Rep. Crow talks about partisanship, national security at Aurora town hall

AURORA | U.S. Rep. Jason Crow fielded constituent concerns about national security and ethics within the federal government Monday at a town hall meeting held at Aurora’s City Hall.

Crow was re-elected last year, defeating Republican Steve Monahan. The Aurora congressperson said the greatest challenge of his first four years in Congress has been confronting a rise in political extremism, describing the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the U.S. Capitol by supporters of former President Donald Trump as “the hardest day of my life since I left the military.”

“I didn’t know whether I was going to survive in the Capitol,” Crow said. “The political environment is certainly more heated, and partisan, and vitriolic than any time in my lifetime for sure. … I actually really believe a big part of this is the need to reinvigorate civic and cultural life in America.”

Many of the questions asked by a selection of the 100-plus audience members who attended Monday had to do with curbing unethical behavior by conservative officials at the federal level.

When one attendee asked why Trump’s re-election campaign is proceeding despite allegations that the former president participated in an insurrection, in which case the 14th Amendment would bar him from holding political office again, Crow said he personally believed Trump committed multiple crimes but that the criminal legal process needed to play out free from political influence.

“And what happens at the end of that process obviously puts us in somewhat uncharted territory in terms of who’s eligible to run,”  Crow said.

In response to a question about what could be done to hold United States Supreme Court justices accountable, Crow said he supported efforts by the Senate to impose a code of ethics including restrictions on the acceptance of gifts and favors by justices.

Earlier this year, undisclosed gifts received by conservative justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas reignited a debate about ethics rules on the highest court.

Republicans have opposed Democratic efforts to regulate the behavior of justices, characterizing them as an attempt to delegitimize the court after a series of rulings that undermined Democratic priorities in the areas of abortion, civil rights and the environment.

Crow said on the topic of abortion that he was a member of the Pro-Choice Caucus and that he had signed onto federal legislation that would promote abortion access. He also said he supported U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s decision to help cover transportation for women in the military seeking an abortion.

“There are a lot of women who don’t have a choice of where they’re stationed and are in places where they can’t access health care, and that’s just wrong,” he said.

Regarding the future of Buckley Space Force Base, Crow said he is advocating for the creation of a reserve component of the Space Force, which he said could enhance career opportunities for servicemembers. He also said he was encouraging military officials to replace Buckley’s aging F-16s with other planes to maintain the fighter jet wing in Aurora.

Among the federal bills Crow chose to highlight during the town hall, the National Defense Authorization Act passed last year included pay increases for servicemembers, which Crow touted as a bipartisan accomplishment.

Questions also touched on foreign policy — Crow said in response to one question about the genocide of the Amhara people in Ethiopia that the United States needs to take an “active role” in making sure the perpetrators of war crimes and atrocities against civilians are held accountable. He said he had urged ​​Secretary of State Antony Blinken to pressure Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to comply with international agreements.

Crow also said he supported using surveillance tools and other technology to secure the country’s southern border with Mexico.

“I spent two combat tours in Afghanistan along the Afghan-Pakistan border doing interdiction of guns and fighters coming across from Pakistan, so I know something about border security. … There’s a smart way to do it. There’s a way to do it with dignity, too,” he said.

Crow said he also believed addressing corruption and humanitarian crises in Central and South America would mitigate the phenomenon of migrants traveling north into the United States.