By Adreanna

Democratic Representative Jasmine Crockett sat down for an interview with The Breakfast Club yesterday, where she discussed the Trump administration, Elon Musk, USAID, and various other political topics. During the interview, she was asked about her opinion on the likelihood of Americans actually receiving the $5,000 rebate that the Trump administration has been discussing this week. Let me tell you, baby, some internet users are hot under the collar about their interpretation of her statements.

Before diving into what she actually said, I want to pause for a moment to address the comprehension levels of some people, which seem to be in the depths of hell. There are countless videos circulating online right now, showing people in a full-on tizzy over one of the comments made during her interview. If they had actually listened to understand instead of listening just to have something to say, they would have appreciated and taken her words as an honest and moderate assessment of the circumstances surrounding this proposed rebate, rather than feeling triggered and attacked by what she actually said.

So, what did she say during the interview, you ask? She said a lot of noteworthy things, to be honest. She began the interview by discussing her experience on the oversight committee that investigates abuse, fraud, and wasteful spending, revealing that the Department of Defense is the nation’s largest offender due to inflated costs and government contracts. She mentioned that of the six times this department has been audited, not a single audit has come back clean. Highlighting recent events, she pointed out that in the last two weeks, this very department has granted Elon Musk over $700 million in new funding for SpaceX and Tesla. Are you side-eyeing as hard as I am right now?

She then moved on to discuss why this great nation is in so much debt. She attributed it to the previous Trump administration imposing tax breaks during his first term, which reduced the country’s income by allowing millionaires and billionaires to avoid their tax responsibilities. Additionally, she noted that the necessary Democratic-pushed stimulus checks sent out to Americans during the pandemic to prevent the country from going into a recession contributed to the debt. And there you have it, a recipe for being $8 trillion in debt. Sounds about right to me!

Next up, she discussed what part of the swamp is actually being drained and surprise, surprise, it’s not the people who you would think. Turns out, as we all have seen in these last 30 days, draining the swap meant firing IRS employees, 12,000 federal employees and counting including members of the FAA, who we need to manage our aviation systems, FBI agents who were associated with investigations against him for the insurrection, and anyone else deemed to be an enemy or involved in any other investigations against Trump and Elon, while lining their pockets at the same time. Chile…

Now, here’s where we get to the good stuff—the $5,000 conversation. When asked if she thought the reason Trump and his allies have been promoting this rebate is to distract the American people from holding them accountable, she responded, “That’s exactly right.” She went on to explain what she meant by this, highlighting and reminding us of Trump’s previous statements regarding which party he would run for if he ever decided to run for president and his comments on “loving the uneducated.”

She explained that when you break down the numbers on who voted for whom, there’s a stark difference between people who will sit down, read, and enlighten themselves on facts, who tend to vote Democratic, and those who don’t, who, according to her, tend to vote Republican. We have to pause here for another second because this part of the conversation sparked a whole other rage-fueled frenzy online, with people accusing her of calling them stupid— which is the furthest thing from what she said. She expressly prefaced her statement by clarifying what she meant by “uneducated.” She said, “When I talk about less educated folks, I’m not talking about formal education. I’m talking about people who literally don’t want to read and enlighten themselves on the facts.” Outrage over this statement, in my opinion, proves her point. But anyway…

This is it, the moment you’ve been waiting for. Jasmine went on to say that when it comes to the $5,000 rebate, she doesn’t see it happening as it’s not part of the proposed budget. According to Jasmine, the markup includes a proposition to eliminate Medicare, which, she says, would provide the funds if they decide that people won’t have healthcare in the country. Regarding the $5,000 rebate, or stimulus as host Charlemagne calls it, she said, “What I need people to understand is that that $5,000, if you get it, is not going to go very far because we are headed into a recession.” That’s it! That’s the metaphorical tweet! And that, my friends, is why a slew of people all over the internet are up in arms. I’ve seen all sorts of comments about this. And all I want to know for real is, “Are y’all okay?” Like really?

First, Trevor Noah’s conversation with Professor Ruha Benjamin had everyone stressed out because they took a 30-second clip of a conversation and ran with it instead of listening to the full interview to gain clarity on the topic before popping off. Now here you are two days later doing the same thing with Jasmine Crockett.

At this point, I don’t know if you guys are trolling or if your cognitive dissonance is really giving you a workout, but something has got to stop. There are already so many agents of chaos operating within our media, spreading propaganda and lies. By not stepping outside your own biases to actually hear and reflect on the real conversations being had, you’re making yourself a part of the problem.

Did you listen to the interview? What are your thoughts about the backlash? Have you seen the misinformation being pushed about the comments made during this interview? I’d love to talk to you about it in the comments below!