DAVID TAFFET | Senior Staff Writer
Taffet@DallasVoice.com
Rep. Jasmine Crockett held a local swearing-in ceremony in Fair Park this week to celebrate her re-election with her constituents. In front of the local crowd, she proudly took the oath of office again, sworn in by Dallas County Criminal Court No. 3 Judge Audrey Moorehead.
About 700 people can fit into the main hall at the Hall of State; Crockett’s office said attendance was well over that number. The overflow crowd of about 100 had to watch remotely from the auditorium on the lower level.
And when Crockett put her hand on the Bible, her office assured, it wasn’t a Trump Bible.
Before the ceremony, Crockett spoke to reporters.
“It’s been only eight days,” she said, exasperated, as she welcomed the crowd to her event.
“We have four more years to go. It’s scary we have someone in the White House who doesn’t believe in the Constitution.”
When Dallas Voice asked what she thought the priority should be for the LGBTQ community, given the flood of executive orders targeting the community, the congresswoman suggested the attack on DEI was something the LGBTQ community could address with other communities affected by the order.
“Diversity has become a slur for Black folks,” she said, explaining that all DEI efforts do is make sure everyone has an opportunity. “We’re not all straight white men.”
She said we can’t allow other people to divide us. “In the election we weren’t together about trans folks,” Crockett noted, adding that if they can divide Democrats on trans people, they’ll use the same tactics to divide on immigration and on every other issue that comes along.
She gave a special warning on senior issues and especially social security. “We need to be everywhere,” she said, meaning Democrats have to talk to people about the issues wherever they are.
Over the last year, Crockett said, she was surprised to be featured in a range of magazines as diverse as Ebony and Vogue and on TV with Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert.
“But we need to be in hunting magazines,” she said. “We need to be in rural areas.”
Right now, Crockett stressed, the community needs to have backbone, like in the 1960s when Congress passed the Civil Rights Act. Congressmen who did the right thing and voted for the bill knew they wouldn’t be re-elected as states were redistricted and minorities began to gain representation.
Her immediate advice: “Right now we just have to stop the bleeding.”
And she had a message for those in immigrant communities who were being arrested and knew people who were being arrested: “My heart goes out to our entire community,” she said. “People will be detained who are here legally.”
Courts will ultimately tell the Trump administration they’ve gone too far, she said, but until then, “my attorney hat says keep yourself safe,” she said. “Have your paperwork. You cannot allow this darkness to get you down.”
And on freezing government spending, she said, “The president doesn’t have the authority” to decide what programs to fund. “Congress has the power of the purse. Money is appropriated by law.”
Crockett acknowledged that she doesn’t “expect to get very much done” in Congress over the next two years. And as far Trump is concerned, “He promised to be a dictator on Day 1,” she reminded her audience, and he is living up to the promise.