CNN anchor Jake Tapper challenged Democratic Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett on Tuesday over comments she made in December 2024 in a Vanity Fair profile, in which she said some Latinos who voted for President Donald Trump have a “slave mentality.”
During the interview on The Lead with Jake Tapper, Crockett denied that she had said all Latino Trump voters fit that description.
She argued that most of them likely do not support Trump’s immigration agenda, despite voting for him.
In the Vanity Fair profile, Crockett said, “‘The immigration thing has always been something that has perplexed me about this community … It almost reminds me of what people would talk about when they would talk about kind of like slave mentality and the hate that some slaves would have for themselves. It’s almost like a slave mentality that they have. Now about the time that that was published last year, around a million Latino voters in Texas were voting for Trump,’” referring to Latinos supporting Trump even as he pushed policies that included deporting illegal immigrants.
Tapper read the quote back to her during the interview and noted the scale of Latino support Trump received.
“Now about the time that that was published last year, around a million Latino voters in Texas were voting for Trump. Do they all have slave mentality?” he asked.
Crockett responded that she did not intend the phrase to apply broadly.
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“No, and that’s not what that said at all, to be clear. It did not say that every Latino has that type of mentality,” she said.
She then added, “No, no, but slave, the ones that vote for people who believe in strong or Trump’s immigration policy. So, so I don’t believe that the people that voted for Trump believe in what they’re actually getting.”
Trump received the highest share of the Latino vote ever recorded for a Republican nominee, according to election data.
He won approximately 46% to 48% of the Latino vote in the 2024 presidential election.
Among Latino men, Trump received 54% support compared to 44% for Kamala Harris, according to an NBC News exit poll.
Crockett formally entered the 2026 Senate race on Monday.
She said she believes she can flip Texas and unseat Republican Sen. John Cornyn, who is seeking reelection.
During her CNN appearance, Crockett stated that she does not need support from Trump voters to win the seat.
In her first interview, Jasmine Crockett says she doesn’t need Trump voters to win in Texas. I guess that message of unity and addition from her campaign speech was a lie. Even Democratic bigwigs are shocked at her response. https://t.co/abM2QgZdEG pic.twitter.com/GD6aCE0DQu
— Link Lauren (@itslinklauren) December 10, 2025
The exchange on CNN came as her comments about Latino voters resurfaced and as she began outlining her case for statewide support heading into the upcoming Democratic primary.
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