Jasmine Crockett Tried ‘Shutting Down’ an Atlantic Profile Because the Reporter Asked Her Colleagues About Her
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Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) tried “shutting down” an Atlantic profile of her after she learned that Elaine Godfrey, a staff writer for the magazine, was reaching out to her colleagues for comment.
In a telling aside from the piece Godfrey ended up publishing despite Crockett’s attempt at preventing her from doing so, the reporter wrote:
Crockett said that people are free to disagree with her communication style, but that she “was elected to speak up for the people that I represent.” As for her colleagues, four days before this story was published, Crockett called me to express frustration that I had reached out to so many House members without telling her first. She was, she told me, “shutting down the profile and revoking all permissions.”
An industry note for those who might be unaware, including Crockett: Journalists are under no obligation to comply with post hoc orders of the kind the two-term congressman issued.
In another excerpt from the profile, Godfrey observed that Crockett “speaks casually” and “can also be brusque.”
“During our interview at the Waldorf, she [Crockett] dialed up a staffer in D.C. in front of me and scolded him for an unclear note on her schedule. Another time, in the car, after an aide brought Crockett a paper bag full of food from a fundraiser, she peered inside, scrunched her nose, and said, ‘This looks like crap,'” recalled Godfrey, who nevertheless insisted she is “is often more thoughtful in person than she might appear in clips.”
Crockett has courted quite a bit of controversy in recent days. Last month, in an interview with Katie Couric, she submitted that “We’ve got a mental health crisis in this country because everyone, no matter how you affiliate yourself, should be against Trump, period.”
And in March, Crockett mocked the Lone Star State’s governor, Greg Abbott (R), for being confined to a wheelchair by referring to him as “Governor Hot Wheels.” The congresswoman insisted in a subsequent statement that she was not referring to his disability, but that claim was undermined by the discovery that she has a history of mocking Abbott’s wheelchair.
