‘BRING IT!’: Armed Services Dem responds to Trump’s renewed prosecution threats

And let's bring in Congressman Jason Crow. who serves on both the Intelligence. and Armed Services Committees. He is there in Denver. Congressman, nice to see you. So let's start with where we just wrapped up. that introduction and how seriously do you take. Trump's WHAT'S RENEWED PROSECUTION. THREATS OF YOU AND FIVE OF YOUR COLLEAGUES? WELL, BRING IT, DONALD TRUMP. BRING IT. IF HE THINKS I'M AFRAID OF HIM. AND HIS CRONIES AND HIS SYCOPHANCE AND DOJ, HE'S BEEN MISTAKEN THE FIRST. TIME HE TRIED TO INDICT ME. HE WAS MISTAKEN THE SECOND TIME.

HE TRIED TO INDICT ME. HE'S THREATENED TO HAVE ME EXECUTED, TRIED FOR TREASON. BRING IT. I'M NOT AFRAID OF. Congressman, let's talk about the. Pentagon. and its leadership right now. The Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, you saw him with his wife. and other allies atop the Defense. Department who were reprimanded.

by a sentinel there on Veterans Day. for laughing right in front. of the tomb of the unknown soldier. He awarded that sentinel a medal yesterday, but specifically to Hegseth, will you push as one of your first acts. or should Democrats push as one. of their first acts to try to impeach. him again in January since they. were unable to do so just this week? I want Pete Hegseth removed from the top. of the Pentagon. That is the goal. And whatever tool or combination of tools, whether it's impeachment, whether it's oversight, whether it's investigations.

to accomplish that, that is what I will endeavor to accomplish. Because let's make no mistake. I don't like Pete Hegseth personally. Like, you know, all of us serve combat. veterans have served. with people like Pete Hegseth. We know the type, right? Bravado, chest pounding, talking tough. But you know, not there when you need him. the most. We know the Pete Hegseths of the world. and we don't like him. But this isn't about whether. or not I like him or not. This is about the fact that every single day. He's in the Pentagon. Our service members are at great risk.

because they don't have the leadership. that they deserve. They don't have the support that they deserve. He is a failed leader. He's corrupt and incompetent and he's got to. go. Let me ask you about Jensen Huang. and the impact of this scandal, this continuing to develop story. and its impact on America's national security, not just his relationship, of course, with the alleged Chinese spy, but also the role administration. officials played in allowing the sale. of some of these advanced NVIDIA chips to China.

Specifically, what questions on that do. you think. the administration and others, Jensen Huang among them, need to answer. Well, I want to know who knew what? When did they know it? What exactly did they know? And I'm going to piece together the timeline. because most of what happens. in the Trump administration falls. into one of three buckets. Either it's corruption, it's greed, them trying to make money. and monetize the federal government. to line their own pockets, or it's vengeance against their perceived. enemies that go.

after people or its incompetence. I'm going to know what bucket we're dealing. with here and that will then prescribe. what we do in response to it. Let me ask you specifically Treasury Secretary. Scott Besson, we passed him in the hall here. He was on CNBC in Washington this morning. He seemed, appeared to throw Howard Lutnick, the Commerce Secretary, under the bus a bit this morning. over concerns that the Chinese. AI company Megaspeed, the company for which this. alleged. to be a spy was working, received smuggled ships. that the U .S.

refuses to export. Here's part of what he said. Let's go ahead and listen. Treasury, war, USTR and state, they were in favor of putting mega speed. on the entity list for months, but commerce has the pin. and you will have to ask them. about their internal process. Treasury and my deputy has been pushing. for this for months. Does this end with the commerce secretary. Howard Lutnick or in your view,

does it go higher than that? Well, that's what we have to figure out, right? Are we dealing with incompetence? Are we dealing with people who knew what was. going on and they just didn't care? And all of this to say, Peter, is what happens when you have a president. who actually doesn't care about governing, doesn't care about national security issues. He's just interested in building arches. He's interested in building this ballroom. He's interested in enriching his own family. And making billions of dollars. And he's checked out, right? He's more concerned in the last 24 hours.

about prosecuting me for reminding service. members about their oath and their obligation. to the Constitution and the rule of law. than he is about trying to figure out what. the hell is going on with the national security. concerns of his administration. and the major leaks. and the major national security SECURITY GAPS, THIS IS A PROBLEM AND PEOPLE ARE GOING TO GET. HURT DOWNRANGE OUR SERVICE MEMBERS BECAUSE. OF THE INCOMPETENCE OF THIS ADMINISTRATION. SO IN PARTICULAR WHAT SPECIFICALLY,

WHAT CONCERNS YOU MOST ABOUT THE IMPACT OF THIS. AS IT RELATES TO NATIONAL SECURITY? WHY SHOULD AMERICANS CARE ABOUT WHAT. WAS GOING ON HERE? RIGHT, BECAUSE OUR ADVERSARY, CHINA, RUSSIA, NORTH KOREA AND. THEY WANT OUR COMPUTE CAPABILITY, THEY WANT TO BE ABLE TO CODE BREAK, THEY WANT TO UNDERSTAND HOW OUR WEAPONS. SYSTEMS WORK SO THEY CAN CONTERACT THAT. SO THEY CAN TARGET OUR TROOPS AROUND THE WORLD. THEY ARE ACTIVELY SEEKING THAT INFORMATION AND.

IF WE DON'T HAVE GOOD PEOPLE MAKING SURE. THAT WE ARE ERECTING BARRIERS AND PREVENTING. THEM FROM GETTING THAT INFORMATION, GETTING THAT TECHNOLOGY THAT UNDERMINES OUR. ECONOMY, THAT UNDERMINES OUR NATIONAL SECURITY. AND IT UNDERMINES THE SAFETY OF OUR TROOPS. AND And it appears as though Donald Trump. doesn't care. But I want to know, does Howard Leibniz care? Does Scott Bessent care? Who cares and who doesn't. care? And what do we have to do to quickly. get our arms around it so we're protecting. AMERICAN AMERICANS. SO OBVIOUSLY YOU'LL FOCUS ON. ACCOUNTABILITY HEAVILY,

BUT WHAT SPECIFICALLY CAN YOU. AND OTHER DEMOCRATS DO TO MAKE SURE. THAT NOTHING OF THIS TYPE HAPPENS AGAIN. ONCE YOU REGAIN POWER IN THE. NEW CONGRESS? Well, the first thing we have to do is. be very clear that we're gonna, we're gonna lift open the hood. We're gonna look at what's happening. under the hood and get answers because. as we've learned in the last two years, one of our most important tools is transparency, making sure we bring to life a corruption. and incompetence. So we're going to start there.

And then we look at using the appropriations. process. We look at USING THE LEGISLATIVE PROCESS TO. CLOSE ANY GAPS THAT WE NEED TO. WOULD YOU BE OPEN TO A GOVERNMENT. SHUTDOWN IF THAT WAS NECESSARY AS. LEVERAGE TO STOP THE WAR IN IRAN? TALK ABOUT BUDGET AND APPROPRIATIONS. AMERICANS WERE VERY, VERY CLEAR LAST WEEK THAT. THEY WANT. US TO END THIS WAR IN IRAN. HOW DO YOU DO IT? THEY WANT THE WAR OVER. WE NEED TO CUT IT OFF IF WE HAVE TO,

right we've already taken seven. votes two of which we won the last two. including my resolution. in the war what we have to do now. is be willing to cut off the funding right. because we heard for 25 years 25 25 years, $3 trillion spent, 7 ,000 American lives, hundreds. of thousands of Americans wounded. And what we heard over that 25 years is, you know, we broke it, we bought it. We have to continue to throw good money. after bad. You know, one more troop surge, one more new strategy, one more new general or admiral.

with a different idea how to do this. And then 25 years later, it ends poorly. Well, Americans are fed up. They've had enough. Yeah, we can shut off the fund. We can stop this in a cycle of conflict, bring that money home so people can pay. for their health care. They can pay for their homes. They can keep their farms, restaurants and ranches. open. That's what Americans want us to do. So to be clear, I hear you saying you're. not opposed to. a potential government shutdown. if necessary to cut off that funding. Are other Democrats, your colleagues, many of whom you're with right there in Denver, are they on board with that?

Absolutely. I don't know how more clear I can be, Peter. This war has got to end. Americans want us to end. this war. This is one of the most bipartisan things. in America right now. Republicans, Democrats, independents want this war. done. And we have an obligation to listen to them. They voted for us THAT IS OUR MANDATE. YOU'RE IN DENVER RIGHT NOW FOR THE MAJOR PARTY. GATHERING. WE APPRECIATE YOUR GOLF VOICE. AS THEY GET THINGS STARTED ON. THE DAIS THERE BEHIND YOU. YOU FLIPPED A RED SEAT DEMOCRATS, THE DEMOCRATS IN THE MIDTERMS, THE PARTY IS MANY DEMOCRATS OBVIOUSLY.

ACCOMPLISHED THE SANE IN. DISTRICTS ACROSS THE COUNTRY IN. THESE MIDTERMS. THE PARTY IS NOW HOUSE STRATEGIZING ITS. PATH FORWARD. THAT INCLUDES NOT ON THE HOUSE SIDE BUT ON THE. SENATE SIDE. CHRIS VAN HALLEN, A PROGRESSIVE CHALLENGING. CHUCK SCHUMER. FOR HIS SENATE MAJORITY ROLE POSITION. A SIMPLE QUESTION IS, DO YOU HAVE ANY CONCERNS. THAT. LEANING INTO THE PROGRESSIVE SIDE. OF THE PARTY COULD RISK ALIENATING SOME. OF THOSE MORE CENTRIST VOTERS WHO. SUPPORTED YOU IN PLACES LIKE. COLORADO AND CAME ON BOARD FOR. THE DEMOCRATS ELSEWHERE THIS.

GO AROUND. MANY DECADES AGO. YOU KNOW, THOSE MONICARS, THOSE LABELS PROGRESSIVE, MODERATE, ACTUALLY DON'T HAVE MUCH OF A DISTINCTION. RIGHT NOW BECAUSE I'LL TELL YOU WHY. I SPENT THE LAST 18 MONTHS AS THE RECRUITMENT CHAIR. FOR HOUSE DEMOCRATS AND. THE BATTLEGROUND CHAIR FOR HOUSE DEMOCRATS. AND I help recruit and mentor. and help flip these districts. around the country. And what we saw is patriots stand up and say, not on my watch. They closed their businesses. They walked away from their health, health care practices.

These are sheriff's deputies, combat veterans, nurses, helicopter pilots, firefighters, smoke jumpers and everything in between. And these folks ran on ending the war in Iran. They ran on providing health care to. Americans and trying to figure out how. do we move towards universal health care. They ran on making sure that we're cleaning up. corruption. in our government. Some people say those are very progressive things. I think they are. It's issue-based. People want big change.

We ran on big change in delivering. for working class Americans in a way. that we haven't before. That is what. Well, right now, my main goal is to make sure. that I'm mentoring these 60-plus candidates, these folks who won their races. They have to find staff. They have to build offices.

We WE HAVE TO SET THEM UP FOR SUCCESS. BECAUSE WE WON IN PLACES WE HAVE NEVER. WON IN BEFORE. LITERALLY, NEVER WON A DEMOCRAT IN. SOME OF THESE SEATS. I DON'T WANT TO RENT THESE SEATS. I WANT US TO BUILD THE COALITION ACROSS THIS. COUNTRY, ACROSS ALL OF OUR BATTLEGROUNDS THAT. WILL ACTUALLY ENDURE SO WE CAN GOVERN. AND I AM WORKING CLOSELY WITH. THESE CANDIDATES RIGHT NOW TO. FIGURE OUT HOW WE DO IT. THAT IS MY PRIORITY. THAT IS MY I guess that's your priority. and your focus. But are you considering or would you consider 2028? Or is that totally off the table?

I am. I am not thinking about that. I'm not focused on that right now. We have to set these new members of Congress up. for success. That THAT IS MY FOCUS AND I'M GOING. TO CONTINUE TO DRIVE AND PROTECT. COLORADO INSTITUTE BECAUSE THE. OTHER THING IS WE HAVE AN OUT OF. CONTROL ICE. THAT HASN'T CHANGED. ICE CONTINUES TO TERRORIZE MY. COMMUNITY OF IMMIGRANTS AND REFUGEES. SO MAKING SURE I PROTECT MY FAMILIES, I PROTECT MY BUSINESSES, I PROTECT THE PEOPLE THAT I REPRESENT. HERE IN COLORADO REMAINS MY TOP PRIORITY.