Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) fancies herself a rising star on the left. The two-term congresswoman has increased her national profiles in recent months with her viral clapbacks and outrageous takes. But with increased exposure comes increased scrutiny, and it hasn’t taken long for the media to dig-up some eyebrow-raising details about everything from her leadership style to her origin story.
On Monday’s show, Megyn was joined by Benny Johnson, host of The Benny Show, to discuss his investigation into Crockett’s background and why it amounts to “working class stolen valor.”
Growing Up Jasmine
Crockett represents Texas’ 30th Congressional District, which covers the Dallas area, and she likes to tout her humble roots. But much like fellow progressive darling Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Johnson said Crockett is not being sincere about her upbringing.
She describes herself as a “ghetto girl from the hood,” but Johnson believes that moniker “is a lie” and she actually “grew up way better off than most.” With a camera crew in tow, he headed to St. Louis, Missouri – “specifically, the Republican suburbs… with the mansions, country clubs, and private schools” – to see where Crockett was raised.
He paid a visit to her elementary school, the prestigious Mary Institute and St. Louis Country Day School, where tuition reportedly rings in at upwards of $35,000 a year. The well-manicured campus features multiple tennis courts, an aquatic center, and a dock, and the academic offerings are seemingly just as robust. Johnson said “average test scores here guarantee your placement in an elite college institution.”
To that point, Crockett got a B.A. from Rhodes College in Tennessee and went on to graduate from the University of Houston Law Center. In total, he estimated her “elite education” cost close to $1 million.
You can watch his full report here, but Johnson argued Crockett is but the latest cosplaying leftist. “What is with the working class stolen valor with elitist, left-wing, insufferable, narcissistic women? I don’t understand it,” he said. “First you have Kamala Harris saying she worked the fries… at McDonald’s… She never proved any of it. Then, you have AOC saying she is a girl from the Bronx… She grew up in a $500,000 house in a leafy suburb north of the city by 90 minutes… And now you have Jasmine Crockett… [who] grew up so much more elite, and wealthy, and privileged, and pampered than anyone that I know.”
He called the revisionist history “an act” that amounts to “working class stolen valor,” and he said the behavior stands in stark contrast to that of their number one political foe, President Donald Trump, “who has always owned that he is a billionaire.”
“[He] has never apologized for who he was,” Johnson noted. “[And he] has always been something people want to become, instead of someone who dumbs themselves down or lies about where they come from to try to be more hood.”
‘Boss from Hell’?
Johnson’s investigation comes on the heels of a New York Post report that spoke to aides, staffers, and those close to Crockett who painted the picture of “a no-show boss from hell who terrorizes her team” and is “all diva, no wow.”
Unnamed sources told The Post Crockett often skips coming into her government-provided suite in the Longworth House Office Building, in favor of working from her “nearby luxury apartment building… for weeks on end.”
When the congresswoman does make an appearance, she allegedly requires staffers to pick her up in a luxury SUV and chauffeur her around. “It is widely known that she’s not nice to staff and is just not a really dedicated member focused on constituents,” a source “close to Crockett’s team” said.
The reporting dovetailed with some unflattering anecdotes that made their way into a July profile in The Atlantic. Crockett called a staffer during a sit-down with journalist Elaine Godfrey and “scolded him for an unclear note on her schedule.” She also apparently tried “shutting down the profile and revoking all permissions” after Godfrey reached out – as per standard protocol – to members of Congress as part of the story.
Playing the Victim
But Crockett has no time for the haters. When CBS News’ Major Garrett asked her about the latest reporting, she blamed the negative headlines on… racism and sexism.
GARRETT: Are you a no show boss from hell who terrorizes staffers?
CROCKETT: Oh my goodness. Listen, I know that I have arrived, honey. That is the way that I see this because, as Beyoncé says, if they’re not talking about you, then obviously you must not be doing anything. You know what? This is just more slander, more nonsense, more lies. And honestly, I don’t think that The New York Post would probably be the first ones to be able to figure out if I was a boss from hell…
You and I were joking before we got on camera about all of the scrutiny that comes with being not only woman, but being young and being a black woman. Yeah, there’s a lot of scrutiny that comes my way, and it comes my way from all different angles. But when people start talking about you, that’s when you know that you are obviously getting under their skin. So, I am not going to give up. There is a song that I like to quote every once in a while. It says, your hate is my motivation. So, keep hating. All it does is motivate me to continue to do what I do, which is to be loud and proud on behalf of the American people.
While it is no surprise Crockett tried to play the identity politics game, Megyn said the 44 year old has got it all wrong. “We don’t hate you. We don’t care enough about you to hate you,” she explained. “You make a fool out of yourself virtually every day. That is why we talk about you. We are laughing at you. We are making a mockery of you. You are making a mockery of yourself.”
“You’ve been outed… And if your staff is already turning on you, this will be the first [round of bad press], not the last,” she added. “It seems to me that you already peaked with your $35,000-a-year high school education and your $75,000-a-year college education, and now you want to act like an oppressed victim. Because of your skin color, people say negative things about you? Good luck with that path, Jasmine.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Johnson by tuning in to episode 1,125 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.