Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) repeated attacks against the late Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk on Sunday, echoing earlier comments by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN).
The remarks came on the same day more than 200,000 people were expected to attend Kirk’s memorial service.
Crockett, along with 57 other House Democrats, voted against a resolution honoring Kirk’s life and legacy last week.
Many of those who opposed the resolution have cited edited clips and disputed claims about Kirk’s past remarks.
Among them were accusations that Kirk said black women lacked adequate brain processing power, suggested gun deaths were necessary, and made inflammatory comments about religion.
Conservative activists, including Amir Odom, have publicly debunked the claims, calling them misleading and based on heavily edited video segments.
During an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union,” host Dana Bash pressed Crockett about her opposition to the resolution.
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“So, meanwhile, you obviously feel very strongly about the rhetoric that Charlie Kirk used that you find objectionable and also from others in the MAGA movement. As the memorial service for him is going to happen later today, there is a debate over heated rhetoric on all sides,” Bash said.
Crockett responded: “Whether it’s heated or not, the fact is Charlie Kirk should still be here. It should not have been that there was political violence that resulted because of the words that were coming out of his mouth, just like plenty of MAGA hates when I mentioned white supremacy, which kind of tells you where MAGA stands.”
Bash questioned Crockett about her own statements, including ones in which she referred to President Trump as an “enemy” of the United States and compared him to Adolf Hitler.
“But do you have a responsibility as an elected official not to raise the temperature, but rather lower the temperature, particularly when there are people out there who listen to elected officials all over the place who are not well, who use that as a way to instigate the political violence that you are calling out?” Bash asked.
Crockett declined to soften her rhetoric. She defended her past comparisons of Trump to Hitler, citing what she described as “chilling speech” and “consolidating power.”
She also repeated several of the disputed quotes attributed to Kirk and reaffirmed her decision to oppose the resolution.
“We know that we still have laws that are on the book. This certain speech is not protected, that it does cross over when you were inciting violence, such as what we saw on January 6th, when you are doing what we consider to be a terroristic threat of some sort, where it’s a matter of, I’m not just saying it, but I have the apparent ability to carry that out. But me laying out historical facts, just like they don’t wanna talk about the fact that slavery was real in this country, and that my people were enslaved and dragged and raped and abused, and they don’t wanna account for any of that,” Crockett said.
She went further, saying she felt no obligation to honor Kirk in any official capacity.
“One of the things I do wanna point out that’s not been laid out, honestly hurts my heart. When I saw the ‘no’ votes, there were only two Caucasians. For the most part, the only people that voted no were people of color,” Crockett stated.
The House resolution recognizing Kirk passed with bipartisan support, despite the opposition from Crockett and other Democrats.
Kirk, who was assassinated earlier this year, was a prominent figure in conservative politics and the founder of Turning Point USA.
His memorial service drew hundreds of thousands of attendees, reflecting his influence on the conservative movement nationwide.