Rep. Crockett: “One Week Against Trump and MTG Folded” — as the Epstein Files Fight Escalates | CNN

in Congress, Democratic Representative Jasmine Crockett of Texas. Congresswoman, thanks so much for joining us. I want to start with the shocking announcement from Congresswoman Greene. What went through your mind when you first heard she was going to resign on January 5th?

You know what? Honestly, I was like, you've got to be kidding me. You're on the other side of the president for one week and you can't take the heat. Imagine what it is to sit in my shoes, to not only be on the opposite side of him, but to have people like her who are constantly fanning the flames of hate. And imagine what those threats look like when you literally are someone like me, but at the end of the day I know that I serve the

people of Texas 30, and so my job isn't to be there and necessarily do whatever is going to make the president not be on my back but instead is to focus on making sure that I can push forward with policies that are positive for Texas 30. Here's an

excerpt from her resignation video take a listen. Standing up for American women

who were raped at 14 years old, trafficked and used by rich, powerful men should not result in me being called a traitor and threatened by the President of the United States, whom I fought for.

So she seems to be suggesting that it is their disagreement over the release of the Epstein files that is causing this shocking political breakup. What's your response to that?

I mean, listen, he's upset with Thomas Massey, and so he's gone after him. He's upset with Boebert. He's upset with any Republican that actually signed the discharge petition. But somehow they were able to weather the storm. So, you know, this really speaks to the fact that Marjorie, who has been an instigator of a lot of this hate that we see as it relates to the MAGA movement, you know, it's just

interesting that I don't know if she really fully understood how bad she was making it for other people. And now that they're doing it to her, you know, I just got to say, well, why is it that everyone else is able to stand and you can't?

The House Oversight Committee, which you are a member of, said Friday night that your committee is expanding its investigation into Jeffrey Epstein. Do you have any idea what this expanded investigation might include?

I do not, not at this point in time. We are, well, I'll say leadership is keeping it under wraps to make sure that we can hopefully not have many more obstacles. If you'll remember, we decided that we were going to put out a subpoena for Galeen Maxwell and the next thing you know, the president's henchman showed up to her cell and the next thing you know, we didn't

have our sit down talk with her, which I imagine would have gone a little differently if we had. So we're keeping that tight lip for now.

The chairman of the oversight committee, James Comer of Kentucky, says that Democrats are just trying to use these files to smear the president. Just to be clear, do you or your colleagues have any idea about what's in these files to smear the president. Just to be clear, do you or your colleagues have any idea about what's in these files, one way or the other, relating to Trump or not?

Absolutely not. I mean, here's the reality. If we did have that information, I don't know that we would need it necessarily to be released. And we know that the Republicans keep saying,

you know, figure out what it is the Democrats have done and make sure that you can pull out the Democratic stuff and make sure you get rid of all the Republican names. Listen, I don't really care who is in the files. At the end of the day, right is right, wrong is wrong. And if you are truly about law and order, then we should be looking for who it is that has broken the law and in what ways. And we need to better understand who potentially in government allowed for a lot of these things to take place, whether we're talking about

the fake immigration paperwork that we've heard from a lot of the survivors, whether we're talking about other foreign governments that have participated and who it was that allowed for that, whether we're talking about the sham organizations, the sham modeling agencies that were nothing but a front for trafficking, we need to know whether or not they still exist in some other iteration.

This is about not only making sure that the survivors get justice, but making sure that there aren't others that are going through a similar system right now.

There was a back and forth this week after you accused former Republican Congressman, now EPA Administrator, Lee Zeldin of accepting campaign donations from Jeffrey Epstein. It turned out it wasn't convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, it was a Long Island neurosurgeon, Dr. Jeffrey Epstein, different person. You corrected the record. However, now the neurosurgeon is telling the New York Post that he is threatening revenge

against you. He's going to donate to your campaign. So you have to admit you accepted money from a Jeffrey Epstein, if not the Jeffrey Epstein. What's your response to that?

Listen, if there's anybody else who's alive and decides that they want to donate just so that you'll be on my FEC report, I am here for it. I will take your donation, especially since Jeffrey Epstein is now deceased, I don't think that it will be confusing whatsoever that it was not him unless he's come back from the dead. So

we'll see. So you are, we're told, weighing a decision on whether to jump into this Texas Senate race, challenging Republican Senator John Cornyn for his seat, although it's unclear that Cornyn will survive a Republican primary. You said you had a meeting this week with pollsters to discuss your chances. Did you have that meeting? And if so, how did it go?

Are you? Are you still thinking about running?

I I am still thinking about running. We did get our polling back so we are moving on to the next phase to determine whether or not this is what makes sense in the moment and if the infrastructure can be built out in the way that I see it being necessary to actually be able to win, as well as we are continuing to look at the polling on the other side.

Listen, they are in a civil war right now on the Republican side as it relates to who will become their nominee. You know, John Cornyn has served the state of Texas for decades at this point in time in some capacity and right now you know I don't know if he's MAGA enough to make it through his primary but we are evaluating all things and seeing what it would look like to

put together a team and we will make a final decision by Thanksgiving on whether or not we're gonna ultimately move forward. What did the polling like to put together a team and we will make a final decision by Thanksgiving on whether or not we're going to ultimately move forward.

What did the polling information that you got back show? I mean, is it a calculation of whether or not you're going to be facing Cornyn, who might have more appeal to moderates in your state, centrists in your state, as opposed to a more MAGA candidate who potentially defeats Cornyn in the primary that you might, or any Democrat might, have a better chance against?

I'll tell you this, that head to head, we are doing really well against Paxton. I will say that. I will also tell you that we are actually within the margin of error as it relates to John Cornyn. So to be perfectly honest,

the only reason that I'm continuing to consider whether or not I do this is because my polling says I can win. That is the bottom line. But at the end of the day, a poll is a poll. And so you need to actually be able to execute on that. So whether it's Cornyn so you need to actually be able to execute on that. So whether it's Cornyn or whether it's Paxton, we feel confident that we can get this done. The thing is, we obviously would prefer to have Paxton.