CNN Newsroom: Interview With Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO)

Interview

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Well, Jim, first of all, I don't think we can understate the level of escalation this is by Vladimir Putin. This is the first time since the Cold War that a U.S. journalist has been wrongfully detained on his false allegations of espionage and spying. So clearly this is showing Putin's desperation.

It's showing his weakness as more and more options get cut off for him as he continues to struggle in Ukraine. He's grasping at any straw he can, in this case, innocent folks continue to get pulled into his net because of the games that he's playing.

So this administration is doing exactly what it should be doing right now, engaging on diplomacy, starting discussions, but you know, what needs to be said, and what has been said by this administration and I'll repeat it right now, U.S. citizens traveling to Russia should be extremely, extremely careful.

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Well, first of all, this is a somber moment. This isn't a moment for celebration. It's not a moment for incitement either. What we have to do is actually let the process play out. This is the criminal justice system in America. When it's at its best justice is blind. That's the aspiration here. You know, in every courthouse in America almost you have justice, the statue, holding the scales, weighing the evidence. And justice is always wearing the blindfold.

So it shouldn't matter whether this is a president or not. That actually should be irrelevant to the order of charges, to the types of charges. You know, there are different folks. There's the D.A.'s, there's attorney generals, there's a special investigator, and the District of Columbia that has an investigation going on. These are all independent investigations.

The D.A.'s, the A.G., the special investigator, they're doing their own thing. There's no coordination here, so it really doesn't matter which one should go first. Which one should go first is the one that's ready. And if it's a strong enough case is presented to a grand jury. And then that's the last point. That's extremely important here. D.A.'s don't indict people. Grand juries indict people. So when we get those jury notices in the mail, everybody gets some, we show up for jury duty and a certain number of folks get pulled away to serve on a grand jury.

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Just like any other jury, they hear evidence, and they alone make that decision.

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Well, of course, Jim. Of course I am because the people that are calling for political protests, they're not calling for just protests, and there's no dog whistle here. They're very clear with the language they use what they're looking for. They're looking to incite violence. They're looking for people to usurp the criminal justice system due process. They have no concern for democracy in America, so it's extremely dangerous time.

We continue to have people that hold leadership positions in America that will weaponize their platforms to stay and do dangerous things. So we have to be vigilant. We should support our law enforcement. We should support our criminal justice system, doing what it needs to be doing, and everybody should do everything they need to do to stay safe.

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Well, I mean, I can't speak to Marjorie Taylor Green. I don't spend any time inside of her head. That's not a place where I want to go. So I try to avoid that. But you know, she has a long history of inciting violence, of saying crazy things, and she's a conspiracy theorist. She's a QAnon conspiracy person. You know, she has, you know, meddled in very dangerous rhetoric. So I think we just have to be very vigilant and make sure that we're pushing back against that incitement.

And, frankly, Republicans and Democrats alike. This should not be a partisan issue. Nobody in America should tolerate incitement of violence, period. We settle our differences at the ballot box. That's America. That's what democracies do. We should not resort to violence and tolerate those who do.

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Thank you.

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