Rep. Jasmine Crockett insists ‘granddaddy' Biden's acuity ‘supreme' compared to Trump
Shrugging off bombshell revelations about Biden's decline from the new book 'Original Sin' and elsewhere, Crockett (D-Texas) underscored that she 'never saw anything' from the 46th president that caused her to question his infirmity.
'Even if we want to say — which I refuse to accept — that Joe Biden was mentally deficient, let me tell you something, his mental deficiency is still a thousand times better than what we currently have,' Crockett said on Katie Couric's 'Next Question' podcast in an episode that dropped Thursday.
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'I just wish that, ultimately, this country would judge each of our leaders with the same measuring stick.'
Questions about Biden's cognitive abilities reached a fever pitch almost exactly a year ago in the aftermath of his fumbling debate performance against Trump, in which he repeatedly lost his train of thought and appeared stone-faced at times, mouth agape.
3 The Texas congresswoman said in her personal experience with him, former President Joe Biden seemed fine.
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3 The former president was poised to attend an African Methodist Episcopal church in Galveston, Texas, to celebrate Juneteenth on Thursday.
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The stunning debate prompted a revolt among Democrats that ultimately culminated with Biden dropping out of the race in July of last year.
Recently, those dramatic events have been revisited in the bombshell book 'Original Sin' by star Axios reporter Alex Thompson and CNN anchor Jake Tapper, triggering soul searching among Democrats over Biden, who announced his prostate cancer diagnosis last month.
On Wednesday, the GOP-led Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on Biden's use of autopen and his supposed cognitive decline. The House Oversight Committee is conducting a similar probe.
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Crockett had stood by Biden during the Democratic revolt last summer. She likened his condition to that of her grandmother, whom the rep said 'mentally she was still there' despite aging and slowing down.
3 President Trump has publicly bashed Rep. Jasmine Crockett.
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'We all slow down. But I will tell you that I will take a broken — or however they want to describe Joe Biden — over Donald Trump any given day, because, number one, I know Joe Biden's heart,' the Texas Democrat contended.
'Even if you're saying that there was a mentally deficient Joe Biden, I know that he absolutely had a mental acuity that is supreme when it comes to comparing him to Donald Trump, because at least he kept good people around him.'
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The outspoken Texas congresswoman also recalled her personal interactions with Biden to argue that he was not in significant decline during his time running the country.
'The average person has not been given the level of access that the average member of Congress has to the president,' she explained.
'I never saw anything in Joe Biden that made me wonder whatsoever, and it's not that I was with Joe Biden every single day, that's for sure. But as I talked about my grandparents — the way that I would describe Joe is like, I mean, he's a granddaddy, right?'
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The Hill
28 minutes ago
- The Hill
Progressives make inroads in key mayor's races
Progressives are making inroads in big-city mayoral races, giving the left flank a new shot in the arm as the Democratic Party faces an internal struggle over its future. Seattle community activist Katie Wilson surprised some political observers last week in finishing ahead of incumbent Mayor Bruce Harrell (D) in a nonpartisan blanket primary. Though Harrell, who is more moderate, will have the opportunity to win reelection to a second term in November, Wilson is currently almost 10 points ahead of him in the primary results, as of the latest vote count. Coming in the aftermath of Zohran Mamdani's upset win in the New York City Democratic primary and as a left-wing challenger hopes to oust the current Minneapolis mayor, progressives are hoping it's a sign of the tide turning in their favor. 'Our hope is that there's a real moment for progressives, for folks who want to see change or are upset with the status quo,' said Alex Gallo-Brown, Wilson's campaign manager in an interview. The Democratic Party has spent months reevaluating its future in the aftermath of its losses last November and figuring out its direction ahead of the midterms. The party has experienced a battle for at least the past decade between its progressive and moderate wings for control of the party and the message pitched to voters. Finger-pointing followed former Vice President Harris's loss in 2024, with progressives getting blame from more moderate Democrats for contributing to a perception of the party as too far left. Coupled with some high-profile defeats for progressive candidates in key congressional and local races in 2024, the progressive wing didn't appear to be in a strong position entering this year. But progressives are much more optimistic now following results in some of the mayoral elections taking place this year in large cities. The first and biggest victory yet came with the surprise win from Mamdani, a New York State Assembly member backed by Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), in the primary over former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who touted progressive accomplishments while in office but ran as a moderate. Most public and even Mamdani-aligned polling didn't show him leading ahead of the primary, but he outperformed expectations to win comfortably by double digits in the final round of the city's ranked-choice tabulation. Meanwhile, another DSA-backed candidate is seeking to gain momentum in Minneapolis after winning the city party's endorsement. Minnesota state Sen. Omar Fateh (D) won the endorsement last month over Mayor Jacob Frey (D), who is seeking his third term in office. Though Frey is filing an appeal to the decision over what he argues was a flawed process, after significant technological issues, the development nonetheless underscores the proxy battle taking place in the city's election. 'This endorsement is a message that Minneapolis residents are done with broken promises, vetoes, and politics as usual,' Fateh said in a post on X at the time. 'It's a mandate to build a city that works for all of us.' Most recently, Wilson took observers by surprise by finishing ahead of Harrell in the Seattle mayoral primary with about 51 percent of the vote to 41.4 percent for the incumbent mayor. The candidates will face off again in the November general election. Issues of affordability and public safety are playing key roles in the contest, as is the case for other large cities. Harrell has touted declining violent crime rates during his time as mayor and has pushed for increased hiring for the city's police force. Wilson, who previously expressed sympathy for the 'defund the police' movement but hasn't called for it during her campaign, has criticized Harrell over rising costs of living and housing affordability, while arguing that armed officers aren't needed to respond to mental health and other non-crime calls they receive. Gallo-Brown cast doubt on how much the public cares about 'labels' as opposed to who will find solutions to their problems. 'A lot of people, they kind of look at the Democratic Party or certain parts of it, and it's just business as usual,' he said. 'And so I think people like Katie, like Zohran, like other mayoral candidates around the country are showing people that another world is possible.' Harrell told The Hill in an interview that he wasn't surprised by the results given the 'angst' that voters expressed while his campaign conducted field work. He said he needs to remind voters that he's been a 'change agent' and helped turn the city around from the place it was in when he first took office, a time when the city was still coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic and facing much higher levels of crime. 'You don't want to sacrifice a proven leader, just because there's impressive-sounding rhetoric that seems to excite people,' he said. 'The rhetoric will not get change done. It's people who are capable and have done the work.' Some Democrats tempered expectations for the progressive challengers and argued that Minneapolis and Seattle's races aren't as directly comparable to New York City's. Corey Day, a former executive director of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, pointed to the controversy surrounding the process that resulted in Fateh's endorsement and Frey's appeal, which could change the city party's decision. He also said he doesn't believe the endorsement will be as critical to determining the winner as it would be for some city council races. Day called Fateh's candidacy a 'significant challenge' to Frey but said he expects the incumbent to make clear their differences ahead of November. The election will be conducted by a ranked-choice process in which all candidates for the office compete on the same ballot. The race doesn't have a primary, so no results on where voters stand will be available until the election happens. Frey also doesn't have the controversies that Mamdani's chief opponent, Cuomo, had to overcome in the New York race. 'Once both of these candidates are spotlighted, and I think when they start talking about their policies and their records, it's going to be pretty clear for voters that Jacob Frey is their choice,' Day said, arguing that Frey has also established his progressive bona fides. Ashik Siddique, a DSA co-chair, said voters are excited from candidates who show they're willing to fight for working class voters, and these types of candidates can win even outside these cities if they hone their message and have discipline. 'People are very motivated to see people like Zohran and Omar and others all over the country really standing up for clear economic demands that will address the ways people feel their day to day lives are getting worse, but also being able to confront the [Trump] administration when it's scapegoating people,' he said. DSA enthusiasm was on full display at its national convention this month following Mamdani's win. DSA isn't involved in the Seattle mayor's race, and Wilson hasn't run as a democratic socialist, but the race is still another example of progressives feeling bullish. Washington state Democratic strategist Ron Dotzauer said he expects the general election turnout to be much higher than that of the primary was, changing the electorate. He said the low turnout favored Wilson's constituency and other more liberal candidates. Dotzauer said Wilson's constituency is 'ironclad,' so the onus will be on Harrell to capitalize on the increased voter turnout. 2024 Election Coverage 'There's a scenario for each of them to win, and I think it's going to be very, very close,' he said. Harrell also argued that he has shown his progressive values in fighting to raise the minimum wage, setting an 'aggressive' climate policy and raising taxes on the largest businesses. He also pointed to a key endorsement he received from Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), a former chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. 'When people start calling people names or labeling them, they're not really looking at the hard work that's been achieved,' he said. 'And again, I'll that story during the general, but I think that should resonate in the minds of most voters.'
The Hill
28 minutes ago
- The Hill
Trump wields funding card in fight with DC
Republicans are embracing President Trump's bare-knuckled fight with Washington, D.C., as a winning issue for the embattled president and say that Trump will use federal funding for the city as leverage to get Mayor Muriel Bowser and the City Council to crack down on local crime. Conservatives on Capitol Hill are calling for Congress to end the District of Columbia's era of home rule and federalize the city, something that has little chance of happening since legislation to do so would need 60 votes and the support of at least seven Democrats to pass the Senate. Trump and his Republican allies in Congress, however, could extract significant concessions from the mayor and City Council in return for critical funding, as a proposal to restore more than $1 billion in funding for Washington remains stalled in the GOP-controlled House. Republican aides say that one of Trump's top priorities would be to press D.C. to eliminate no-cash bail, a policy whereby individuals arrested on criminal charges do not need to post cash bonds to avoid pretrial detention. Other priorities would be to prosecute teenagers accused of serious crimes as adults and to implement stricter policies mandating pretrial detention of adults and teenagers accused of such crimes. Some Republicans on Capitol Hill, including Sen. Mike Lee (Utah) and Rep. Andy Ogles (Tenn.), are pushing for more drastic action. They are backing legislation to repeal the 1973 District of Columbia Home Rule Act, which gives the city the right to elect its own government and manage local affairs. Lee in an op-ed for The Spectator cited several high-profile attacks, including the fatal shooting of congressional intern Eric Tarpinian-Jachym in July and the 2023 knife attack that left a staffer for Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) with a punctured lung and penetrated skull. 'This isn't just a local issue — it's a national embarrassment, and the Constitution itself makes it a national issue. Federal oversight will restore order and make DC a model city again,' Lee posted on the social platform X. Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) in an interview on Fox Business applauded Trump's takeover of D.C.'s police and predicted: 'If there's a significant law enforcement presence, these crimes are going to go down.' He said a car belonging to one of his staffers got shot up in a gang fight while it was parked six blocks from the Capitol. 'We spent one of our Steering Committee meetings talking about what we should get our employees to protect themselves when they're walking home. This is our nation's capital, for crying out loud. This is where you bring your family, and you become a patriot, and it's not safe to be here,' he said. 'I'm saluting President Trump. More power to him to do whatever it takes to secure our nation's capital.' Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), the chair of the Senate Steering Committee, told reporters Tuesday he hoped Democratic mayors from major cities would follow Trump's lead and increase law-enforcement activities. 'I'm optimistic this will show D.C. you can have safety,' he said. 'The first thing I say to everybody when they're coming to D.C. is, 'You better think about where you're staying, you've got to think about every street you're on, you've got to think about you can't be out at night.' Hopefully that will change.' Early polling is mixed on Trump's takeover of the capital's police department and plan to deploy 800 National Guard troops, along with dozens of FBI agents, to step up law enforcement activity around the city. An Aug. 11 YouGov survey of 3,180 U.S. adults found that 47 percent of respondents strongly or somewhat disapproved of Trump's actions, while 34 percent strongly or somewhat approved. But the poll also found that 67 of respondents said that crime in large American cities is a 'major problem' while 23 percent described it as a 'minor problem.' Focusing on crime in Democratic-run cities has been a successful political tactic for the president going back to his first term and comes at a time when his approval rating has sunk to 37 percent, according to a recent Gallup poll. Democratic lawmakers slammed Trump's action. Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) asserted 'there are currently no 'special conditions of an emergency nature' in D.C., which the president has to claim in order to take federal control of MPD under the Home Rule Act.' 'This is unprecedented,' he said. Jim McLaughlin, a Republican pollster who has done work for Trump, said that Trump's takeover of the police force and deployment of National Guard is a popular move but argued it's not motivated by politics. 'He's doing it because he thinks it's really important to keep people safe,' he said, noting that crime and law enforcement in major cities was an issue that Trump identified as a top priority when he was thinking about running years before the 2016 presidential election. 'I know there are a lot of people looking at the political angle here, but it's not politics, it's about doing what he thinks is right,' McLaughlin said. 'D.C. is a special place. We have people not just from all over the country but all over the world come to visit D.C., and they should be safe there. 'We've got members of Congress and their staff getting attacked there,' he said, referring to the assault on Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.) in 2023. Trump will have an opportunity to press his demands ahead of next month's government funding deadline, Sept. 30, when Democrats in Congress and advocates for the District will call for the restoration of the funding held back in the March funding deal. 'I can see that being an anomaly in a [continuing resolution],' said a Republican strategist, who suggested that Trump could also request more federal oversight of Washington's Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) in exchange for funding to hire more police. 'You're working within the confines with what will probably be a' continuing resolution, the strategist said of the expectation that Congress will need to pass a stopgap funding measure to avoid a government shutdown. 'You could do it via a handshake agreement,' the strategist added, referring to concessions Bowser would make in exchange for more federal funding. Bowser 'already opened the door' to a potential deal with the White House, the strategist noted, by acknowledging in a recent statement that beefing up policing in some parts of the city could be a good idea. Bowser at a press conference Monday acknowledged that 'we experienced a crime spike post-COVID' but argued 'we worked quickly to put laws in place and tactics that got violent offenders off our streets and gave our police officers more tools, which is why we've seen a huge decrease in crime.' The mayor pointed out that crime is down compared with 2023 but pledged: 'We're not satisfied, we haven't taken our foot off the gas, and we continue to look for ways to make our city safer.' Bowser met with Attorney General Pam Bondi on Tuesday, a meeting that Bondi called 'productive.' 'I just concluded a productive meeting with DC Mayor Bowser at the Department of Justice. We agreed that there is nothing more important than keeping residents and tourists in Washington, DC, safe from deadly crime,' Bondi posted on social media. Trump on Monday vented his frustrations over no-cash bail and what he views as the lenient treatment of teenagers accused of felony crimes. 'Every place in the country where you have no-cash bail is a disaster,' Trump declared at a White House press conference where he announced a federal takeover of D.C.'s police department and the deployment of 800 National Guard troops to the city's streets. The president called for the District to change its laws to allow for teenagers 14 and older to be prosecuted as adults, complaining of juvenile offenders: 'They are not afraid of Law Enforcement because they know nothing ever happens to them, but it's going to happen now!'
Axios
28 minutes ago
- Axios
Miami-Dade sees sharp drop in homicides
The Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office investigated 39% fewer homicides during the first three months of 2025 compared to the same period last year, according to preliminary data. Why it matters: Stats compiled by the Major Cities Chiefs Association (MCCA) indicate that the nationwide COVID-era crime wave has almost faded away — even as some officials, including President Trump, falsely claim that immigrants are driving increased crime rates. The big picture: Violent crime in the U.S., especially homicides, spiked during the final year of Trump's first term and during Joe Biden's first two years as president. Since then, they've been dropping dramatically, an Axios review of MCCA data shows. Overall, violent crimes — robberies, rapes and aggravated assaults — decreased by an average of 14% in the first quarter of this year, reports from police departments in 68 cities indicate. Many cities have had significant drops in homicides so far this year. Dallas has seen a 44% decline. Denver (58%), Honolulu (82%), Minneapolis (54%) and Philadelphia (28%) were among the cities showing notable drops. The data didn't include New York City, the nation's largest city, which didn't submit crime numbers. New York releases crime stats on its own website, where it reported a 34% drop in homicides in the first quarter of 2025. Zoom in: The Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office investigates homicides in 27 of Miami-Dade's 35 municipalities and unincorporated Miami-Dade. MDSO handled 11 homicides between Jan. 1 and March 31, down from 18 during the same period in 2024, per MCCA data. The City of Miami, which has its own homicide unit, handled eight homicide cases during the 2025 period, compared to 9 during the same three-month period in 2024.
