Colorado representative on ongoing war in Ukraine and immigration
WASHINGTON (CBS, KYMA/KECY) - Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) spoke with Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation Sunday about the ongoing war in Ukraine.
European and NATO leaders announced Sunday they'll be joining President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Washington for crucial talks with President Donald Trump, rallying around the Ukrainian leader after his exclusion from President Trump's summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The remarkable move, with one European leader after another announcing they'll be at Zelenskyy's side when he travels to the White House on Monday, was an apparent effort to ensure that the meeting goes better than the last one in February, when Trump berated the Ukrainian president in a heated Oval Office encounter.
When asked, in hindsight, if he thinks the United States "to date has been too hesitant to actually help Ukraine win this war," Congressman Crow said:
"There's no doubt...I was one of the members of Congress that, on a bipartisan basis, pushed really hard in the first two years of this war, under the Biden administration, to do more, to do more quicker. And I was concerned that we were doing just enough to prevent Ukraine from losing and not doing enough to help them win. And I do believe that had we done more, and we had done it faster, and that we were willing to be more aggressive in providing aid and support for Ukraine, then they would be in a different position on the battlefield today. But compare that to what this administration has done, which has relieved almost all pressure. Like look at what happened on Friday. U.S. military personnel in uniform, literally, were on their hands and knees, rolling out a red carpet for the most murderous dictator of the 21st century. Somebody who has kidnapped and is holding prisoner tens of thousands of Ukrainian children. Somebody who started this whole war, right? This both-sides-ism that the administration is engaging in, that both sides need to come to the table and negotiate. Ukraine is the victim. They are the victim. They didn't start this war. Russia did. And somehow we keep on acting like Vladimir Putin deserves to be brought out into the open like any other head of state. This is a historic embarrassment and defeat for U.S. foreign policy."
During the interview, Brennan and Crow talked about immigration, with Crow saying he was first denied access to the immigration detention facility in Aurora, and now, he says he's being denied basic information about who is being held there.
Crow and Colorado's three other Democratic U.S. House members, Reps. Diana DeGette, Joe Neguse, and Brittany Pettersen, visited the ICE facility Monday after giving seven days' notice under a federal policy they are suing to overturn.
Crow says he was unable to get an exact head count at the facility, let alone information on who's being detained and whether they have criminal records. He was also unable to truly assess the conditions at the facility, he says, because the whole place was on lockdown for the entire visit.
"This administration just tripled the budget of ICE. Made it the largest federal law enforcement agency in the history of the United States. Bigger than the FBI, ATF, DEA, all others combined. And they are putting in roadblocks to prevent oversight, to prevent transparency because they were trying to hide what they are doing. That is unacceptable. So we filed a lawsuit to force them to abide by federal law that guarantees us access."
Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.)
To watch more of Brennan's interview with Crow, click here.
