dude left the weapon. It should be as simple as this belongs to such and such. Same thing with our cars. Right. Like we get tagged with our cars. You see what I'm saying? Even if

you decide, yo, I'm going to sell it to my cousin down the street. What do you got to do? Register it. He got to get a license on it, right? So, like, they don't even want to close, like, the gun show loophole so that we can at least know who it is that is supposed to have this weapon. And then you end up in a circumstance like this, which obviously, you know, it's too late. But at the same time, if you're going to prevent other tragedies from happening, you can do

a lot quicker if you can literally just track the weapon like that's it like that's a very simple thing to talk about and then obviously the background checks we want them because some people have been classified as not being mentally stable so don't come at us after the fact and be like oh it's mental health right well bro like if a court has already deemed that why should we be given this person a firearm like we should have to have background checks on everybody that's getting a firearm from anybody um so it's just very simple simple stuff. Like, that's it. I feel like if there isn't a shifting gun laws after, you know, the mass shootings we saw

this week after the shooting of Charlie Kirk, then Republicans really need to do some soul surgeon. And the reason I say that when you, you know, when you heard Charlie Kirk himself say a couple of deaths here and there, you know, it's worth it to keep our Second Amendment rights. I always wonder, you know, that's easy to say, but what about when that death is you or when that deaf is somebody that you love? And then the fact that he was actually talking about gun violence when he got shot if y'all believe in God like y'all say y'all do Republicans it's time to have a real

conversation because if that's not a sign I don't know what it. No I mean it is you know I wondered if that has something to do with it because I was like how in the heck did he get shot in the moment that he was talking about gun violence like he was literally answering questions about gun violence

but I do think that it is time for them to say we can have a conversation about gun reform and it not be the end of the world. And one of those things that I really think, you know, Cash Patel is actually supposed to come before my Judiciary Committee here shortly. I think next week maybe. And we'll see if it ends up getting pushed off with everything that's going on. But I do want to ask, like, would it be helpful if everyone was required to have something

so that we can track these guns, like anything? You know what I mean? Because not being able to pick up that firearm and say it belongs to this. this person and be done and be like, we're about to go get that person because this is who it belongs to. Now, granted, I don't know what information they had on that firearm, if anything. And this is not even getting into ghost guns. We ain't even talking about that, right? Like, let's just talk about, like, the basics and who can be held liable. And the gun lobby is just very strong. You know, the gun lobby is like, eh, we're here for it. You know what I mean? Like, guns go wild. Like, they just want to sell, sell, sell. But at what point in time,

do we evaluate and say, how much is too much? And when are we going to make some changes? And I don't know. But hopefully we can have a real conversation. But I honestly don't think that it should take someone that you value. You value their lives more than you value, you know, innocent children or whatever before we can have a real conversation. The gun lobbyists are the reason that Congress has failed to deliver on.

Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. That's one of the main reasons that, you know, they haven't. Right. And I do applaud those, you know, local law enforcement agencies that are doing like gun buybacks and things like that and really trying to pull guns off the streets. That is so helpful. We have seen gun violence be reduced when you have your local law enforcement that are doing those programs. But they can't stop the gun violence by themselves. Like they're trying to do something because state and federal government is not doing anything. And I think that I think we really should have a real conversation. But I think we should have a real conversation after. after any senseless gun violence takes place. And unfortunately, we've not been able to have that conversation. So we'll see if we can engage now. But right now, I think the focus is just on how do we figure out who it is that

committed this heinous offense? And where do we go? How do we prevent it, number one, from happening to somebody else? What is our responsibility, those of us that are in higher office and have these big microphones. And third of all, is there any policy fixes that could hopefully also prevent some of this from happening? Yeah, I want to know what policy changes or even like enhanced security protocol you think is necessary for, you know, public political events after something like that. Yeah. So it's interesting because as I was waiting to come in, someone was telling me

that one of his security advisors had actually recently, maybe within the last month, said that they need to make sure that he's actually got like bulletproof, like a plexy glass of sorts. One of the child of curriculum by? Yes. Yes. Supposedly that happened. I haven't read up, but literally, you know, one of my staffers as I was coming in. So I think that, you know, number one,

a lot of us talked about this weekend and the fact that it may be dangerous for us to be out. It's always dangerous for us to be out. But if you've got like outdoor rallies and things like that, that maybe like cancel them, because even now, you know, again, on social media or otherwise, I had never uttered Charlie Kirk's name, but my staff has been enduring all types of threats in our office to the extent that they are increasing the policing around the places that I live right now. And it's like, how am I, like,

in this? Because you're one of the most high-profile, outspoken, controversial public figures on the left. But she had nothing to do with that shooting. It don't matter. If somebody was looking to get some get back, that's what they would. That's what they would. It's kind of like what happened at the HBCU campus is. Correct. And that's the thing.

It's like, first of all, black people ain't had nothing to do with this. We went nowhere near Utah. You know, so I'm like, how was the response to go after black students? You know, and it's interesting because I was talking to one of my best friends who graduated from Gremlin. And I was like, you know, is Grambling on lockdown? Because, like, it was just kind of like in the moment. and it's like we're getting these alerts about this school

and that school, Hampton and all these different schools I was like, what is happening? And I was like, and why are we in this, right? Like, what is it that students on an HBCU campus have to do with this, right? Like this, that wasn't a place that, let me point this out. We have had school shootings that have taken place on all types of campuses.

And there are those specifically on the right that always want to put out this idea, that black folk are dangerous and criminal and we just have more of a propensity to commit crimes and things like that. Do you know how many school shootings we've had at an HBCU? Zero.

Zero. One of the safest campus that you can be a safe haven. And it is interesting because those campuses were created out of kind of this segregation idea. But we don't do it. Like we, like it's not, I mean,

in the idea that, you know as soon as it happened and the next thing you know the trans community is under attack again right because they said that the minnesota shooting was a trans woman i believe and so because it was a trans person they're like oh this is what happens but i was like so we're not going to talk about white supremacy like we're not going to talk about the fact that the vast majority of these shootings whether they are seen as political or not if we look at the numbers white supremacy ideology. But we don't want to do anything about that. There's no legislation that they want to bring. Every time you say white supremacy, they want to yell, oh, you're race baiting. No, I am going on facts. Like these crimes, when we look at these mass shootings, most of them are linked to neo-Nazism or, you know, proud boys or whatever. It's always some white supremacy kind of thing that's going on. It's not black folk that are going out there. It's not immigrants that are going out there. But what cities are we going into? Black cities, because we are supposedly the ones that commit all the crime. Which people are we going after immigrants? Because allegedly it's immigrants. But we don't want to have a talk about what the numbers say, what the facts say, which

is that we have a white supremacy problem in this country. So until we decide to deal with the problem, we're going to continue to have a problem. Yeah, I mean, listen, I get it. None of it makes sense. Like, you know, even whoever killed Charlie Kirk, that person didn't even have a really a reason to do that. There's never a reason to kill somebody just for their opinion. So I understand what y'all is saying when y'all saying, yo, somebody like Jasmine don't have anything to do with that. And I'm not speaking that over you at all. But I'm just saying if you're an outspoken person with a

microphone on the left, you should have your head on a swivel right now. You just should. And you said something about freedom of speech too. I do believe everybody has freedom of speech. I don't believe you're free from the consequences of that speech. And I feel like all free speech is not free. It comes with a price, and you don't get to set that price. Yeah. Because you don't know what your words may do to somebody else, especially when we're talking about somebody who may be mentally ill or ain't rap too tight.

Yeah. You know? No, that's a really good point. But, like, legitimately, like, when we look at case law, there are people that go out and say, oh, Second Amendment, so I have no limits. I can just do whatever I want to with guns. And that's pretty much been the attitude of the right.

That is not true. Same thing with the First Amendment. Like, yes, you have free speech. But even when you think about people that decide that they're going to protest, if you're going to decide that you're going to protest, say, in New York City, then you can't just be like, well, I'm about to be out in these streets and that's that. Like, usually there are parameters. You can't help bomb on an airplane.

Yeah, exactly. Same thing, like the movie theater example that they always give. So, like, there are limitations for every single constitutional right that we have, and it's more so a balancing test, right? Like, it's, like, how much harm versus what you want to do as an individual. right and granted like we have our greatest protections that we're supposed to have our greatest protections when it comes to the constitution but right now what we're seeing is a country that is saying free speech for me but not free speech for thee right if you say something i don't like that's not covered under free speech and that's not really what free speech is about that is one of the things that make us this unique democracy is that you can engage in saying some of the wildest stuff ever but like doesn't mean that you should go out and ever say that like oh yeah it's yeah that person should die or this person no like that's that's that's crossing lines and and granted i know that you're most likely not gonna but if you start to incite that's where

we get a lot of our incitement laws from because if you start to incite violence with your words then you don't get the free speech protections yeah i think we i think we all incite whether we think we do or not what i mean by that is i've definitely you know called that regime fascist right yeah if you hear somebody call him hitler when he calls us racist scumbags. If there's some white supremacist lunatic who thinks you or me are as a racist scumbag, let me take that racist scumbag out. If there's somebody that thinks, oh, Hitler, and then they look at a lot of the actions

that are going on, they're like, well, let's prevent this before, you know, four million people get killed. So I can understand how all of it incites violence. Yeah, no, I could see it. But as far as whether or not, you know, what we are supposed to look at is if you're just looking at the words by themselves and you're taking the ordinary person standard is what we typically

would say in the law, the ordinary person would not say that incites violence. But when you do say things like these people deserve to die, that is different, right? That is different from literally just teaching somebody

history, right? And it's one of the things that we've seen with their snowflake you know, theology, right, around history, right? It's like, oh, no, no, no, we don't want people to know that slavery was bad.

Well, just imagine how my ancestors felt going through it, right? I mean, just like, what are we talking about, right? But you should know. You should know why you shouldn't make jokes and granted, you've got free speech or whatever, but you shouldn't be making jokes about enslaving people because, like, literally, like, there's a real history

that is connected to that. But, like, this idea of like, oh, well, somebody gonna go out and kill somebody for like that is not your ordinary person standard like it needs to be where if we're looking at a blank slate just a normal person it should be the very clear things like i mean what we saw happened on january 6th and it was propagated by the now re-elected president of the united states he incited a violent mob period and he was indicted for doing so unfortunately he never got his day in court for all of us because I think... You know who called that is? Well, I didn't, we not...

We're not pointing me. I just say it. As just said. President Biden and Merrick Garland. I want to ask you about that too, right? What did you think about Kamala Harris? Former of VP Kamala Harris,

her excerpt from her book where she finally speaks her truth in regards to the Biden administration and how they wouldn't come to her defense, how they helped to spread negative narratives about her. what did you think of it? So that day I was at work so I haven't read through it

and that was the Charlie Kirk day as well so I was stuck for until like 9 p.m. at the Capitol I will say this as a national co-chair on that campaign when I had an opportunity to talk to the vice president

as frankly and honestly as I typically speak maybe with even more frankness on some of my cuss words. That is how I would talk to the VP. And there were a lot of people that did not understand why and how the VP ever picked me as a national co-chair. It is not every day that you have a black woman freshman

that ends up becoming a national co-chair on what truly was a historic campaign, no matter what the results ultimately were. and one of the reasons is because she never had to worry about me backstabbing her like being ten toes down like telling her

and I wasn't one of those surrogates that's like oh send me and have me do a rally no no no I'm trying to get in the streets I'm trying to talk to the real people and then I would try to report back to her and let her know like yo this is what I'm feeling in the streets that kind of stuff

because I never wanted anything other than her to win because that was a win for the American people. And I think that people took for granted how perceptive she was of who it was that literally her riders were. It is one of the reasons that we saw Secretary Fudge being elevated as one of her national co-chairs.

Another person that when the history books are written, there will be so many black women elected that will talk about kind of all that Secretary Fudge has been to so many of us behind the scenes. So I will say that I am not surprised

because, you know, there were a lot of things that were going on. Number one, we had those that were trying to push Biden out, but they weren't just trying to push Biden out. They were trying to push Biden out.

They didn't want her to become the nominee. They had their pick in mind and it wasn't either one of them. And, you know, I remember tweeting when it was actually decent to do. I remember tweeting out and saying that I would only go and bust my ass for one candidate. And that would be the vice president.

If they came up with anybody else, God bless them, good luck. But I'm not about to run myself ragged when y'all decided to kind of do this. So there's so many layers to what it is to be in elected office, and it is always tough to build a team of trust. It is what matters most. you can teach somebody the skills but you can't teach anybody to literally have your back

and politics is such an ugly game that it is so important and so the bigger your team gets the more difficult it is now do I believe that the president himself did anything against the vice president I don't

everything that I know about Joe Biden as well as the VP she never backstapped him to be like oh this is my chance let me try to get it nothing like that and you can't have a vice president that's always gunning for your job

you have to have a vice president that is like riding out and going to do the things and so I think between the two of them while I've not read her book at this point in time I feel absolutely confident that she never backstabbed him

and he never backstabbed her but when it comes to staff life is real yeah life gets real tricky she said in the episode that the Atlantic dropped that she found out that the staff was like added to like the moment so like for instance

she would like work on something super important for the country but instead they would lean into remember when she uh they said that she like tried to fake the French accent and that was like a whole thing she said that she felt like they would amplify moments like that so people didn't understand how she was really in the rooms really fighting for different

things and basically it would like turn people away from her resume or you just wouldn't know how important she was to her position yeah I will say that um so there's a a group of black women in Congress. We're a little younger. We have a signal chat.

And we have that safe space, not only our chat, but we get together. We do dinners, that kind of stuff. Because it is, you know, people see us and they see us being challenged from the outside. They see the right challenging us and that kind of stuff. But people don't understand how much people within our own orbit try to undermine us, including staff. right like they forget that your name is on the door like there is a culture in dc even when we look at the house and that kind of stuff like you have people that have been there forever like when i came in people are like how are you going to bring this person i was like because my name is on the door i brought

people that i knew had my back i brought kids that had interned with me and they were like they have no heel experience i was like yeah that's fine they smart and literally i mean my kids get tapped all the time literally one of them took a really big good job and I was so he was sad he was crying when he left me but I was like this is a great opportunity and so and I still have a number I mean kids that graduated college at 20 that I had as interns when I was in the state house that are now still with me on the hill and that is because I didn't need people coming in thinking that just because they heal people they're going to run me but that is how the hill is run where you have these staffers especially when it comes the black women

where they try to undermine us at every turn and you can even be the vice president of the United States and run into staff that for whatever reason believe that they have the right to undermine you and they will and they play you because you're in a political position so there's only so much that you can do

because it's not like running your own shop or whatever that ain't got nothing to do with politics where it's just about profit like your profit is people and the people's perception of you and if the people closest to you are saying things that are contradictory to who you are

like it's a whole game and so it's very difficult and truly I remember the same group of women that I'm talking about the vice president would bring us over to her home so the vice president's residence and we would sit down and we would have dinner

and it would be those moments that we could talk about, like, what some of our challenges are beyond just the normal that goes into the job. It is what black women face kind of in general in any space that they walk into that was never built to accept them. I know there's a good key can going on. That's waiting to Excel, the Hill version.

Yeah, we did. So, to your point, because when I read the excerpt, I understood 100%, even before she came out and said all these things, I could look at her and see because I've been in the shoes of what's happening. I've been vice president but I've been a black woman

in his face, right? But why did she not say something before now we were all there with her? Like we would have rolled We actually weren't. We were to a certain extent. I rocked with the VP

but a lot of people were not. Well, maybe because of my family and my household. A lot of revisionist history when it come to the VP. I was out there campaigning with her back in 2020 and they handed me my ass.

But you don't. feel like when when we did the whole Biden put her on the ticket thing there was a shift in support for her? Not necessarily I felt like that. Not necessarily amongst black people. I'll be honest and I I think that number one you know again I was a fierce defender of hers before she was ever

the nominee or whatever but I can remember where people are like where is she what she doing she ain't doing nothing right because when people went out and voted there were so many people that were voting for her like they voted they're like oh Joe's there, but we, like, we out, we voted for common. It did shit. So, so, so I, but I think that that was when they ran as a ticket.

I do think that she had a lot more black support when Joe Biden was running as president and she was running as vice president. But again, they decided that she would have to meet a higher standard than the average vice president. That's what they decided because people are like, well, I voted for you. So they're like, where, where is she, right? Not understanding the role of. the vice president because there ain't nobody how many people went out there and was like i'm voting for

jaddy vans nobody they wasn't saying i'm voting for jd vans they were voting for trump jd vans just kind of happened to be there right like and that's typically how we do our tickets is you usually have the star up here and then you never want anybody who's going to outshine you but literally i think that they approached it more so as a partnership because when joe biden served as vice president to obama it was more like a partnership and i think people just wanted to see her more because I would hear it. And I'm like, well, tell me what Dick Cheney was doing. Like, tell me, and I'd be like, name five of the vice president's, right?

Like, and if you couldn't, then I'm like, y'all, y'all are putting more on her than the role actually allows for. Now, I do think that we also have to be cognizant of that when we walk into spaces that typically we're not in, we do have to do more. It's unfortunate. It's not right, but we do. and so like it was only within that 107 days that people could start to see no this is who she is and I think a few more days and we would have been fine but a hundred and seven day a little over three months to run any campaign is is wild let alone to run a presidential and it also she also was forced into an infrastructure that was built for joe Biden and she ain't joe Biden right but like you can't build your own president infrastructure in that

short amount of time. So you tried to like plug and play somebody that like that's not who she was and you would see as time was going on. She was really hitting her own stride right that fit her versus her kind of being forced into this space but I don't

think that coming out and saying well staff did this or that then they would have looked at her and they would have said she was weak. They would have said oh she's complaining she's giving excuses those are the things they would have done a lot of times it's a lot of stuff that goes on with us but like us saying something is not going to get us anywhere

like we literally just got to be like whatever because we always have more obstacles no matter who we are no matter what we're doing we're always going to have more obstacles and ain't nobody trying to hear that you couldn't get it done because of the obstacles like they just look at you and to me it would have played into this persona

of the Democrats is that we're weak and so I think like doing a tell-all and, you know, dissecting what happened for the people, giving people like the inside of you afterwards is fine. But I think in that moment, when you're looking for the commander-in-chief of the biggest, best, strongest nation in the world, complaining about staff is not going to instill that type of confidence.

Yeah, I don't think she should have complained about staff. And you're right about everything you're saying in regards to the VP, but times changed, and they changed a lot. So for somebody like the Vice President, I would have liked to see, and I told her she should do this, I would have liked to see her out the way you see J.D. Vance out,

meaning you see J.D. Vance on these Sunday morning news shows all the time. You see Jaddy Vance popping up on these podcasts. Everybody knew Joe Biden wasn't going to be a popular president. All his polling numbers always showed it. So being at your number two on a ticket, I know they don't want you to, but you should be thinking about your future.

And I think that if she would have did that early on, like just calling Breakfast Club every now and then, popping up on D.L. Hughley show, showing up on these Sunday morning in those shows. So when they know you, God forbid, it's something that would have happened to Biden, which it did. He ended up having to step down. They would have known you already. So you wouldn't have to try to get people to get to know you in a hundred and a second day. Stay ready so you ain't got to get ready. I agree.

And you do a phenomenal job of just being out there, not because you're seeking to be out there. You just got that type of magnetic personality. And when you pop up on camera, you pop. But you're honest and you're straight to it. And I think that was the thing, like we, I know my, I'm not to stop saying wait. I was waiting for Kamala to be just, here's, like, we're seeing things. What's up? Like, you're like our person.

And that didn't happen. Like, even your Twitter account. Like, when things happened, I go to your Twitter because you talk about it so regular and you're straight to it. I felt like we didn't have that. Like, now she's using the words like reckless or, you know, ambition and ego were Biden's issue and things like that. But we all could have had that conversation before. Y'all don't, y'all don't know how these handlers are. like like you you would not you could not imagine the amount of pushback I do like internally like I would have staff again this goes down to staff and handlers and consultants right um so I would have staff especially when I started like because my tweets if it's Jasmine for us it's me it ain't nobody else it's staff on my other accounts right but it is me when it's Jasmine for us so when I first started doing stuff I had

after they're like, you can't do that. I said, I'm sorry. Why can't I? I can do whatever I want to do, right? And so I push back. I remember even other colleagues after Marjorie and I had our situation, they were like, well, we don't know if you should have did that. That's cool.

Like, ultimately, like, if the people decide that they don't want to reelect me because I decide that I'm going to show up and be myself and I'm going to be in defense of myself, which I don't know why you could be convinced that I would fight for you. somebody that maybe I've never met because I'm not met every single one of my voters when I won't even defend myself. Now, if y'all decide that that's not the representation that you want, that is perfectly fine with me. Because my life is a lot simpler when I'm not in politics. Like, that is okay. Like, I am okay with it. But what happens is people say, well, the only way

you're going to get here is if you do this or that. I can tell you that there is no consultant that ever would have approached me or said that I should be who I am. and thought that I would become one of the top fundraising members of the house, period. Like, they would never have said, be who I am. And so, again, this goes into the fact that she plugged into an apparatus that was not built for her, right? You're talking about Joe Biden, who had been an elected official since he was in his 20s. You're talking about an older white man. You're talking about something completely different in the standards that are going to be set versus a black woman and a woman just in general.

So having that apparatus of what Joe Biden can do or should do, it is not the same as Kamala and what she should do because she's going to have to connect on another way, right? Like, they are going to, black people specifically are going to expect different of you. It's not right, right? They're both running for president.

But if you've got, you know, a white man running for president, there's going to be like, well, I don't expect him to really understand all of our black issues or necessarily talk about reparations, right? Like, that's what they're going to do. Now they're running for the same daggone position. Right. But when it comes to a black person or a woman, then they are going to expect you to lean in on some of those things. And so you've got to have an apparatus or even understanding the media, right?

Understanding what media should be done. Like, ain't nobody expecting Joe Biden to show up on the breakfast club. Like, they're not, right? But if you're going to be a black candidate that I'm looking at and I'm saying, yes, she for real, she's one of us, then she's going to have to show up on the breakfast club. Like, it's those little things about, again, that system that is set up. And it's like, this ain't for you. Right? Like, because, again, you talk about he's going on the Sunday morning shows and this,

now he's doing a random podcast or whatever, like the spaces. And you started to see her doing more of it towards the end. You know, you saw her on the different podcast and that kind of stuff. But that was when she started to say, yo, this ain't working. Like, I got to flip it this way, right? So she did say that at some point. In my mind, she did. Okay.

I can't say 100% but I do feel like she was going through what we typically go through behind the scenes where we're pushing back and it was one of those reasons that I always wanted to get to her because I don't want to come to you afterwards and be like, well, you should have did this

and you should have did that. Like you put me on the team to talk to you about what I'm getting from the streets now so that we can win. Like I literally wanted her to win because I did believe that Project 2025 was really,

real. I did believe that this was going to cause so much more harm specifically to black people than anybody else. I did believe that this guy was going to be bad for our economy. I truly believe this. This wasn't me drinking some Kool-Aid. This was me reading. This was me listening as he was talking about the tariffs. This was me understanding how terrible his tariffs were before for us. This is me understanding trade. This is me understanding foreign relations. I knew that this guy was going to be a disaster. So I needed her to win, not just for me, but for the people that I represent

and frankly, for a lot of people that voted for this guy to come in and hurt them. I was fighting for them too. This is why I'm actually glad about what she wrote in her book. And it's not even about her or her political future. It's about the future of the Democratic Party. Because at some point,

whoever the future of the party is, even the now of the party, they have to tell the truth about the party and you've got to be willing to throw that old regime under the bus. You got to be able to say President Biden shouldn't have, you know, ran for a second term. You got to be able to say, you know, if you felt

like Donald Trump was a real threat to democracy, like the things you just laid out, you got to be able to say Merrick Garland, drop the ball. You got to be able to say Hakeem, Jeffries, and Chuck Schumer, got to go. Like, you got to call a thing, a thing. He's trying to give me fired. No, I'm just saying, Jasmine. Maga said I got fired.

But you can't only... Charlemagne ain't going to get me fired. But you can't only call a thing a thing when it's a Republican. You got to call a thing a thing. No, no, no, no. I don't disagree with you. I think that you will not catch me on a hot mic saying some of those things that you're talking about because it's kind of like anything else.

It's like, you know, we black, right? So you think about the fights that you have within your family. It's like in the streets, we won. But like when we go in the house, we don't have to hash some things out. And that's what I think we have not done a good job of. Even when they decided to come after Joe Biden, it was a very. public out of the house thing no we needed to have some conversations as family and that's what democrats are bad at like we don't have the family conversations are there people that maybe should

not be seeking re-election right now in the house probably right you ain't going to catch no names from me okay probably but i don't think that it does us any good to go out and then so division because the Republicans love to come in and they will exploit those divisions, right? And then all that does is make the party feel like, well, y'all ain't got your shit together, right? So I do think that we need to have these conversations and we really do need to have them behind closed doors

and we really need to say either we can continue to go the way that we're going where, yes, people are upset with the Republicans but they ain't happy with us either. Or we can say, we've got to figure out how we're going to fix this. And what is working? What do people respond to, right? Right? Like, we know that there's the drama about the New York mayoral and all that that is going on, right?

We know that there are certain figures that the old guard is not necessarily the most comfortable with, right? Hakeem Jeffries, Chuck Schumer, Governor Kathy Hokel, and I want to endorse Governor Mundan. I mean, mayoral candidate Mundani. Yes. Okay. And we know the reason why. I don't live in New York I'm in my good Texas business

but I'll say though that like there really needs to be a conversation even if there's not like it's like a matter of like have the conversations taking place behind closed doors about the concerns about the questions about the fears

do I believe that any of these persons that you just named believe that Mondami is actually a bad candidate I don't. I don't think in my heart of hearts that they actually believe that he is a bad candidate. I really don't.

One of their main lobbyists hasn't stamped him yet, and that's APEC. So, you know, until APEC says, you know what, he's good with us. They won't endorse him. I don't know. I'm not saying that that is or isn't. I will say, though, that another thing

that Republicans do is they love to find someone that they feel like is very polarizing. and then they bring that person on to other candidates. And so, for instance, for a long time, they were doing all these mailers and all these ads were Nancy Pelosi because they had driven down Pelosi's like favorabilities amongst kind of independence and some other folk, right?

And so then they would put, it don't matter what the race it is. They just going to be another Nancy Pelosi. Like, that's what they would do, right? And I do know that, you know, those types of things kind of seep in. They used to do it with AOC all the time. I think that AOC's favorabilities have obviously shifted because they are not using AOC anymore, right?

They have yet to use me, but we know that Fox News spends a lot of time trying to drive down my favorabilities by running like junk stories and that kind of stuff. Because literally Republicans will walk up to me, introduce themselves, tell me how much they love me, and make sure that they know or that they tell me that they're a Republican. And so I think that there is something to be said for when people are like, how did the United States vote for Obama and vote for Trump? Like it's like, what is happening, right? But I think what people fail to realize is that both of them have the ability to bring in people that normally don't participate in politics. And that is how you find a winner. A winner is somebody that can bring in people that normally don't participate in politics. So what is it that attracts somebody that normally doesn't participate in politics?

usually it's them believing that they're authentic even if it's a common man right like it's like you know what I relate to that person that person is speaking to me that person is doing something that other politicians don't do they don't sound like a broken record and so I think

ultimately what we will see is if we have like a generic run-of-the-mill Republican which I would say J.D. Vance is pretty much that if that but then we have an exciting candidate that is running on the Democrat Actually, I think the country is going to be so torn up

that the Democrats are going to win because that's historically what happens. If the Republicans tear it up enough, then no matter who on the other side, we win. Like, no matter who it is, we just win. I don't think the part, at least in my lifetime, I've never seen the Democratic Party in this much disarray, though. I agree.

I agree. I think part of it is, though, that, like, people are saying that the Democrats have failed to figure out how to fight back. That's, that's big, like, we've never had this talk. of dysfunction on the Republican side, right? Like, we've never had it to where the Supreme Court isn't raining in, you know, people's powers. We've never had it where Republicans, you know, I mean, when we think back to Watergate,

which, you know, truly Nixon looks like a choir boy compared to Trump, right? In a bipartisan way, they voted to impeach him. And he just decided to resign. He's like, I ain't even going to go through this, right? we don't have that type of gumption and so I don't think our founders contemplated this and truly the Democrats are still struggling to find their ability to fight back

I think one of the reasons that Gavin Newsom has truly attracted a lot of attention in this moment is because he's saying I'm going to fight back and he is showing them how ridiculous Trump is by doing tweets that are just like Trump And Fox News got a lot of They're old those are immature

Oh those These are Trump tweets Like all he's doing is raising a mirror to you So I think if If we get on one page On what fighting back looks like Then I think that people will feel

The confidence that they need to feel in this moment But it's hard to say that You know This is a dictatorship Even though we're looking at him sending troops To go in and attack Americans like even though we're seeing that they are unleashing this rogue this rogue policing force that you know if they taught black history

they would know about slave patrols because when I look at what they are doing with ice it looks like slave patrols and then you've got a Supreme Court that's like yeah you can pick them up because of how they look or how they sound that sounds like a slave patrol like that is what that is what policing was born of So, yes, we need to teach history. And yes, we also need to talk about, like, why it is important for everybody to know the history. Because maybe we would have had more Latinos that would have voted for the black woman or voted with the black folk if they fully understood this history. Because, frankly, they are the targets and the victims of this.

And so many of them voted for it. We've got a couple more questions. I know you got to go. Are you losing your seat because of the redistricting in Texas? No. Okay. No. I mean, they move me out of my district.

On the federal level, you can run anywhere in the state. So we'll do some polling and figure out if I run in my district, Texas 30, even though I don't live there and will not be moving to the district. Or if I run in Texas 33, which is where they put me, which is also a Democratic district. Epstein Files. You know that there's absolutely people on the left that will be in the Epstein Files. Are you willing to throw them under the bus, even if their last name is Clinton? I am willing to throw anyone under the bus.

Absolutely. I mean, we know that every single Democrat has signed off on the discharge petition. Only four Republicans have signed off on the discharge petition. We need one more Republican, and we can bring this to the floor for a vote. Obviously, I serve on the Oversight Committee, and people aren't talking about the fact that the only reason we've gotten any Epstein files is because the only subcommittee in the Congress that, is all black, which is

this oversight subcommittee on law enforcement, is led by Summer Lee. They were the ones that led the charge. So as MAGA complains about DEI and whatever they got to say, an all black subcommittee is the reason that we ended up getting anything because it was

Summer's subcommittee that decided to move to subpoena and it only took a couple of Republicans jumping on board and they did. And that then forced Comer's hand because they had voted to do this. So I just want to give credit where credit is due because I'm sure that's one of them things

that history will forget. At the end of the day, I don't sign up or agree on anybody engaging in child sex exploitation. I don't care who you are. I don't care. I mean, and I will denounce the behaviors of anyone. And so that's why, like, I'm good.

Like, whoever it is, it is what it is. You all got to go. Yeah. Are you a no-show diva boss? Like the New York Post reported, they said that you had staffers who said you were rude and rarely present in the office. They tried to do with the Kamala too. She said that in her excerpt too.

They tried, I feel for y'all, man. And a terror to work with, even though we see you on the hill all the time. I mean, that's a. You show up to work there. That part. They claim I don't be at work. There's probably more video footage of me working than a lot of members that have been there for a very long time.

We upload everything on YouTube. We've got our clips on TikTok, IG, Facebook, everywhere. In addition to we send out a weekly email to our constituents that has photos and lays out what we filed. It shows photos of my meetings. Listen, people can say what they want to say. And again, there is this culture of undermining black women. And there is this culture of you're not going to do what you want to do here.

You're going to do what we tell you to do. I will tell you that I'm always be me. And there are staffers that, you know, they're not in my office take offense to how I show up every day and the fact that I'm not going to conform to being

just a tool of Hill staffers and it is what it is so until somebody want to put their name on something to potentially be sued I really ain't got yeah because you know you can't defame somebody

without facing consequences of potentially going to court and truth will always be the defense. So if somebody wants to come forward and say what they got to say and speak their truth, I look forward to it. Until then, I don't really respond to the New York Post that also is attempting to do what we do with black women in power, which is to basically say we ain't nothing but loud, nothing as women or people. And it's just not true. My last question, do you ever get tired of being loyal to people who aren't loyal to you?

Because Jasmine, I've seen them do the exact same thing to you. that they do to Kamala, especially when you lost your bid to be the top dim on the oversight panel. I've said it a million times on the radio everywhere I go. There is nobody who should be front and center more in the Democratic Party than you right now. Just because you bring the eyeballs. You know how to message. Whether people like it, whether people don't like it, you know how to message. Yeah, so I truly believe that everything happens for a reason, even the bad things or even the things that I,

I believe made best sense. Me running for oversight was always about trying to do best by my party, by the caucus, and trying to hopefully get us into a better space with the people that we serve. But at the end of the day, if people don't want my service, they don't want my service. But if I said that I was not disappointed with how much I had given to a caucus that then felt like they reduced me to not being worth it like very much uh it was it was eye opening and so for me i look at it like god was trying to reveal to me and let me know like yo like you couldn't for some people that ain't checking for you right like you need to recenter and rebalance yourself and so

i did decide specifically after that that i was going to focus more on working with the black faith community um and making sure that they have the information that they need making sure that they're organizing in the way that they need to organize and really availing myself of them and making sure that I could support them with some resources because I... You're very humble. You raised over $4 million for the caucus. You did over

110 trips. You gave out almost $600,000. You was the seventh highest fundraiser in the whole caucus for quarter one this year, right? Yeah. Come on now. Yeah, no. I mean, it was... In Q2, I moved up. I was even higher. So they cool with you laboring, you know, in the field, but

they don't want you leading from from at the table. That is what it felt like. So, you know, I mean, listen, sometimes you have to be put into an uncomfortable position in order to move you. And so for me, it was about kind of recensoring and talking to God and saying, okay,

it's clear that like this isn't what you want me to do. So like, where is it that you want me to go? So, you know, we will see, like, you just ask me about, you know, which seat I'm running in and that kind of stuff. there are definitely those that want me to run statewide so we're not ruling out

a statewide run either so there's just a lot of things that play because it's like maybe the house maybe it's over maybe that was the message like I don't know

we'll see what numbers look like so send that might be a thing potentially potentially we'll see I mean right now I'm focused on the redistricting we're in trial we're doing those things but uh you know filing doesn't end until

December and so what we're going to do is we're going to evaluate we're not going to take anything off the table and we'll see we know that um my current attorney general Paxton is a uniquely bad candidate and you know it would be the best kind of fuck you to the Republicans to specifically target my state specifically target my district worried about a house seat and then I'd be able to snatch a Senate seat. So we'll see. We'll keep doing evaluations. I can tell you that from everything that we know without having done our own polling,

it is definitely within striking range. So we'll see. Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, man. Please pray for Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett always. And you know, you just be safe out here. We appreciate you. Good to see you. It's the breakfast club.

Hold up. Every day I wake up. Wake your ass up. The breakfast club. You're all finished or y'all's done? I just normally do straight stand-up, but this is a bit different. What do you get when a true crime producer walks into a comedy club? Answer.

A new podcast called Wisecrack, where a comedian finds himself at the center of a chilling true crime story. Does anyone know what show they've come to see? It's a story. It's about the scary. It's not my life. This is Wisecrack, available now. Listen to Wisecrack on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Short on time, but big on true crime.

On a recent episode of the podcast hunting for answers, I highlighted the story of 19-year-old Lechay Dungey. But she never knocked on that door. She never made it inside. And that text message would be the last time anyone would ever. hear from her listen to hunting for answers from the black effect podcast network on the i heart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcast hi my name is enya umanzor and i'm drew phillips and we run a podcast called emergency intercom if you're a crime junkie and you love crimes we're not the podcast for you but if you have unmedicated ADHD oh my god perfect and want to hear people with

Mental illness, psychobabble. Yes, yes. Then Emergency Intercom is the podcast for you. Open your free IHeartRadio app. Search Emergency Intercom and listen now. Do you want to hear the secrets of psychopaths, murderers, sex offenders? In this episode, I offer tips from them. I'm Dr. Leslie, forensic psychologist.

This is a podcast where I cut through the noise with real talk. When you were described to me as a forensic psychologist, I was like snooze. We ended up talking for hours and I was like, this girl is my best friend. Let's talk about safety and strategies to protect yourself and your loved ones. Listen to intentionally disturbing on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast.