INTERVIEW: Jasmine Crockett On Her Senate Loss, The Democratic Party & Black Political Power

Charlamagne Tha God (0:00)

Hold up, every day I wake up, wake your ass up, it's The Breakfast Club.

Jess Hilarious (0:05)

You all finished or y'all done?

DJ Envy (0:06)

Morning, everybody. It's DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, Charlamagne Tha God. We are The Breakfast Club. Our sis Angela rise with us this morning. Good morning. It's election day. And we got another special guest in the building. We have Jasmine Crockett. Welcome.

Jasmine Crockett (0:19)

Yes. Good morning.

Angela Rye (0:20)

It's election day.

DJ Envy (0:25)

How are you feeling?

Jasmine Crockett (0:25)

Oh, my God. I am so worried for this election to be over. I think everybody is tired. But I think that it's going to be a really good night. I don't know if it's going to be as good as the polls think it's going to be, but it's definitely going to be a good night if you're a Democrat.

Jess Hilarious (0:37)

You know, Texas got one of the most closely watched Senate races in the country.

Jasmine Crockett (0:41)

Yes.

Jess Hilarious (0:41)

For everything you've experienced this election cycle, what are you feeling this morning?

Jasmine Crockett (0:46)

You know, I think that Texas is going to be closer than what everybody thinks is going to be, what the polls are saying.

But looking at the turnout, listen, it's the theory that I put out there. I said that we're a majority minority state right now, people of color are leading the way in the turnout. I said that we had the votes, we just needed to turn people out. We have so many new voters right now. So I think that Texas is doing what it needs to do. So I think it's going to be a really good night. It's still Texas, but I think that if Republicans stay home, stay home, I think it'll be an even better night.

Angela Rye (1:21)

One of the things that I have been fascinated with over the last couple of days is Hailey Stevens, your colleague in the house. Yeah, I'm going to bring it up.

I'm going to bring it up because you caught a lot of flak for endorsing James Talarico, not appearing with James Talarico though. And Hailey Stevens said, hold my beer. I'm going to go ahead and endorse the Republican show up to perfecting church where he couldn't get a standing ovation. I'm talking about Mike Rogers. She showed up to endorse Mike Rogers, who is running against Abdul El-Sayed. What do you say to that? And if you were seeing Hailey Stevens today and anybody who would be influenced by her, what would you tell them?

Jasmine Crockett (2:02)

Listen, first of all, I think that Hailey did Abdul a favor, honestly.

I will tell you that there had been reports that there had been some issues specifically within the black community with Abdul. But I think that this is actually going to give him a boost. So I think when he wins tonight, he may need to call Hailey and say thank you. He had an infusion of cash of over $2 million in 24 hours at the very end of a tight race. That's the kind of day that you want.

And I think that a lot of people were frustrated in the role that Hailey attempted to put the black church in, in this. She could have went out, endorsed him, got on her social media, left that at that. I still take issue with it as a Democrat. I don't think that you can say that you're a team player and you were running to run against that particular person, and then you say, never mind, I would rather it be the Republican. And the reality is that, listen, Mike works with us. We know his voting record. For everybody that is upset because their insurance premiums are up, which is basically everyone, they should feel like this is a problem. For every single black woman that is out of work right now because of what this administration has done, they should feel like this is a problem. And for everyone who wanted just Congress that was going to stand up for them as it relates to this war and hopefully keep some money in your pocket as it relates to gas, they should all be upset. So here's the reality. I think that Haley is done with politics or she's decided she wants to be a Republican going forward. And we will see what happens when we get back into Congress next week about how the caucus decides to deal with this situation.

Angela Rye (3:36)

Even though you're not going to be in the House anymore, you're not deciding to become a Republican. For folks at home in Texas who are saying, I still don't know about James Talarico, what's the closing speech you would give to encourage people to go and vote for James Talarico?