To Democratic Rep. Jason Crow, anyone surprised by the insurrectionist action of extremists at the U.S. Capitol is “not being honest with themselves” on where the blame should lie.
“Anybody who doesn’t know that (Trump) is capable of this, anybody who doesn’t know that he’s a violent man that has incited violence repeatedly over the last four years and incited it yesterday with very clear language between him and his inner circle, that not just encouraged by asked for this to happen, is kidding themselves,” he reiterated on CPR's Colorado Matters.
As the events unfolded Wednesday, Crow tweeted that Congress would continue the work of the people in spite of the "coup attempt."
While Crow had praise for individual officers with the Capitol Police, he pointed out the security was far different when Black Lives Matter protests were in Washington, D.C. — a contention fellow delegation member Republican Ken Buck rejects.
“There was remarkable courage showing,” he said. “But there was a catastrophic security failure at the Capitol. This never should have happened. Why weren’t there four or five thousand National Guard troops like there were this summer during BLM protests is mind-boggling to me.”
The affirmation of the Electoral College vote for Joe Biden was only delayed by the chaotic events at the Capitol. When debate resumed only objections to Arizona's and Pennsylvania's electors were heard — and dispatched. Crow, like the rest of Colorado's Democratic congressional members, voted against both objections. Buck voted against the Arizona objection and did not vote on Pennsylvania. Both Republican Reps. Doug Lamborn and Lauren Boebert voted in favor of the objections.
Interview Highlights
On removal of the president using the 25th Amendment:
“I haven’t had the chance to look at it yet. I probably agree with it. I think that’s the right move, but I’ve been calling for the president to be removed for a very long time. About a year ago this month I was named an impeachment manager, and I spent the better part of a month making the case for the removal of President Trump. And I was doing that because I knew he was a dangerous man … that he was violent, that he could not be trusted holding the keys to power of our government. Here we are, right? A year later here we are. I’ve known for a long time that this needs to happen.”
On the idea of American exceptionalism:
“I love this country. I’m a patriotic person, and I believe in the American idea and despite what happened yesterday, the overwhelming majority of Americans are good people. They’re trying to raise their families. They’re trying to build businesses. They’re trying to put food on the table. The people that I represent are incredible people, and I draw inspiration from them and we will prevail.
Democracy will prevail. I think we will come out of this better and stronger, but we have some very big challenges that lie ahead. We have to come to terms with how we got to this point. We have to address this radicalization and this extremism that has gripped some people in the country. We cannot ignore it. And we’re going to have to address it head-on and not put our heads in the sand.”
On how to address the radicalism in American politics:
“We have to first understand that we have reached a point where a sizable percentage of the American population is getting false information, and they believe it to be true. You think about these tens of thousands of rioters. I think many of them truly believed in their heart that this election was stolen. That’s what was told to them. And they’re looking at social media sites and conspiracy theory sites and Q Anon conspiracies, and they believe that we’re no longer a country that is operating off of a common set of information.
And we can’t be the deliberative democracy that we need to be if we can’t even agree on the facts to debate. So we have to figure out how can we get back to the mutual understanding and facts. Certainly it’ll be helpful to not have Donald Trump in the White House with the biggest bully pulpit in the world expounding those conspiracy theories. That said, he’s not going away any time soon, even though he’s not going to occupy the White House in a few weeks. It is challenging, and I don’t have all the answers right now, but we’re going to have to figure it out.”
