Rep. Jasmine Crockett's campaign deployed armed security guards to eject a journalist from The Atlantic from a Senate campaign rally in Lubbock, Texas, on Tuesday, after her team reportedly identified the reporter by race and ordered her removed from the crowd.

Journalist Elaine Godfrey had just finished covering the Crockett rally and was attempting to interview the congresswoman when she was approached by a woman with a badge. The same woman had waved Godfrey into the press area hours earlier. This time, the message was different.

"Her team has asked you to leave."

What followed was not a polite redirect. According to Godfrey's account in The Atlantic, four guards, at least one of whom was armed, escorted her out of the venue, across the parking lot, and to the edge of a nearby highway, where she ordered a car.

The description Crockett's team allegedly used to identify Godfrey to security tells its own story. Godfrey reported what she was told they said:

"They just said, 'Elaine from Atlantic, white girl with a hat and notepad. She's interviewing people in the crowd. She's a top-notch hater and will spin. She needs to leave.'"

Crockett told CBS News that there is "no evidence" that Godfrey was kicked out of her Lubbock campaign event. She also claimed the journalist was previously sued for "defamation" and "lost." Godfrey denied this in her write-up. Crockett's office did not respond to The Post's request for comment.

Democrats Roast Their Own

The backlash did not come from the right alone. By Thursday, Crockett was being mocked across the political spectrum online, including by people who should theoretically be in her corner.

Tommy Vietor, a former Obama staffer and co-host of "Pod Save America," wrote in an X post:

"The Crockett campaign had armed security guards eject an Atlantic reporter from an event??? Why???"

Veteran political journalist Chris Cillizza was blunter:

"This is so bad by Crockett. Not ready for primetime sort of stuff."

Progressive journalist Zaid Jilani twisted the knife further, posting on X:

"If you think Jasmine Crockett can persuade hundreds of thousands of moderate to conservative Texans to change their voting behavior when she can't even persuade a short liberal white girl reporter…"

Other users piled on. One wrote that "Crockett looks terrible here." Another pointed out the absurdity of the situation: imagine how paranoid a Democrat would have to be to think a reporter from The Atlantic is a threat.

That last observation deserves a moment. The Atlantic is not exactly a conservative publication. If your campaign cannot handle a reporter from a magazine that shares most of your ideological priors, what happens when you face real scrutiny?

A Pattern, Not an Incident

This was not the first clash between Crockett and Godfrey. According to the reporting, Crockett has previously clashed with the journalist and unsuccessfully tried shutting down a profile piece. The ejection at the Lubbock rally looks less like a one-off security decision and more like an ongoing campaign to control her own press coverage through intimidation rather than persuasion.

The racial identification is worth lingering on. Crockett's team reportedly singled Godfrey out as the "white girl with a hat and notepad." Reverse the races in that description and imagine the news cycle. Imagine a Republican campaign telling security to remove the "Black girl with a notepad" from an event. The story would not be buried in social media mockery. It would be a national crisis, complete with cable news panels and calls for resignation.

But because the racial identification flowed in the direction that progressive orthodoxy permits, it registers as an embarrassment rather than a scandal. The double standard is so familiar it barely needs stating, but it remains worth stating anyway.

Running for Senate Like This

Crockett is leading the Democratic Senate primary race in Texas, ahead of state lawmaker James Talarico by 3 points in the latest RealClearPolitics average of polls. The primary election is scheduled for March 3.

A Texas Senate race is a general election problem for any Democrat, and it demands a candidate who can reach well beyond the progressive base. Winning a Democratic primary in Texas means almost nothing if you cannot compete statewide. The voters Crockett would need in November are exactly the kind of people she apparently cannot tolerate asking her questions at a rally.

Armed guards escorting a reporter to a highway shoulder is not how serious candidates handle unfavorable coverage. It is how campaigns that are afraid of their own record behave. If the mere presence of a journalist with a notepad triggers a four-guard security response, the problem is not the journalist.

Crockett's denial that the ejection even happened, despite Godfrey's detailed firsthand account, only compounds the issue. Deny, deflect, accuse the reporter of past legal trouble that the reporter says never happened. It is a strategy built for a social media news cycle, not a statewide campaign.

Democrats spent years lecturing the country about press freedom and the sacred role of journalism in a democracy. They do not get to deploy armed guards against reporters from friendly outlets and pretend the principles still apply.

The highway shoulder tells you everything you need to know.