Freshman Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) is dismissing her Republican colleaguesâ concerns about the treatment of defendants from the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Crockett and Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.) joined Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and other House Republicans on a trip to the jail where defendants from the riot are being held.
During a Friday appearance on MSNBCâs âMorning Joe,â Crockett said, âWe know that these MAGA Republicans have a problem with the truth. In fact, thatâs why we are coddling these Jan. 6 insurrectionists.â
âThe fact that, you know, they want to go in. And these people, some of them which were attempting murder, and they want to have a conversation about how comfortable they are. They want to have a conversation about whether or not their iPads are working or if they have enough time on their iPads,â she continued.
Crockett went on:
âAs someone whoâs been a public defender, let me tell you something, they know nothing about what bad conditions are, and Iâm going to clarify that after I can see with my own two eyes. But in the state of Texas, we donât even have air conditioning in our prisons, and we are, once again, in the state of Texas, so weâve had inmates die from overheating.â
Finally, the congresswoman added, âThe idea that these folks should engage somehow in a real conversation now that Jan. 6ers, mostly white folk, are saying that these accommodations donât work for them when Black and brown folk have been trying to have a real conversation around what prison accommodations should look like if we are just going to be humane is laughable.â
Watch the video below:
Earlier this week, Greene tweeted, âIâm leading a bipartisan delegation from the Oversight Committee to the DC Jail on Friday.â
She told ABC News the visit would focus on âreports of abuse.â
âTheyâre pretrial, and they havenât even been convicted, and theyâre not allowed to see their families, many times are not allowed to see their attorneys â the food has been a major complaint,â she told the outlet.
She added, âThereâs been complaints of it tasting like cleaner.â
ABC News noted, âThe vast majority of defendants charged in connection with Jan. 6 have not been ordered to be detained pending trial, but in the several dozen cases where individuals have been held, a judge has determined that thereâs no combination of conditions that could be placed on them to ensure that they either wouldnât pose a danger to the general public or risk obstructing justice in their case.â
And a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorneyâs Office in D.C. told the network, âAs of today, approximately two dozen defendants, charged in the Capitol breach, are being held in pretrial detention.â
âAlmost all of those detainees are charged with assaultive conduct, and none are charged with a misdemeanor,â the spokesperson added.
