Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) slammed Vice President JD Vance, saying his recent attacks against her were “racist.” One expert in public humanities breaks down why the vice president’s digs were predictable and straight out of the “GOP playbook.”
During an appearance on “The View” on Tuesday, Crockett was asked to respond to Vance’s attacks last month, in which he mocked the congresswoman’s Senate bid and said she had a fake “street girl persona” during his speech onstage at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest in Phoenix, Arizona.
“And Jasmine Crockett. Oh, Jasmine Crockett,” he said as the crowd could be heard booing. “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 on “The View” that she believes conservatives are concerned that she’s able to reach a demographic — those without a college degree — that “Democrats have been losing.”
“So now he’s [Vance] is like, ’Oh no, no, no it’s all fake, don’t believe that,” she 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 continued.
When co-host Joy Behar asked Crockett if she thought Vance’s comments were racist, Crockett responded: “Joy, you know it’s racist. We know that.”
Crockett added that she believes conservatives like Vance have been working to “divide minorities” who support her. “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,” she said. “We’re all in the same sinking ship.”
“At the end of the day, I’m fighting for all Texans,” she added.
Deepak Sarma, inaugural distinguished scholar in the public humanities at Case Western Reserve University, told HuffPost that Vance’s attack on Crockett is part of a tactic — and it’s a predictable one.
“Vance is, predictably, deploying a familiar tactic from the GOP playbook — racial fearmongering,” they 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,” they continued.
Sarma said that they believe conservatives are trying to capitalize on the momentum built from Charlie Kirk, and now his widow, Erika Kirk, who was named CEO and board chair of Turning Point USA after her husband was assassinated in September.
“I am reminded of Hitler’s Nuremberg rallies, which similarly functioned as carefully orchestrated propaganda spectacles designed to inflame grievance and consolidate loyalty.”
Caylo Seals via Getty Images
Vance’s ‘street girl persona’ dig at Crockett says a lot about the times we’re living in.
Sarma doesn’t believe that Vance’s “street girl persona” comment, or similar behavior, would have been tolerated by a politician, entertainer or any public figure prior to President Donald Trump’s first campaign for president in 2015.
“Trump has fundamentally altered public discourse in America. Insults, acrimony, and vulgarity are now normalized and no longer censured or punished,” they said. “Incivility, rather than civility, is celebrated.”
Sarma said that racism has increasingly become acceptable in public life. “Is MAGA, in effect, MARA — Making America Racist Again?”
Shaun Harper, a professor of education, business and public policy at the University of Southern California, questioned why Vance chose to single out communities he refers to as “street” in the first place.
“Isn’t Vance supposed to be vice president for all Americans?” he said. “This should include ‘street girls,’ but the Trump Administration’s policies repeatedly disregard them and their communities.”
“Crockett, on the other hand, reliably represents their interests and concerns on Capitol Hill, television, social media, and elsewhere,” he continued.
Harper later added that “Crockett looks and talks like no one in the Trump administration, which is a problem” for Vance and others.
“Because Vance interacts with so few extraordinarily talented Black women like Crockett, his stereotypes lead him to racist and sexist presumptions about who and how they are,” he said.
Sarma said that Crockett’s response to Vance on “The View” correctly identified the strategy behind Vance’s “street girl persona” remarks: It was an attempt by Vance to “sway ambivalent voters by exploiting racial stereotypes and economic and educational insecurities.”
Crockett’s responses to such rhetoric are “consistently sharp, pointed and unflinching,” Sarma said.
They added: “She will be remembered as a strong and principled voice —one who was targeted precisely because she spoke out against the Trump administration and refused to be silenced.”
