Jason Crow
Appearances
Global News Podcast
Trump officials accuse journalist of lying after Signal app leak published in full
It is completely outrageous to me, completely outrageous to me that the administration officials come before us today with impunity. No acceptance of responsibility. Excuse after excuse after excuse. While we send our men and women downrange to do incredibly difficult, incredibly dangerous things on our behalf. And yet nobody is willing to come to us and say this was wrong.
Global News Podcast
Trump officials accuse journalist of lying after Signal app leak published in full
This was a breach of security and we won't do it again.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
I'm good, Tim. It has come a long way since the Tancredo days. There's no doubt about it.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
Sure. Well, I'm in my fourth term, just started my fourth term as the representative for the 6th District of Colorado. This is the first time I've ever held office. I hadn't run for or been in politics before that. I was practicing law in Colorado before that, was in the military, was an infantry officer and paratrooper and army ranger, did three combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
My military career actually started When I got out of high school, I did well in school and didn't have money to pay for college. I was working in construction to help finance my way through school and joined the Wisconsin National Guard, actually. I was born and raised in Wisconsin and joined the Guard to help pay for college. I was driving down the road, saw one of those
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
billboards that said, you know, 100% tuition, you know, one weekend a month, two weeks a year. And this was before 9-11. So it was the, you know, what we used to refer to as the weekend warrior days. And I'm like, wow, that's a pretty good deal. You know, all my tuition paid for with one weekend a month. And obviously, after 9-11, that changed pretty drastically. So,
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
My military career started as a private in the National Guard, and then I ultimately became an officer and went active duty into special operations. So here I am. I came to Colorado after I left the military, so it's been about 20 years now.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
Yeah, well, first of all, to say that there is a defined, cohesive Trump foreign policy, I think, would be giving them more credit than they deserve. There is no foreign policy or Trump doctrine that I've been able to really discern. What it is, is it's a series of grievances, a series of isolationist worldviews, bullying, you know, things that Trump wants to talk about publicly.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
That's kind of his economic approach. It's his domestic approach. It's his law enforcement approach, like anything else for that matter. So, you know, spending time talking about Greenland and Panama and bullying Canada and maligning some of our closest allies, getting into shouting matches with President Zelensky is pretty awful stuff. I served with our NATO allies when our NATO allies
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
allies came to our aid and fought with us in Iraq and Afghanistan and died with us in many occasions. And to see the manner in which Vice President Vance and Donald Trump malign and attack these folks publicly is pretty terrible to see.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
My entire adult life, your entire adult life, you know, we've grown up with America as the leader of the free world. Right. And that leadership takes so many forms, economic, moral, military. And to see, you know, decades and decades of that leadership squandered in a matter of weeks is completely astonishing. Right. And the idea that you can deduce. Yeah.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
our alliances and our partnership and our leadership down to a series of business transactions, as if our relationships with the UK or the Germans or the Norwegians simply can be deduced down to a ledger sheet of deposits and withdrawals, and you can monetize that, shows there's such a fundamental misunderstanding about what leadership really means and what our alliances really mean in the world.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
And that's not to say That we shouldn't push our partners to invest more, to up defense spending. I mean, yeah, there's actually bipartisan consensus on that, right? Like people say, yeah, they need to step up and do more. But obviously maligning them and treating them the way that we have been is not the way to do it.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
Well, Donald Trump has had this long affinity for Vladimir Putin and for Russia that goes back decades, actually. And I don't know whether it's kind of business self-interest because he's tried to build hotels in Moscow and has wanted to get into the Russian market for a long time as a businessman.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
You know, there's a lot of theories about why this is, but regardless of the theory, actually, in reality, it's true, right? He isn't willing to be tough on Vladimir Putin. And there's all this talk about peace through strength, right?
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
And my Republican colleagues now, you know, just yesterday we had an armed services committee hearing and a bunch of folks were invoking Reagan and peace through strength. And Ronald Reagan must've been rolling in his grave because showing affinity and cozying up to dictators and autocrats is not peace through strength, right? He just isn't willing to call them out.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
isn't willing to call out the war crimes, isn't willing to call out the kidnapping of tens of thousands of Ukrainian children, isn't willing to say, there is a right and a wrong here, there is an aggressor and there is a victim, Russia is the aggressor, and to be firm, right?
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
And if anybody knows Vladimir Putin, which we actually do pretty well, I mean, one of the benefits of Putin is that we actually know him. Like, he's been on the scene. He's been around. He's been on the scene for, you know, three decades. We've observed him for a very long time. We understand how he operates. He respects only strength. He never keeps promises and deals.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
He only does what he's forced to do. And he's not somebody you can trust. And he also believes that his life's work is to rebuild the Russian Empire. And he is actually showing us, you may have seen these videos, he holds up a map of what he thinks the Russian Empire should be and what he wants to rebuild. And it includes a lot of European countries, right?
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
So there's no secret as to what Putin is doing here. And of course, Trump is unwilling to call it out.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
Yeah, well, certainly there's been a dramatic shift. I've seen this, right, in rural districts and red districts, these huge town halls, people that are standing up and saying, wow, this is not what I bargained for, whether it's the increase in prices because of the tariffs, whether it's drastic cuts to health care, whether it's huge cuts to the VA system.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
By the way, at the same time as he's talking about cutting costs the VA system, he also wants to hold some big military parade, uh, in DC, right? Cause he, he likes to spend money on pop, pomp and circumstance and big parades, but he isn't, doesn't want to actually spend money to help disabled veterans. And he went golfing during a, um,
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
dignified transfer of remains ceremony the other week too so i think we call that small penis syndrome it's kind of like a casual term for what what happens when you need a big big lot of pomp and circumstance for your birthday but yeah i think that explains a lot i'm no psychologist but you know i play one on tv sometimes so uh i mean well i think the through line for me is that
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
Donald Trump doesn't believe, he cannot comprehend selfless service. The notion of serving something bigger than yourself, he literally cannot comprehend that. Everything has to be, what can you get out of it? Everything has to be a business transaction, right?
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
So this entire notion that people would stand up and give their life and serve the country, that's why he calls veterans suckers and losers, right? Because it just doesn't make any sense to him.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
Well, it's pretty damn bad. There's no doubt about that. The markets are tanking. Retirement accounts are tanking. We're further marginalizing and isolating ourselves in the world. I think it's really important to state that, like most things, Trump, he identifies a legitimate problem. But then his solution is all wrong and makes it worse. And there are trade imbalances.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
There are unfair trade practices. Everybody can agree that we need to fix those.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
I don't know if I'd agree with that. I'm from the Midwest, the upper Midwest. I think if you go to the industrial Midwest, people would vehemently disagree with that. That vast swaths of this country have been left behind from the 80s through the early 2000s. gutting of our industrial base has decimated entire communities and swaths of this country in the name of free trade, right?
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
There have definitely been winners and losers. And where I'm from, they have largely been losers. And there's an angst and anger that I see and I share. So I think that is a problem, right? And tariffs can be a surgical tool, right? They should be used as a scalpel and a surgical tool to address trade imbalances in a pinpointed way. This, of course, is not the way the administration is doing it.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
They're doing across the board, massive tariffs that aren't even tied to the reality of the situation. They say it's reciprocal tariffs, but the numbers they're using on their so-called spreadsheet aren't even, in many cases, tariffs, right? And economists don't even know where these numbers are coming from. And of course, several of these locations aren't even inhabited territories or countries.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
So they are just sledgehammering everything. And it's going to make it worse, far worse, right? Because you talk to businesses. I talk to businesses all the time. and manufacturers all the time. And what they say is the single biggest issues right now in rebuilding our industrial base, which I would love to do, is we don't have the workforce and we don't have the infrastructure.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
And we don't have predictability in our taxation and economic system. So those are the things we need to address, which is going to take a little while. It's going to take five to ten years to address those. You just can't snap your finger and create a workforce and have the infrastructure. So he's decimating the system.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
Yeah, the admin likes to say, and Trump and all the billionaires around him love to say, oh, this is going to be short-term pain for long-term gain. And where I'm from, I grew up in a working class community around working class folks. And these are people who I was raised with, often lived paycheck to paycheck. Most of my constituents live paycheck to paycheck.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
They're trying to figure out where their rent is coming from, where their mortgage is coming from for the end of the month, how to put food on the table. And what I realized growing up, what working class people know is that when people at the top are talking about short-term pain, they're not talking about their pain, right? They're not the ones that are gonna feel the pain.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
They're talking about everybody else's pain, working people's pain. And frankly, this short-term pain is gonna end up in people losing homes, losing healthcare, not being able to feed their children. This is crazy and devastating stuff.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
Yeah, well, I mean, the Republican Party has prostrated themselves at the altar of Donald Trump. There's no doubt about that. They're constantly getting pantsed. And it's bad, actually. It's more than bad. It's terrible. It's a tragedy. I was raised in a Republican family. Most of the people I know and love are actually Republicans.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
And for our system to work, we need to actually have a viable, independent Republican Party. And right now we don't have that. Right. It's hard to negotiate and compromise and legislate when you don't have a viable party right now to negotiate with. And, you know, we just this week are recognizing the 100 day mark of this administration. Are you freaking kidding me? It's only been 100 days.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
I don't think it is. I don't know. I guess it's coming up. Maybe it's maybe it's this week.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
Yeah, it's not totally binary like that. I think it's largely a cultural issue, an understanding issue, because our policies really are working class policies. The exceptions would be, you know, at the state and local level in a lot of places where Democrats govern, a lot of communities have become unaffordable.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
How can we be the party of the working class when you look at the cities where we govern that have crime issues, that it's too expensive to build homes and condos, and working folks are actually being priced out of those cities? I mean, it's happening over and over again. In fact, one of the few cities in the country where it hasn't really happened has been Denver. Denver still is...
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
not as affordable as it needs to be. The prices are skyrocketing. But you look at almost every other city in the country and working class people are leaving the cities and they're going to more affordable places. So how can you say if we're governing those areas that we're the party of the working class, right? We have to make housing more affordable.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
We have to be able to build things quicker and cheaper. And we need policies that allow us to keep our communities safe. So those are the policy issues that I think need need to change. But I will say at the federal level, I'm a Democrat because I'm not looking for a handout. I'm not looking for somebody to solve all my problems for me or to tell me how to live my life.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
I'm looking for a level playing field and a fair shake, right? I want to be able to work hard, honest days work, honest days pay, and make sure that the game isn't rigged. And that's why I became a Democrat, why I'm a Democrat. And that's what we're about.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
Model UN's all right, Tim. Nothing wrong with it, but you could use a little of both in the conference. It's all I'm saying. But you went to high school in my district, so I'm not going to bang up on that.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
Yeah, there's no doubt. Well, first off, what we're not doing is we don't – I want to dispel any myth that we're parachuting into communities and selecting the candidate and clearing the field. That's actually not at all what happens. What I'm doing is I'm trying to demystify the process, and I'm trying to encourage people to throw their hat in the ring.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
And there'll be primaries, everyone needs to run their race, run their primary and earn it, right? Every candidate has to earn it, just like I did. I went through a primary too. But what we have found, what I have found, is that the people that we most need to step up
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
The small business owners, the combat veterans, the nurses, the people running local nonprofits, the school board presidents, people that actually have lived experience and are living their lives, aren't clamoring to run for Congress. They're not like, oh, I want to just...
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
quit my business and spend half my time away from my family to go to Washington to jump into this freight because they have lives, they're doing things. They actually need encouragement. They need people to be like, hey, it's time to step up and serve your country. We need you. This is about service because they're doing it not to their benefit. They don't need the job. They don't need the money.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
They're doing it simply out of service. So those are the candidates. And that's how I view my role is going out, visiting with them, sitting in their living room, calling them, talking to their spouse and be like, all right, this is what it looks like. This is the sacrifice. This is what the lifestyle looks like. This is how you run a race.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
And oh, by the way, now is the time for all good men and women to step up and come to the aid of their country. And your nation needs you.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
You must have missed my statement the other day on this. I actually put out something a couple of days ago. Joe Rogan commented on this, and he's like, this is not okay. Sometimes I agree with him. He said, why are people not getting due process? Why are we kidnapping people off the street? This is not all right. And I retweeted that and made a similar comment.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
And I've spoken up about it, and I actually had a pretty fierce debate. I guess it was three weeks ago. I went on Brian Kilmeade's show on Fox because I do Fox a lot. And we debated this for a good 10 minutes. And he said, you know, we should just be getting rid of these foreign gang members. You know, why do you have a problem with –
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
deporting these 200, because there was this flight of 260 Venezuelans at the time. This was last month. He's like, why do you have a problem with that? Why are you trying to protect gang members? And I said, Brian, you're misunderstanding the point, right? Nobody's debating the fact that
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
if there are violent gang members, they should be rounded up, taken off our street and sent back to where they came from. The point is in the United States of America, our constitution weights more heavily the protection of the innocent, right? Our system is designed to protect the innocent. And we do that through due process. You have to go through that.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
And that is my beef with the way the administration is doing it, right? Fine. If you can prove someone's a gang member or has committed a crime or is violent, Round them up, put them on a plane, get them out. But you have to prove that, right? Because it's going to happen. It is happening.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
You're grabbing people that are hanging out, you know, outside of a quick trip somewhere or outside of a grocery store because they might look the part or they're in the wrong place at the wrong time. And they, you know, happen to be someone's father. They happen to be a union member in the case of the Maryland man.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
Someone working, you know, she's a sheet metal worker, is a member of the sheet metal workers union, actually, and a father and a husband. So this is crazy stuff. It's unacceptable. And frankly, every American should be appalled. by this very un-American approach to usurping due process. And I'll continue to speak up about it.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
Yeah, please. Ask yourself this. I always encourage people to say, okay, you want to, you know, round up criminals and send them out. I do too. In the name of efficiency, how many innocent people are okay getting wrapped up in that? Are you okay with five, with 10, with 20?
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
How many innocent people are you okay with getting rid of due process and just inadvertently ending up on a plane or a bus to some foreign mega prison? I'm not okay with any innocent people being rounded up. But there are people out there, literally there are people out there that will say, yeah, I'm okay with 10. I'm okay with 20. That's nuts. And frankly, that's just not who we are.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
Yeah, I think there are some people who are still reluctant to wade into immigration debate, you know, generally, they're just sensitive or afraid of wading into it. I'm certainly not, right? Like I represent a district of immigrants and refugees, you're 20% of my constituents are born outside of the United States.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
So I'm in favor of smart, lawful immigration, I'm in favor of a pathway to citizenship for people who are here, lawfully and who want to normalize their status. These are business owners. These are the people that I represent. These are families that go to school with my children. I can attest to their positive impact on our country. But I also believe that we haven't had a secure border.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
We need to have a secure border, too. That is true. And I also believe that we need to get rid of violent offenders and enforce the law. So You know, we can and must do both. And nobody's ever going to tell me in the United States of America that we can't accomplish something like this.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
Like the things we have done historically, it is small thinking to think that we can't do these things and do them effectively.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
Yeah, listen, if you don't know how to do it, don't do commando cosplay and just don't do it, right? Like, I see this all the time. People holding firearms, they're not holding them right. They're pointing the muzzle at somebody. It just looks stupid. Stop it with the commando cosplay, trying to pretend you're tough.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
I don't know about shirtless. Maybe. I mean, maybe I need to go there. I don't know. I am training right now for the Army Physical Fitness Test. The brand new test that was just rolled out a couple of years ago. I'm taking it in July. So I'm in a big train up period for that. And I'm also of the age now where I have to do variation. So I mix it up. I'll run. I'll do calisthenics. I'll do P90X.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
I'll do weightlifting. So just as much variation as possible to kind of avoid injury and keep it real.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
I can't believe it. I don't know, man. It's weird going into the playoffs, firing Malone, the winningest coach in Nuggets history. I understand they've been in a losing streak, lost the last four, and they wanted to shake it up. I will say this, though, that The owners of the Nuggets are engaged. They're involved. They want a winning team, which I appreciate.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
It's kind of like in the best tradition of Pat Bolin, who was a very involved owner and pushed the Broncos. And I contrast that with the owner of the Rockies.
The Bulwark Podcast
S2 Ep1017: Catherine Rampell: Trump's Tariffmageddon
I will always take an owner or an ownership group who's engaged and want a winning team and want to win. over something like the Rockies where they just don't care because of revenue sharing. They can make money whether they're winning or not. I mean, that's just crazy.
Up First from NPR
Intelligence Officials Testify, Trump's Auto Tariffs, DOGE Access
It is completely outrageous to me that administration officials come before us today with impunity. Nobody is willing to come to us and say this was wrong. This was a breach of security and we won't do it again.
Up First from NPR
Intelligence Officials Testify, Trump's Auto Tariffs, DOGE Access
It is completely outrageous to me that administration officials come before us today with impunity.