Rep. Jasmine Crockett isn’t mincing words: on the anniversary of January 6th, the Texas Democrat went on “The View” and called Donald Trump “the Maduro of the United States.”
“As we sit here on Jan. 6, I do want to be clear, somebody else was trying to be a Maduro of the United States. Somebody else wanted to do the exact same thing,” Crockett said. “The difference is Maduro was successful.”
WHAT’S GOING ON: Crockett’s comments came days after the Trump administration captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife in a military operation, flying them to New York to face federal charges including narco-terrorism conspiracy and conspiracy to import cocaine.
But Crockett isn’t celebrating. She’s pointing out what she sees as a glaring irony: the president who tried to overturn an election is now positioning himself as democracy’s defender.
THE DETAILS: Crockett argued the Venezuela operation was illegal because Trump bypassed Congress entirely. “The biggest problem that I have is that it was illegal. Everything that this administration does is illegal,” she said. “If you have what you needed… then you just would have went to Congress and gotten us involved, but instead, we’re hearing leaks and reports he talked to oil folk, but he didn’t talk to Congress.”
She also pushed back on the idea that this was about helping the Venezuelan people. “This ain’t about Venezuelans. I get that there are people that don’t like the leader. But guess what, there are a lot of people that don’t like our leader,” Crockett said.
She noted that if another country grabbed the U.S. president “in the middle of the night and killing people in this country, I’m sure everybody would be outraged.”
WHY IT MATTERS: Crockett is connecting dots that mainstream coverage often leaves scattered.
A president who incited a mob to stop the certification of an election, who continues to push “ridiculous redistricting schemes” because he “doesn’t really believe in free and fair elections,” is now taking extrajudicial military action against a foreign leader accused of—wait for it—undermining democracy.
The timing of her comments, on January 6th itself, was clearly intentional. Crockett, who announced her bid for the 2026 Texas Senate Democratic nomination, isn’t trying to play it safe. She’s naming the contradiction directly: you can’t claim the moral high ground on democracy while actively trying to dismantle it at home.