Jason Crow: What the president is doing by striking these votes is not going to solve the issue. It’s not going to make us any safer. Right? And at the same time, Americans do not want their president to be able to strike anybody anywhere using our military and their taxpayer dollars without oversight and without lawful authority.
Colin Seeberger: Hey, everyone. Welcome back to “The Tent,” your place for politics, policy, and progress. I’m your host, Colin Seeberger. That was Colorado Congressman Jason Crow (D). Last week, we saw the U.S. military carry out a number of strikes on boats off the coast of Venezuela that were allegedly trafficking drugs. But the Trump administration has failed to provide any evidence supporting those claims.
Meanwhile, as Trump enflames tensions to the south, his deployment of National Guard troops across the United States and refusal to negotiate an end to the ongoing federal government shutdown is doing the same here at home.
Congressman Crow and I broke down the dangers of Trump’s foreign policy decisions and the latest news in the government shutdown fight. And stick around after the interview for a moment of joy because our lives are about to be changed “For Good.”
Jason Crow represents Colorado’s 6th Congressional District. He’s a lawyer and veteran and currently serves on the House Select Committee on Intelligence and the Committee on Armed Services.
Congressman Jason Crow, welcome to the pod.
Crow: Thanks for having me.
Seeberger: So over the past week, the Trump administration has carried out a series of different strikes on boats off the coast of Venezuela, with Trump threatening further action in the region.
As of this recording, we just learned that those operations have expanded. We saw a bombing campaign into the Pacific this afternoon, which hit a vessel in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Colombia. Trump claims these boats have been used to take on drug traffickers, but the White House, they haven’t provided any details or evidence to validate those claims.
The president even admitted that he’s greenlit covert CIA operations in Venezuela, which is just a remarkable statement from the guy on the campaign trail who talked about ending foreign wars and bringing our troops back home.
I’m really curious to get your take on, why is this operation something that the American people should care about, and are you concerned about the United States taking its eye off the ball with respect to conflict going on in Europe or operations that we see China undertaking in the South Pacific?
Crow: The starting point here is that we have to recognize that the war against fentanyl, as this president has stated it as a war, is in direct response to the American people being fed up with our kids dying around this country of fentanyl, and that we need to actually have a solution to that problem.
No more task forces. No more procedure. No more layers of committees, different strategies. We need to actually address the crisis of tens of thousands of our kids being killed by drugs. What the president is doing by striking these boats is not going to solve the issue. It’s not going to make us any safer. Right?
And at the same time, Americans do not want their president to be able to strike anybody anywhere using our military and their taxpayer dollars without oversight and without lawful authority. That’s not something that has broad appeal to Americans. We don’t want to just have a president who bombs people at will, like this president is starting to do—whether it’s the Houthis, whether it’s Iran, whether it’s drug boats out in the Caribbean.
So yes, we need to solve the drug issue. There’s no doubt about it, and we need to be serious about that. At the same time, people do not want a president with unfettered ability to just strike whoever, whenever he wants.
Seeberger: These strikes follow a series of actions from the Trump administration that we’ve seen over the course of the past several months.
There was the military parade that took place in Washington, D.C., several months back. There’s been the ongoing deployments of National Guard troops all over the country in blue cities like Los Angeles, D.C., and others.
As a veteran, I’m curious to get your reaction to this new relationship that we’re seeing fostered between the commander in chief and our armed forces.
Crow: Well for a five-time draft dodger, he seems to be pretty quick to send our men and women wherever he wants and to threaten whoever he wants.
And I’m deeply disturbed by his willingness to send National Guard troops from red states into cities and states that he believes are politically unfriendly to him or who have aggrieved him in some way according to his interpretation. That is an abuse of his authority as commander in chief. It undermines America’s trust in our military, and it is breaking down our very, very sacred separation of politics from our military.
So all of those things are extremely corrosive and toxic to a system that has served us well for many decades. And Congress has a role to stop it. Congress actually can stop this stuff. It has the authority, not just of the purse, but the ability to legislate and to pass laws and to enforce laws that are already in the books that put very important limits on the commander in chief and on the president in using our military or abusing our military.
Seeberger: Now to turn to a different direction, you are a member of the House of Representatives. I hear your ultimate boss of the chamber, Speaker [Mike] Johnson (R-LA), has kept you guys out of work over the course of the past few weeks. But all because Republicans have wanted to shut down the government because they’ve refused to prevent tens of millions of Americans from seeing their health care premiums double.
I’m curious for whether you are surprised we’ve gotten to this point. We’re entering a fourth week here of this shutdown. What do you see as a path forward here? I know that obviously we’re looking at—open enrollment is going to start on November 1. The administration this week has talked about cutting off 42 million Americans from receiving food assistance who rely on the SNAP [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] program.
What do you think is going to happen here next?
Crow: Well it’s unforgivable that Speaker Johnson and the House majority have shuttered the House of Representatives during the government shutdown. We need to be in Washington debating, discussing, negotiating, and figuring out how to solve this issue. That’s number one.
Number two, I am not about to treat the situation we’re in as if this is a normal situation. This president crammed through—literally in the middle of the night in early July—a bill that completely bypassed committees, completely bypassed transparency and open debate, that is the single largest distribution of wealth in America to give windfall tax breaks to billionaires and our top corporations, largely on the backs of the health care of working-class Americans. And I sure as hell am not going to support that.
So that is ultimately what the shutdown is about. But it’s also about recognizing the fact that I am not going to give President Trump a blank check to weaponize the DOJ, to send military into our cities, to retreat from our allies, to target his political opponents, to cut health care for Americans, to disregard time and time and time again appropriations, which are law, by the Congress saying what money should be spent for and what it shouldn’t be spent for, because he is spending money however he wants to spend it and telling Congress to pound sand.
So if people think that I’m about to give him a blank check so he can continue to do all those things, they have lost their damn minds.
Seeberger: Well I am really curious to get your take, then, on some comments from one of your colleagues. I’m talking about—Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (R) from Georgia has made a lot of news over the course of the past couple of weeks or so. She has said that she’s been sounding the alarm on a lot of people in this country are really stressed out financially. They’re living paycheck to paycheck. She is concerned about the doubling of premiums I was mentioning earlier.
I am curious to get your take on, what’s your reaction to her comments? But also, are the things that she’s talking about reflective of the conversations that you’re having with people back home as well?
Crow: I think it’s important to mention a couple of things.
Number one, Marjorie Taylor Greene created this problem. She owns this, and she helped deliver us to this moment.
Number two, Marjorie Taylor Greene did not say she’s concerned broadly about the impact on prices and health care on her constituents. What she actually specifically said was she’s worried about her and her family.
Crow: Right? So this is a situation where it matters when it impacts me. And that’s what’s going on with Marjorie Taylor Greene. So this is not some awakening moment by Marjorie that she now sees the common good and the folly of her ways. That’s not at all what’s happening.
Seeberger: We like to end these interviews on a positive note when we can. We have been working through some tough things here over the course of the past few questions. So I am curious to know—the Democratic Party, I think, is really looking for young, fresh voices like yourself, looking for a new generation of leadership, new ideas to be put on the table.
What do you see as a path forward for Democrats to rebuild trust with the public but also to offer solutions to the problems that I think the overwhelming majority of Americans share a common bond of feeling stressed out about?
Crow: Yeah. Well I’m one of the beads of recruitment for the House Democrats to find that next generation, so I’m taking this seriously. And it’s how I spend the bulk of my time now— running around the country, sitting in bars and in living rooms and on Zoom calls, talking to candidates and potential candidates and their spouses and their family members about what service in this moment looks like.
And I say to them, “Listen, this is going to be the hardest thing or one of the hardest things you’ve ever done, right? You’re going to be attacked. You’re going to be lied about. People are going to lie about you and your family, millions of dollars of ads. But that is service. It wouldn’t be service without some sacrifice. And I’m not asking you to storm the beaches of Normandy. I’m asking you to give a couple of years of your life at one of the most critical points in our nation’s history because you just happen to live in a place and at a time where you stepping up to lead could make an enormous difference and help return power to the people.” That’s what this is about.
The good news is, is people are stepping up in significant, significant ways. The contrast between the capitulation of a lot of the elites in this country—whether it be media conglomerates, CEOs, big law firms—who are bowing and prostrating themselves to Donald Trump over and over again, is that regular folks are stepping up and saying, “Not on my watch,” and showing tremendous courage, at “No Kings” rallies, standing in the breach.
There was a Little League coach just this past summer, a man named Yeoman Wilder in Harlem. Yeoman was a Little League coach out on a practice field with his team when federal agents descended on his kids and started to harass them and push them around. Yeoman literally positioned himself in between his kids and those agents and said, “You don’t have a right to be here. Leave and quit harassing my kids.”
And he later said he’d be willing to give his life or his freedom to protect those children. There are stories of everyday people showing tremendous courage and standing in the breach for their friends, for their neighbors, for their families, for their loved ones all around the country. And that is the story of this moment. And I’m incredibly encouraged by it.
Seeberger: That was really uplifting to me. It was a reminder that we all have an important contribution to make in this most trying moment. So Congressman Jason Crow, thanks so much for joining us on “The Tent.” It’s great to chat with you.
Crow: Thanks for having me.
Seeberger: All right folks, that’s going to do it for us this week. Please go back and check out previous episodes.
But for now, Halloween is next week. I’m sure all of you are helping your kiddos get their costumes ready. I am certain that one Wicked Witch of the West, Elphaba Thropp, is going to be a very hot costume this year, along with Glinda—or should I say Galinda—ahead of the release of next month’s “Wicked: For Good.”
I, myself, am very much looking forward to this second installment in the series. And I have been living on bated breath for the release of every new trailer, every new teaser. We even got news this week that Coleman Domingo is going to be the voice of the lion. And I just think he’s a great addition to the cast.
I have been super excited to see the trailers teasing Dorothy’s arrival in Oz, the yellow brick road getting built up throughout Oz. I have been watching very closely what the makers of the film have learned from our most famous propagandist here in the United States, as, of course, they’re emulating many of the same strategies to try and tar and feather Elphaba following her exile.
So I can’t wait for the release next month. I’m going to be going probably on release night. I’m not sure if my daughter’s going to make it with me on that one, but if not, I will have to go back for a return screening, no doubt.
And that’s going to do it for us this week. If there’s anything you want us to cover on the pod, hit us up on Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky, or Threads @thetentpod. That’s @thetentpod. And we’ll talk to you next week.
Seeberger: “The Tent” is a podcast from the Center for American Progress Action Fund. It’s hosted by me, Colin Seeberger. Muggs Leone is our digital producer. Kelly McCoy is our supervising producer. Mishka Espey is our booking producer. Hai Phan, Olivia Mowry, and Toni Pandolfo are our video team.
You can find us on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, Google Play, or wherever you get your podcasts.