Transcript: Rep. Jason Crow on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” Jan. 26, 2025

The following is the transcript of an interview with Rep. Jason Crow, Democrat of Colorado, on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that aired on Jan. 26, 2025.

MARGARET BRENNAN: We’re joined now by Colorado Democratic Congressman Jason Crow. Good morning to you. 

REP. JASON CROW: Good morning. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: There is so much news this week, and I want to just pick up, though, on the conversation about January 6 that we had with the vice president. You’ve spoken about your experiences that day in very, very vivid terms. You talked about helping other lawmakers shelter. They were fearing for their lives. To help them put on gas masks. There’s a picture of you that day, even fighting your way out of the chamber, since you had combat experience. What’s your response to the vice president’s defense of- of pardoning some of these violent offenders?

REP. CROW: Well, I don’t want to hear Donald Trump, or JD Vance, or anyone else in this administration talk about backing the blue, talk about supporting law enforcement, when they just released over 1000 cop beaters, people who brutally beat our law enforcement. I was there. I saw it firsthand. America saw it firsthand. The video is available for anybody to view. The- the brutality, the injuries. Over 150 of these officers still have injuries, several of whom lost their lives because of the injuries and trauma incurred on that day. We even had the Fraternal Order of Police come out and- and issue a statement condemning the- the pardons. So clearly, they’re not interested in supporting law enforcement. This was a political decision and- and a really repugnant one at that.

MARGARET BRENNAN: I want to ask you more about that, but I have to address the elephant in the room too, because Monday, hours before leaving office, Joe Biden, then still president, preemptively pardoned his own siblings and their spouses, even though they have not been charged with any crimes. Senator Tim Kaine said the decision makes it harder for Democrats to “stand on the high ground and make a critique of the Trump pardons.” Do you agree it muddies moral clarity?

REP. CROW: No. What I think happens here is that it- it shows very clearly the decision of an outgoing president to try to protect his family when you have an in- incoming president, and those around him, who are repeatedly threatening his family, right? That- that is the story here, that you have Donald Trump, who has doubled down, who has tripled down, on threats against Joe Biden, on threats against outgoing administration officials, simply for doing their job in many cases. This is a president, President Trump, who continues to threaten political opponents and is making every move right now in the early days of his- of his administration, to try to put in motion things to go after and to use the force of government now to go after his political opponents.

MARGARET BRENNAN: I hear you on concerns about retribution, but you were plain spoken when Joe Biden pardoned his son Hunter, who had been convicted of multiple crimes. And in fact, you said in very clear terms you- you thought that it did create problems for Democrats. 

REP. CROW: Yeah, in that instance, I did. 

MARGARET BRENNAN: You see a difference.

REP. CROW: You know, I thought that there was a conflict of interest that undermined the integrity of the process. And what I would like to see overall is pardon reform. Very clearly, there needs to be some guardrails put in place and some reform of the pardon process, and I think most Americans would agree with this, to make sure that it’s not misused, because a lot of this is about the perception of America. People need to know that the person sitting in the Oval Office has their best interests in mind at all times, and certainly not with Donald Trump right now, can- can they have that feeling of trust and confidence, because in- five days into this administration, the abuse is already rampant.

MARGARET BRENNAN: You- to go back to January 6, because there are comparisons being made. And- and I hear your point on pardon reform, which is basically saying presidents need guardrails on this stuff, even if they’re Democrats, but one of the people pardoned by Donald Trump was Stewart Rhodes. He was released from an 18 year prison sentence for conspiring to violently stop Congress’s role in the transfer of power. He was at the capitol this Wednesday after receiving a pardon. This is a man who was recorded having said in 2021 that he wished he had brought rifles on January 6, and he spoke about hanging Nancy Pelosi. How do you make sense of that? How do lawmakers make sense of that? And are you concerned about political violence? Not specific, necessarily, just to him, but- but that this encourages more of that? 

REP. CROW: Yeah. Well, I’m sitting here last week in my office on Capitol Hill, and I turn on the TV and I see that a couple of floors below me, Stewart Rhodes, as you mentioned, one of the heads of a- an armed militia group in America, is having coffee at the Dunkin’ Donuts in the basement of my office building. So of course, I felt uncomfortable about that, as did most of my colleagues, and I’m- I’m very focused on public safety. I always have been in this job. And you just cannot tell me that releasing militia leaders, insurrectionists, criminals, back onto the street because it’s what you did to placate your political base, is making us any more safe, right? In an era of political violence, of extremism, where threats against members of Congress have quadrupled in the last couple of years. None of this is making us safe. It’s actually creating an environment that gives permission to extremists to be more bold, to assert themselves. And we’re going to see more of this.

MARGARET BRENNAN: I want to switch to what’s happening in Colorado. Aurora, Colorado is in your district. That is a location that President and candidate Trump talked quite a lot about, specifically as an example of immigration run amok. He- he talks about this migrant Venezuelan gang, TdA, taking over parts of your city, something local officials have pushed back on, certainly. They were designated as a terrorist group by President Trump, or he started the process to designate them. What does that do for the people of Aurora?

REP. CROW: Well, you know, I pushed back pretty fiercely on Donald Trump’s lies, because this is my hometown. I live there, and I can tell you that Aurora, Colorado is a place of great pride and great strength. We are a community of immigrants and refugees. Nearly 20% of my constituents were born outside of the United States. These are our business owners. These are our friends. They go to school with my children. They work in our community. They grow businesses in our community. And the rhetoric of Donald Trump, both on the campaign trail and now, demonizing these folks and telling gross lies and exaggerations is not only- not only impugns the reputation of a strong and vibrant community, but it makes those folks less safe. And- and I will stand up over and over again and push back against those lies. At the same time, it does nothing to advance the cause of comprehensive immigration reform, which we desperately need–

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yeah, well–

REP. CROW: –right? Anybody knows that our system is badly broken and Donald Trump is not making the move to fix it.

MARGARET BRENNAN: All right. Jason Crow, Congressman, thank you for your time. We’ll be back in a moment.