Rep. Cammack Disputes Reports of Decorated Veteran Jason Crow’s Actions, But Says She Was Ready to Fight
This past weekend, U.S. Rep. Kat Cammack (R-FL) held a hybrid virtual and in-person town hall with the Douglas County Republicans to talk about her growing up in the county, losing her family’s cattle ranch due to “an Obama-era program,” and her role as a female Florida Republican.
However she spent much of her time recounting the Jan. 6 insurrection, including accusing her colleague, Jason Crow, of “not doing what he says he was doing” during the storming of the Capitol.
During her nearly 20-minute description of the insurrection, Cammack contrasted her own willingness to physically attack rioters who had breached the Capitol and targeted the House floor with her fellow lawmakers whom says were scared and unwilling to fight–all while preaching the unity that Congress members experienced in the same breath.
“We’re standing there and I’m like, we’re going to fight. Like, this ain’t happening,” said Cammack to the crowd. “We’re going to fight. So I’m getting all I’m getting all pumped up, ready to fight… I turn my phone on, I put it in my pocket, and I just leave it recording. And you see in that video, when I played it back, there were a lot of people on the floor crying, just fetal position, crying, scared.
“Some people from Colorado were doing that,” Cammack noted cheekily. “You really saw the person’s character. It wasn’t Republicans versus Democrats in that moment. Everybody was just members. And it was–there were a lot of people that were scared; there were a lot of people who were ready to take a stand and fight.”
She specifically called out U.S. Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO), alleging that he misrepresented his actions that day.
The following audio has been edited for length. Her full 19-minute account of the insurrection is linked at the end of this article.
“He’s a–he’s a–mmm,” Cammack vocalized, implying that she wanted to call Crow a name. “I was on the House floor that day… I saw him, I have a video; I have a 12-minute video. I know exactly what he was doing, and it ain’t what he said he was doing.”
Pictures taken of Crow that day show him helping soothe U.S. Rep. Susan Wild (D-PA) during a panic attack, as well as opening protective hoods against tear gas.
Numerous outlets have reported on Crow, a former Army Ranger who served three tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, and his account of the insurrection. He says he fell back on his military training, trying to help others how he could. According to an account from Wild, Crow helped keep her calm during her panic attack as well as carrying her bag for her as they army crawled across the floor.
According to Yahoo News, Crow was the last House member to leave the chamber.
Cammack also ridiculed the members of the press as “sheep” for following instructions and donning protective hoods.
“I look up at the media, and you want to talk about sheep? I look up in the gallery–to the press gallery–and they all have these ridiculous hoods on and they’re not equally pressurized, so they all go this way,” said Cammack, mimicking the press. “And they make this terrible buzzing noise. So it’s like you look up in the press gallery and they’re like ‘eeee’ like staring down with all their cameras, taking pictures of what’s going on.”
Cammack slammed lawmakers, particularly U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), for engaging in interviews in the small room they had been evacuated to.
“…They were doing interviews,” Cammack said. “They were doing live interviews, saying ‘I’m in the Ways and Means Room and the Republicans are responsible for this and buh-buh-buh-buh-buh-buh-buh.’ It was unbelievable.”
As a young female Trumpist conservative who frames herself as fighting for the freedom of Americans, Cammack’s image begs comparison to that of her House colleague from Colorado, Lauren Boebert.
Like Boebert, Cammack holds extremely conservative positions on several issues, such as her staunch opposition to abortion, which she opposes because her own mother was recommended to get an abortion when pregnant with Cammack, due to severe health threats, but chose not to.
Cammack has also criticized Biden for his actions on immigration and holds a hard-line opinion on immigration, supporting the idea of a border wall.
In the town hall, she spoke on her visits to the border, during which she allegedly spoke with refugees to address the border crisis occurring as record numbers of unaccompanied minors have crossed the border. Since that 20-year high in March, the number of children in Border Patrol facilities has dropped by 88%.
She’s also vocally opposed gun restrictions and legislation to hold police accountable. She denounced both H.R. 8 and H.R. 1446, two bills aiming to tighten background checks on firearm purchases.
“I don’t care where you find yourself on that that issue. If we lose the 2nd Amendment, we lose everything else,” Cammack said during the town hall. “So it is so, so important to be protected.”
Unlike Boebert, however, Cammack–who voted to not certify the general election results in Arizona and Pennsylvania–hasn’t blamed the Jan. 6 storming of the capitol on Antifa yet.
When asked about her opinion on U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), who, despite being seen as super conservative, has been shunned by her party for voting to impeach Donald Trump after the insurrection, Cammack said she doesn’t support her, but doesn’t want Democrats to pick up on division between Republicans.
“The conference overwhelmingly voted to keep her. Now, I never went out and I never made a public statement. I never was on the news and said, ‘I think she’s got to go,'” Cammack said. “Why? Because they raise so much money. I’ll be damned if I give an ounce of ammunition to the left to further divide us. I won’t do it. I won’t do it.
“…I’ve been public in saying that while I respect Liz, I can’t support someone in that role who is continuing to further divide us.”
Despite the division caused by Cheney’s views of Trump–as well as certain, tangible division here among Republicans in Colorado–Cammack believes conservatives can take back the House soon.
“The thing that I tell people is we are conservatives, which means we are very focused on the individual. We’re very opinionated. It’s really hard to wrangle us all up together, but it’s really easy when we’re in the minority, right? We just vote no,” Cammack said. “So we have an opportunity for the next 18 months to get together and really build out the game plan for when we take the House back because we are taking the House back. There’s no question in my mind. Not only are we working harder than we ever have, but more importantly, we’re more united, which the media will never cover.
“They’re going to say we’re fractured, we’re broken, we’re fighting, we’re doing all this stuff,” Cammack continued. “That’s all BS. There are differences of opinion, yes, but is it as bad as the media says it is? No.”
Watch Cammack’s full 19-minute account of the Jan 6 insurrection, including her unsuccessful efforts to challenge the election results leading up to the storming of the Capitol and her version of the day itself.