Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett faced swift backlash after claiming that President Donald Trump is more dangerous than Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a reputed MS-13 gang member who was deported to El Salvador last month.
The Texas congresswoman was accused of “living in an alternate reality” after stating that Abrego Garcia is “a lot less criminal” than Trump during an MSNBC interview, where she was questioned about the efforts of Maryland Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen to assist the deported illegal immigrant during a highly controversial trip to El Salvador last week.
“If Senator Van Hollen can get down there, if the president can get up here and get to the White House, then I don’t understand why we can’t get Abrego up out of there,” Crockett said during an interview on “The Katie Phang Show.”
“I mean, we know that they admitted that they were wrong. Now they’re trying to double back and say, well, he’s this terrible person and all this kind of stuff,” she added. “But here’s the reality. As far as I’m concerned, he’s a lot less criminal than the person that’s sitting in the White House, because last time I checked, he doesn’t have any criminal convictions.”
Social media users promptly criticized the congresswoman for her excessive misrepresentation of Trump.
“Jasmine Crockett is living in an alternate reality if she thinks that President Trump is worse than an MS-13 gang member,” one detractor seethed on X, as another user ripped her for being “anti-American.” Another accused her of suffering from “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
“Let’s be real — her Trump Derangement Syndrome is off the charts, and it’s no surprise she’s melting down over his first 100 days,” the commentator said.
“The sheer clownery on display here is the funniest thing I’ve seen all week,” another user chimed in.
During a Friday appearance on CNN’s The Arena with Kasie Hunt, veteran Democratic strategist Mo Elleithee warned his party against aligning too closely with Abrego Garcia
The strategist cautioned Democrats that they “don’t know all of the details about this guy,” and warned against treating him like a “martyr.” Instead, he recommended party members to focus on how President Donald Trump is purportedly “chipping away at our rights.”
“Let us not make him a martyr. Let’s make this about how Donald Trump and his administration are eroding our rights on a daily basis,” Elleithee remarked during a panel discussion.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) held a press conference on Friday to discuss his recent meeting with Abrego Garcia in El Salvador. He pledged to continue advocating for his release from the country’s largest jail.
Elleithee pushed back, doubting that Van Hollen’s message would “resonate with the rest of the country.”
“Look, I think everyone in the White House are giving each other high-fives, and everyone who supports the guy in El Salvador are giving each other high-fives, right? Both sides have kind of gone to their corners and are saying this is the fight we want to have. Whereas I don’t necessarily know it’s the conversation that would actually resonate with the rest of the country,” Elleithee said.
The strategist urged Democrats to shift the focus away from Abrego Garcia himself and toward the broader national implications of his case, Fox News reported.
“It’s less about him, as it is about all of us,” Elleithee said. “And if he [Van Hollen] were to have focused on that — he did it a little bit, he did it a little bit there about a third of the way through, right? — Where he said, ‘Taking away his constitutional rights takes away all of our constitutional rights.’ That’s the place to take this.”
The Trump government claims that Abrego Garcia was a member of the MS-13 gang headquartered in El Salvador, as confirmed by two separate immigration judges and officials from his home country. In addition, Trump has labeled the MS-13 gang as a foreign terrorist organization, with its members automatically deportable under the Alien Enemies Act.
