Rep. Jasmine Crockett was mocked online Thursday for reportedly having armed security guards eject an Atlantic reporter from a Senate campaign event in Texas.
Journalist Elaine Godfrey had just finished covering the Crockett rally in Lubbock Tuesday and was attempting to interview the Democratic firebrand when she was approached by a “woman with a badge,” she wrote in the magazine.
“Her team has asked you to leave,” the woman said, according to Godfrey, who noted the same woman had waved her into the press area hours earlier.
“They just said, ‘Elaine from Atlantic, white girl with a hat and notepad. She’s interviewing people in the crowd. She’s a top-notch hater and will spin. She needs to leave,’” the woman explained, after Godfrey asked why she was being booted.
Crockett has previously clashed with the reporter. AP The reporter added that four guards – “at least one of who was armed” – escorted her out of the venue, across the parking lot and “to the edge of a nearby highway” where she ordered a car.
Crockett has previously clashed with Godfrey, who once wrote a profile of the Texas Democrat that the pol unsuccessfully tried “shutting down.”
The Senate hopeful’s reaction to apparently seeing Godfrey at the event drew mockery across the political spectrum on social media.
“This is so bad by [Crockett]. Not ready for primetime sort of stuff,” veteran political journalist Chris Cillizza wrote on X.
“If you think Jasmine Crockett can persuade hundreds of thousands of moderate to conservative Texans to change their voting behavior when she can’t even persuade a short liberal white girl reporter…” progressive journalist Zaid Jilani posted on X.
Tommy Vietor, a former Obama staffer and co-host of “Pod Save America,” was left incredulous.
“The Crockett campaign had armed security guards eject an Atlantic reporter from an event??? Why???” Vietor wrote in an X post.
“Crockett looks terrible here,” another user noted.
“Imagine how paranoid a Democrat would have to be to think a reporter from [the Atlantic] is a threat,” someone else chimed in, referring to the magazine’s liberal bias.
Crockett is leading the Democratic Senate primary race in Texas. REUTERS Crockett’s office did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.
The congresswoman bizarrely told CBS News that there is “no evidence” Godfrey was kicked out of her Lubbock campaign event, and wildly claimed that the journalist was previously sued for “defamation” and “lost,” which Godfrey denied in her write up.
Crockett leads state lawmaker James Talarico in the Democratic Senate primary in Texas by 3 points, according to the latest RealClearPolitics average of polls.
