Photo: Getty Images North America
Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) called out Vice President JD Vance as racist after he mocked her for having a fake "street girl persona," per HuffPost.
On Tuesday (January 6), Crockett appeared on The View, where she addressed comments Vance made during a speech at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest last month.
“And Jasmine Crockett. Oh, Jasmine Crockett,” Vance said at the time. “The record speaks for itself. She wants to be a senator, though her street girl persona is about as real as her nails.”
Crockett said Vance's comments are a part of a GOP attempt to discredit her appeal to voters.
“So now he’s [Vance] is like, ‘Oh no, no, no it’s all fake, don’t believe that,’” Crockett said. “No, the reality is that I was a criminal defense attorney, I was a public defender, I am somebody who walked into plenty of jails and dealt with real killers.”
“So let me be clear, I understand what happens in the streets, but I don’t have to ‘be a street girl,'" she added.
When The View co-host Joy Behar asked whether she believed Vance’s remarks were racist, Crockett sharply responded, “Joy, you know it’s racist. We know that.”
The Texas Democrat added that conservatives like Vance are attempting to divide minority voters.
“Sometimes they say, ‘Oh, she’s so educated,’ and so they’re trying to get people that maybe don’t have as many degrees... it’s not about that,” Crockett said. “We’re all in the same sinking ship.”
“At the end of the day, I’m fighting for all Texans," she continued.
Public humanities scholar Deepak Sarma of Case Western Reserve University said Vance’s comments fit a familiar Republican strategy.
“Vance is, predictably, deploying a familiar tactic from the GOP playbook — racial fearmongering,” Sarma said. “[It’s] likely intended to deflect attention from the catastrophic policy failures of the Trump administration.”
“By redirecting the focus of MAGA zealots, Trump and his loyalist administrators seek to provoke the most base, vulgar and vitriolic reactions: scapegoating Black Americans and indulging in a nostalgic fantasy of a pre–Civil War, slavery-era social order," Sarma added.
Shaun Harper, a professor at the University of Southern California, questioned Vance’s choice to target people he labeled as “street.”
“Isn’t Vance supposed to be vice president for all Americans?” Harper said. “This should include ‘street girls,’ but the Trump Administration’s policies repeatedly disregard them and their communities.”
“Crockett looks and talks like no one in the Trump administration, which is a problem," he added.
The Black Information Network is your source for Black News! Get the latest news 24/7 on The Black Information Network. Listen now on the iHeartRadio app or click HERE to tune in live.