WASHINGTON – U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas, this week defended her past rhetoric about Republicans, pushing back on suggestions that comments such as calling President Donald Trump a fascist or “wannabe Hitler” contributed to Charlie Kirk’s assassination by a man authorities say held a “leftist ideology.”
Crockett described such anti-Trump statements as educating the public about history and the ways that Democrats say Trump has been trying to push the country toward authoritarianism.
“I have never called for the harm of the president,” Crockett said. “I have never called for the harm of any of my colleagues.”
The second-term congresswoman has rocketed to national fame, becoming a prominent voice on the left thanks to her no-holds-barred approach to bashing political opponents that has led to viral clips of hearing room confrontations and fiery media appearances.
She is under fresh scrutiny after Kirk’s killing kicked off a national debate about the consequences of intense political rhetoric and appropriate limits on free speech in the wake of such a gruesome act.
ABC pulled late night comedian Jimmy Kimmel off the air indefinitely following remarks he made about Kirk’s death.
The Texas Education Agency is reviewing hundreds of complaints about teachers’ social media posts after Kirk’s slaying. Two students from Texas State University and Texas Tech University are no longer enrolled at the schools after videos of them mocking Kirk’s killing circulated on social media.
Crockett said that she would never celebrate Kirk’s death but that Americans are protected by the First Amendment and can’t be forced to mourn those whose speech they considered full of hate.
In response to a request for comment about Crockett, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in a statement, “All three of Jasmine Crockett’s brain cells are infected with Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
Crockett announced Thursday she had introduced legislation to make clear the Federal Communications Commission can’t take actions to compel companies it regulates to adopt or suppress particular political viewpoints.
Crockett has previously been accused of promoting political violence based on comments such as calling for Tesla CEO Elon Musk to be “taken down” and saying Ted Cruz is someone who has to be “knocked over the head, like hard.”
Crockett said at the time she was advocating public protest of Musk over the role he was playing in the Trump administration and urged people to keep their protests legal and nonviolent.
Her comments about Cruz were made in the context of urging Democrats seeking office to more aggressively criticize their Republican opponents in order to win.
Crockett said this week that Democrats have “tried to be very nice” since Kirk’s death and that political violence is a “both sides issue” but that it’s Republicans advocating violence.
She highlighted a Fox News host who recently suggested homeless people should be euthanized. He later apologized for the remark.
Crockett also pointed to a heated argument in a congressional hearing during which U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., offered to “take it outside.” Mace said asking someone to go outside could represent an invitation to have a conversation, an explanation Crockett rejected.
“We were in a heated debate, and she was threatening actual violence in the House,” Crockett said.
Republicans have praised Kirk as a fierce advocate for his religious faith and conservative views.
During a committee hearing this week, U.S. Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Richmond, described him as a remarkable man silenced by an assassin’s bullet.
“If Charlie Kirk lived in the biblical times, he’d have been the 13th disciple,” Nehls said.
Republicans say politicians on the left comparing Trump to Hitler is dehumanizing and helps spur hatred and ultimately political violence against conservatives.
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, one the many Republicans who have described Kirk as a personal friend, lambasted Democrats and news outlets for their response to the killing.
On his podcast, Cruz said he agreed to an interview with CNN’s Kaitlin Collins because the network was practicing “both sides-ism” and spreading “misinformation” to suggest Republicans and Democrats are equally responsible for violence.
“Yes, there is some violence on both sides, but it is the left that overwhelmingly celebrates this,” Cruz said. “It is leftists that have been celebrating. You look at [social media service] Bluesky, and it is a cesspool of leftists celebrating the murder of Charlie Kirk.”
He acknowledged Democrats have been the targets of violence and condemned the assassination of former Minnesota state House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, who were shot and killed during the summer in their home outside Minneapolis.
He said the difference is that he’s not celebrating their killing.
“It was horrible and … that violent criminal should be prosecuted and going to jail,” Cruz told Collins in a tense exchange. “You would have a point if I said, ‘Gosh, let’s set up a bail fund for that murderer. Then you’d have a point. But it’s only one side that is doing that.”
Cruz has urged the Trump administration to investigate groups affiliated with the Black Lives Matter and Antifa movements, saying they should follow the money behind violent demonstrations.
He has introduced legislation that would add rioting to the list of offenses the Justice Department can use as part of a probe under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO.
“That would enable the Department of Justice to use RICO, a very powerful tool, for going after organized crime, not just to go after the people committing specific acts of violence, but to go after those who are writing checks to foment that violence,” Cruz said.
U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Austin, recently called for a new committee to investigate “money, influence, and power behind the radical left’s assault on America and the rule of law.”
Democrats have said Republican claims to moral high ground on political violence ring hollow after the way some conservatives have ignored or joked about political violence directed at Democrats and downplayed the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
In a 2022 incident, a man broke into Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco home and, finding the former House speaker absent, fractured the skull of her elderly husband Paul Pelosi with a hammer.
After the attack, some conservative figures made jokes and spread false conspiracy theories that the assailant was romantically involved with Paul Pelosi.
The House voted Wednesday night 214-213 to block a resolution that would censure U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.
The resolution cited a video Omar reposted that included a voice over stating “Charlie Kirk is dead, and before the body got cold, the far Right propped his corpse up as a cudgel for their holy war.”
The resolutionalso stated Omar had “smeared Charlie Kirk and implied he was to blame for his own murder.”
Omar denied that, saying she has condemned political violence and highlighted that the resolution included no direct quotes from her.
Four Republicans joined Democrats in blocking the resolution. Texans broke along party lines, with all Democrats opposing the resolution and all Republicans voting not to block it.
Kirk critics have been sharing statements he made on race, affirmative action and other hot-button topics.
One widely shared Kirk statement came from when he talked about the importance of the Second Amendment, arguing that the benefit of having an armed citizenry capable of resisting a tyrannical government was worth the unfortunate cost of gun deaths.
Some Kirk supporters view those posts as attempts to justify his murder.
Crockett defended such posts.
“If you did not have a problem with his words when he said them, don’t have a problem with people reiterating his words now that he is deceased,” Crockett said.
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