Jasmine Crockett got shown the door at the Texas State House this week after what witnesses described as a full-blown meltdown over reparations.
The Dallas congresswoman arrived in Austin unannounced on Tuesday morning and made her way straight to the second floor, where Governor Greg Abbott was meeting with a group of state lawmakers. Staffers said nobody on the governor’s schedule had any idea she was coming.
“She just walked right in,” said one aide who was in the room. “No appointment, no heads-up, nothing. One minute we’re talking about the budget, and the next she’s standing in front of the governor.”
According to several people there, Crockett went right up to Abbott, wagged her finger in his face, and demanded that Texas commit to reparations. She told him the state owed support to “every Black man, woman, and child,” and said she wasn’t leaving until she got an answer.
Abbott, by most accounts, stayed calm. He told her the meeting was private and that she was welcome to contact his office through the proper channels. That only seemed to make things worse.
“She got louder and louder,” another witness said. “At one point she was pointing at everyone in the room. It was uncomfortable, honestly.”
After a few minutes, Texas Capitol Police were called in. Officers asked Crockett to leave, and when she refused, they escorted her out of the building. Before she reached the exit, she was handed a do-not-trespass order barring her from that part of the Capitol.
Video of the moment spread quickly online. In one clip, Crockett can be heard telling officers they were “on the wrong side of history” as she was led down the hallway. In another, she turns to a phone camera and promises that she “will be back.”
The governor’s office later released a short statement. “Governor Abbott respects every member of Congress, but nobody gets to barge into a private meeting and make a scene,” a spokesperson said. “There’s a process, and it applies to everyone.”
Crockett’s supporters rushed to her defense. Some said she was simply standing up for her constituents and that the reaction from Capitol Police was over the top. A few called the trespass order an attempt to silence her.
Critics weren’t buying it. Republican lawmakers in Austin called the episode a stunt designed to go viral, and several pointed out that reparations are not something the governor could hand out with the stroke of a pen even if he wanted to.
“She came here for a clip, and she got one,” said one GOP state representative. “That’s all this was.”
Crockett has built a national following on her fiery style, especially during heated committee hearings in Washington. That approach has won her plenty of fans. It doesn’t appear to have won her any friends in the governor’s office. Looks like she won’t be invited back.