Latest news with #Crockett
Miami Herald
18 hours ago
- Politics
- Miami Herald
‘Scary times': Ben Crump and Rep. Jasmine Crockett speak to Miami Gardens residents
Attorney Ben Crump and Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas had a message for South Floridians. Before a crowd of about 500 people at Antioch Missionary Baptist Church in Miami Gardens, both leaders urged the crowd to stay focused on local politics, build community and to stay engaged. Crockett and Crump spoke as part of the People's Meetup Townhall on Saturday, hosted by Sen. Shevrin Jones, D-Miami Gardens, a gathering that brought together Black leaders from across the country and Florida with the hope that this meetup leads to more. Crockett, a rising star in the Democratic party, is known for being an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump. Ben Crump, who is often referred to as 'Black America's Attorney General,' is widely known for representing families who lost loved ones to police brutality. 'We are in a moment in this country where we all need some reteaching in how to get back out there and fight,' Jones said. ' I think the people are sick of politicking, and I think the people are sick of politics.' The meetup comes at a time when the Democratic party is still reeling from the 2024 election and trying to regroup after losing ground in several key demographics, including Black men. Black voters overwhelmingly vote Democratic, but in 2024, Trump made surprising gains in that group of voters. President Trump was rarely mentioned but was still ever-present at the Meetup. Since his inauguration he has unleashed a fire hose of policies targeting diversity, equity and incIusion, education, immigration and federal workers that have all affected the Black community. In the state of Florida, Black communities have been dealing with laws limiting the way Black history can be taught — even finding different ways to teach history— and Gov. Ron DeSantis' campaign against DEI, which is much of the reason the panelists stressed the importance of being engaged in local politics. The event, moderated by former state Sen. Dwight Bullard and journalist Janey Tate, also featured comments from local elected politicians including Florida Democratic Party chair Nikki Fried and Miami-Dade County Commissioner Oliver Gilbert, who implored the audience to be involved in making change. 'History is going to be written, not just by the people in the front seats here, but the people from this building,' Gilbert said. Crockett and Crump emphasized that Black history needed to be taught at home and the dangers of ignorance. 'The enemies of equality will not win this war for justice and equality as long as we make sure that our children are more intelligent than those who seek to oppress them,' Crump said. Without referring to him by name, Crockett repeatedly criticized the Trump administration's policies and noted that 'someone' prefers people who are uneducated and wants to attempt to ensure future generations have less access to education. Crockett said education isn't just about knowing history, it's also about understanding policies and how they affect communities, referring to Trump's tariffs. 'There were people that were hurting, and they just wanted to believe there has to be something better, because the economy had not fully recovered from the global pandemic, but now we are starting to understand these global supply chains,' she said. 'We cannot be so limited to where our education is only in our city or our county or our state or our country,' she continued. 'We have to become educated, worldly citizens. That is when we can make the best decisions for us and future generations.' And as national policies ripple through local communities Crockett said constituents should lean on their local elected officials. 'Yes, you may be in Florida, and lord knows we need to pray for y'all, but the bright spots are your local officials,' she said. Crockett also said people have to have faith in the courts, as she painted a bleak picture of what she's seeing in congress: 'The Republicans have decided that they are going to abdicate their duties,' she said. 'So, they are not protecting the people's house, which is where I work. They are not protecting the Senate. They are not protecting their own constituency, but one area that has not fallen at this point has been our courts.' Both she and Crump noted that youth also need to be engaged in local and national politics, with Crump reminding the audience that young people led and played pivotal roles in the Civil Rights Movement, adding that he's proud of Crockett's courageousness to speak out even when it's unpopular and despite the criticism she's faced. 'I really do understand it's some very scary times out here, and they attack you for speaking up,' Crump said. 'Fear is contagious…but just like fear is contagious, courage is contagious, and if you stand up for yourself first, there's a second person to stand up, then a third person to stand up, then a fourth person, then a community will stand up, then a city will stand up, then a state will stand up, then a whole nation of our people will stand up. But it just takes us first to stand up on faith and courage like our ancestors did.' Crockett urged attendees to reach those that are feeling disenfranchised. And, she said, that starts by speaking with people you typically wouldn't talk to: 'We've got to start to reconnect with one another and see the humanity in one another.' Crump, whose rise came in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement, said Black people should also seek to be unapologetic in their existence. 'They are unapologetic in their White supremacist beliefs,' he said. 'So just like they are unapologetic, we gotta be unapologetic in defense of Black life, Black liberty and Black humanity.'
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
AI-powered political fanfiction racks up views online
Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, kept herself busy on Tuesday. She confronted Elon Musk in a closed-door meeting, got Supreme Court justices John Roberts and Clarence Thomas arrested, ended the career of Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, and humiliated Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert. Crockett's busy — and fictional — day unfolded on 'Mr. Noah's Stories,' a YouTube channel that inserts the names of public figures into lengthy fanfiction videos. It's one of many accounts, across social media sites, that serves the appetite for dramatic, partisan stories by making them up. With little fanfare — maybe 'with jaw clenched,' as these overwritten stories often put it — Crockett's gotten a few of the fakes taken down, and ignored the rest. 'Clearly the algorithm loves my name, so people do stuff with my name,' Crockett told Semafor. 'I've just told people at this point, if it's an AI-generated voice, it's probably a lie.' Hard to avoid on TikTok, YouTube or Facebook, AI-generated slop has become a barometer of political fame, just as it has of pop culture celebrity. Cabinet secretaries, members of Congress, and presidential family members regularly appear in fake stories with tidy narratives. They fly under the radar. They sometimes get more views than real-world political reporting that's not built for the algorithms. And they've become irritating, and worrying, to some members of Congress. New York Rep. Yvette Clarke, who has introduced legislation to regulate and ban AI 'deepfakes,' told Semafor that the need for reform was growing. 'We're definitely going to reintroduce it because the technology is becoming even more expansive, and with AI that supercharges it,' Clarke said. 'The ways in which our communities are victimized, particularly Black women, by deepfake technology is unacceptable.'The proliferation of fake AI stories about politicians haven't created real political problems for them yet. Other online fakery, like bogus estimates of politicians' net worth, has taken up more of their time — lies to debunk before voters start to believe them. These fake stories are very different, and tend to make their subjects look good. an illustrated story that has been reposted across Facebook's bogus news pages, suggests that the media is unfairly ignoring Hegseth's decency and charity. The most popular version of this, including an AI image that shows the defense secretary's finger stuck inside of a levitating hamburger, has been shared nearly 6,000 times. President Donald Trump and his family were some of the first subjects of this phony content mill, with less discouragement than Crockett. During last year's presidential campaign, the Trump operation shared AI images of the candidate saving pets — cats, dogs, and even some squirrels — from swarthy immigrants and raging hurricanes. In this new term, the White House has shared He-Man Trump images created with AI; most controversially, the president shared a computer-generated fantasy of Gaza, after a possible Trump takeover, on his Truth Social account. AI accounts have added to this with illustrated stories about the presidential family humiliating Trump's enemies — 'Do you know that Baron Trump has engaged in a public confrontation with the professors who signed the letter against Trump?' — or singing gospel music. (The latter is one of the many pseudo-Trump music videos from Vivo Tunes, which has more than 230,000 YouTube subscribers, and a disclaimer that its content does 'not reflect the thoughts or attitudes of the imitated artists.') The newer, more politically diverse fakery is typically about conflict, not singing contests. It's packaged like breaking news, reported from an alternate reality where clapbacks and call-outs can instantly send people to prison. It mangles some details, but gets others right; a confrontation between Attorney Gen. Pam Bondi and a non-existent liberal senator unfolds in Dirksen 226, which is indeed where the Senate Judiciary Committee holds its hearings. Since Jan. 27, when the account was created on YouTube, Mr. Noah's Stories has added more than 42,000 subscribers and clocked more than 5.6 million views. The Crockett character was introduced on March 31, when she confronted a judge with evidence of his corruption, 'walking into a storm she always knew was rigged against her.' It was a rewrite of a story that had initially starred Michelle Obama. But it was a much bigger hit. Most of the political debate about AI and deepfakes has focused on potential reputational damage — words being put into a politician's mouth, a candidate being placed at an event they never attended. After New Jersey Rep. LaMonica McIver gave an interview about her arrest at an ICE facility, her lips were altered to match the singing voice of a Democratic activist. That's the sort of thing Clarke's legislation could prevent. The AI fanfiction is another story, taking advantage of the freedom major social networks give to AI creators and churning out hours of strange fake news. And to be famous, in 2025, is to be faked. Crockett's emergence as an AI slop star is a function of her political stardom. Her real-life 'clapbacks,' which inspired a clothing collection run by her reelection campaign, are popular enough for the slop merchants to create dramatic imitations. Unsurprisingly, no creator of this content wanted to talk about it. (The accounts that made it possible to reach out for comment didn't reply to any questions.) They have found an audience, however small and however bot-laden, that's so hungry for political conflict stories that it'll click on Gault at 404 Media, which has broken scores of stories about AI-created content crowding out the real stuff, investigated its use in a 'slop presidency' that shares fake images to dramatize real policies. Lifehacker's Jordan Calhoun first the Crockett slop, and came up with a formula: 'The subject is a controversial media figure, the predicate is a verb that could describe both physical violence or rhetoric, and the object is a media figure. Close it off with a button and you got a YouTube AI political video.'
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Jasmine Crockett shares bizarre song clip calling herself 'leader of the future'
Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, appears to be leaning in on her rising political stardom this week, briefly sharing what appeared to be a fan-made song that referred to the Democratic firebrand as the "leader of the future." "Jasmine Crockett, she rises with the dawn. Fighting for justice, her light will never be gone," the song went. "A voice for the people, standing strong and proud. Infectious with passion, she'll never bow down. Leader of the future, she's breaking all the chains. Jasmine you rock girl, keep leading the fight." The roughly two-minute-long song was set against what appeared to be photos of Crockett that were lightly animated using artificial intelligence (AI). It ended with a minute of Crockett's own comments at a recent House hearing. House Gop Targets Another Dem Official Accused Of Blocking Ice Amid Delaney Hall Fallout Fox News Digital observed the video on Crockett's Instagram Story, where users post highlights that normally disappear after 24 hours. It was also visible on her Instagram Reels tab. Crockett's official House of Representatives account was listed as a co-author alongside another Instagram account that appears to specialize in AI-generated musical video clips. Crockett's account notes that posts are made by her staff unless the letters "CWC" are present. Her account appears to have shared, but not originally posted the video. Fox News Digital reached out to Crockett's office to ask if she took any part in creating or sanctioning the post. Read On The Fox News App After Fox News Digital's inquiry, mention of the video disappeared from Crockett's page. "A beacon of hope, we know you won't deceive," the song continued at another point. "Democratic champion, her mission's loud and clear. For every single citizen, she'll always be near. No MAGA could silence the truth she displays. Jasmine, you rock girl, keep leading the fight." Meet The Trump-picked Lawmakers Giving Speaker Johnson A Full House Gop Conference Crockett has garnered a notable fan base among the progressive left since bursting on the national stage just over two years ago. She has been known for public comments that have pushed the boundaries of congressional decorum and have even earned her censure threats from her Republican colleagues in the House. Crockett garnered controversy in late March for referring to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who is in a wheelchair, as "Governor Hot Wheels." She later clarified in a statement that she "wasn't thinking about the governor's condition," but she did not apologize. She also appeared to cash in on a spat she was part of during a House Oversight Committee hearing last year, when her response to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., claiming Crockett had "fake eyelashes," was to mock Greene as having a "bleach blonde bad built butch body." Crockett later moved to trademark the phrase through the U.S. Patent and Trademark article source: Jasmine Crockett shares bizarre song clip calling herself 'leader of the future'
Yahoo
5 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Crockett on Noem trip to Israel: ‘You just had a good photo op'
Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) slammed Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem for her recent trip to Israel, declaring it just another 'photo op.' Crockett said she didn't think anything substantive would come from the foreign trip scheduled days after two Israeli Embassy staffers were fatally shot outside of a museum in Washington. 'You just had a good photo op. And I think that that's probably all Kristi Noem is good for, is a photo op,' Crockett said Sunday during an appearance on MSNBC's 'Weekends with Alex Witt.' Noem has faced heavy criticism in recent months from lawmakers and others for wearing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) gear, including a bulletproof vest, in photos and videos and when speaking to reporters along the southern border. During a trip to El Salvador, the secretary also received pushback for giving remarks in front of prisoners at the notorious megaprison known as CECOT. However, she said her Sunday trip to Israel was not arranged for the media but requested by President Trump after a shooting killed the couple, identified as 26-year-old Sarah Lynn Milgrim and 30-year-old Yaron Lischinsky. The two staffers were killed after a gunman opened fire outside of the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington last week. The shooter also shouted 'free Palestine' during the incident, according to police — likely in protest over the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. 'Following the horrific terrorist attack in Washington DC killing two Israeli diplomats, @POTUS Trump asked me to visit Israel and meet with Prime Minister [Benjamin Netanyahu],' Noem wrote in a Monday post on the social platform X, showcasing MSNBC footage of her at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. 'Hate will not have the last word.' Netanyahu also shared an image alongside the secretary thanking her for her 'unwavering support' of Israel. Crockett has been openly critical of Trump and his administration since the president returned to the White House in January. She has also joined with her fellow progressive Democrats to push for change in her own party. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
5 days ago
- Politics
- The Hill
Crockett on Noem trip to Israel: ‘You just had a good photo op'
Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) slammed Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem for her recent trip to Israel declaring it as just another 'photo op.' Crockett said she didn't think anything substantive would come from the foreign trip scheduled days after two Israeli embassy staffers were fatally shot outside of a museum in Washington. 'You just had a good photo op. And I think that that's probably all Kristi Noem is good for, is a photo op,' Crockett said Sunday during an appearance on MSNBC's 'Weekends with Alex Witt.' Noem has faced heavy criticism in recent months from lawmakers and others for wearing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) gear, including a bulletproof vest, in photos and videos and when speaking to reporters along the southern border. During a trip to El Salvador, the secretary also received pushback for giving remarks in front of CECOT prisoners. However, she said her Sunday trip to Israel was not arranged for the media but requested by President Trump after a shooting killed the young Jewish couple, identified as Sarah Lynn Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky. The two staffers were killed after a gunman opened fire outside of the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington last week. The shooter also shouted 'free Palestine' during the incident, according to police — likely in protest over the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. 'Following the horrific terrorist attack in Washington DC killing two Israeli diplomats, @POTUS Trump asked me to visit Israel and meet with Prime Minister [Benjamin Netanyahu],' Noem wrote in a Monday post on social platform X, showcasing MSNBC footage of her at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. 'Hate will not have the last word.' Netanyahu also shared an image alongside the secretary thanking her for her 'unwavering support' to Israel. Crockett has been openly critical of the president and his administration since Trump returned to the White House more than 100 days ago. She has also joined with her fellow progressive Democrats to push for change in the party.
