Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, is facing backlash on social media and labeled the “worst candidate possible” after she botched her facts while trying to tie Republicans to donations from Jeffrey Epstein during remarks on the House floor.
After a tranche of Epstein-related documents were released earlier this week, Delegate Stacey Plaskett, the non-voting congressional representative for the U.S. Virgin Islands, came under fire for texting with the disgraced financier during a 2019 congressional hearing about Donald Trump’s potential conflicts of interest.
Plaskett was fervently defended by several of her Democrat colleagues in the House after Republicans tried to censure her, including Crockett, who sought to accuse Republicans of their own ties to Epstein but failed miserably.
Crockett said she had her team “dig in” to Federal Election Commission (FEC) records, which she claimed showed Lee Zeldin, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator and former member of Congress from New York, had accepted campaign donations from the disgraced financier in the past. However, the donations were from a different Jeffrey Epstein, prompting backlash from both parties against Crockett.
“If you’re looking for a good way to light $50 million on fire and lose by 15 points, then Jasmine Crockett is your candidate,” a Democratic strategist told Fox News Digital following Crockett’s floor remarks. Crockett has indicated she will decide by the Dec. 8 filing deadline whether she will throw her hat in the ring to challenge Republican incumbent Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.
“She’s got no shot to win that Texas Senate race, and screw-ups like this show why she’s probably the worst candidate possible,” the Democratic strategist continued.
Republicans did not hold back on their criticism of Crockett.
“Crockett should get censured for this and staff should be fired,” GOP strategist Matt Whitlock posted on X. “What a shocking embarrassment to go to the floor with this kind of insane accusation, and have the WRONG JEFFREY EPSTEIN.”
“Crockett getting this so badly wrong is I guess why politicians usually outsource their oppo research to the professionals,” Chuck Ross, a Washington Free Beacon investigative reporter, wrote on X. “But you also would expect a member of Congress to know more about FEC filings.”
“Jasmine Crockett completely misrepresented, indeed outright lied, about various GOP politicians’ potential past donor relationships with Epstein,” former New York GOP Congresswoman Nan Hayworth said.
Zeldin was also quick to respond to the inaccuracy, noting the person he received campaign donations from was a physician also named Jeffrey Epstein.
“NO [clapping emoji] FREAKIN [clapping emoji] RELATION [clapping emoji] YOU [clapping emoji] GENIUS!!!”
In addition to Zeldin, Crockett sought to claim other Republicans, such as Mitt Romney, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), George Bush, John McCain, Sarah Palin and others also received donations from the disgraced financier.
“This is a distraction. … Why are y’all more interested in talking about Stacey Plaskett than Trump’s relationship with the man?” Crockett asked on the House floor, calling Trump and Epstein “besties” amid a resolution to censure Plaskett.
“Miss me with your moral high ground. Folks who also took money from somebody named Jeffrey Epstein, as I had my team dig in very quickly: Mitt Romney, the NRCC, Lee Zeldin. George Bush, Win Red, McCain-Palin, Rick Lazio. … If this is the standard that we are going to make, just know we’re going to expose it all and just know that the FEC filings are available for everybody to review,” Crockett said.
Crockett had to be fact-checked just a few weeks ago for comments that attempted to make Republicans look like they were trying to hide facts about President Trump as it pertains to Epstein’s crimes.
During an interview on CNN, Crockett attempted to claim Republicans redacted important information from documents about Epstein’s crimes. However, the hosts of the segment jumped in to correct the record, telling Crockett that it was actually Democrats who decided to black out the name of one of Epstein’s accusers, Virginia Giuffre, who did not accuse President Trump of any wrongdoing.
“Her recitation of the facts is simply, that, ‘I’m not going to trust Republicans. They probably made that up. And, by the way, we would never redact the name of somebody who is deceased anyway,'” conservative radio host Vince Coglianese said of Crockett’s CNN debacle.
“Jasmine Crockett was trying to — literally, on the spot — come up with a conspiracy theory in order to defend the callous and disgraceful behavior of Democrats. Where have we seen this before? Well, I don’t know, every Democrat made-up scandal about Donald Trump we’ve seen ever. They’re constantly trying to defame him. It’s the wrap-up smear constantly delivered over, and over, and over again.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Crockett for comment but did not receive a response.
