Jasmine Crockett Explains Why She Voted Against A Charlie Kirk Resolution

Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) said she was hurt that only two white House representatives voted against a resolution honoring far-right activist Charlie Kirk.

“The rhetoric that Charlie Kirk continuously put out there was rhetoric that specifically targeted people of color,” Crockett said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “It is unfortunate that even our colleagues could not see how harmful his rhetoric was, specifically to [people of color].”

On Friday, the House passed a resolution honoring the “life and legacy” of Kirk, a podcaster and the founder of Turning Point USA, a nonprofit aimed at spreading conservatism among college students. Fifty-eight Democrats voted against the resolution. The two white representatives who voted against the resolution were Reps. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) and Mike Quigley (D-Ill.).

Crockett said about a month before Kirk’s death, Kirk was speaking negatively about Crockett on his podcast, calling her a “circus act” who was a part of the “great replacement of white people.”

“If there was any way I was gonna honor somebody who decided that they were going to negatively talk about me and proclaim that I was somehow involved in the great white replacement,” Crockett said on CNN. “Yeah, I’m not honoring that kind of stuff, especially as a civil rights attorney.”

She continued: “It’s unfortunate that more of my colleagues — even on my side of the aisle — couldn’t see the amount of harm that this man was attempting to inflict upon our communities.”

Kirk, who was shot and killed on Sept. 10 while speaking on Utah Valley University’s campus, made plenty of racist remarks on his podcast and on college campuses while he was alive, including that the Civil Rights Act was a mistake and that Black women didn’t have “the brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously.”

Along with Crockett, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) has also been outspoken about not voting for the resolution. Ocasio-Cortez said in a statement that she condemns Kirk’s “brutal murder,” but a resolution underscores the country’s political divide.

“We should be clear about who Charlie Kirk was: a man who believed that the Civil Rights Act that granted Black Americans the right to vote was a ‘mistake,’ who after the violent attack on Paul Pelosi claimed that ‘some amazing patriot out there’ should bail out his assailant, and accused Jews of controlling ‘not just the colleges – it’s the nonprofits, it’s the movies, it’s Hollywood, it’s all of it,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a statement. “His rhetoric and beliefs were ignorant and sought to disenfranchise millions of Americans – far from ‘working tirelessly to promote unity’ as asserted by the majority in this resolution.”

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus also condemned the resolution, saying in a statement that they condemn political violence “without abandoning our right to speak out against ideas that are inconsistent with our values as Americans.”

“The resolution introduced in the House to honor Charlie Kirk’s legacy is not about healing, lowering the temperature of our political discourse, or even ensuring the safety of members of Congress, staff, and Capitol personnel,” the statement reads. “It is, unfortunately, an attempt to legitimize Kirk’s worldview — a worldview that includes ideas many Americans find racist, harmful, and fundamentally un-American.”