Hello @tyrannosaurhex
To add, edit or change cronjobs for root user do this:
## nano for debian, vi for RHEL
$ nano /var/spool/cron/crontabs/root || vi /var/spool/cron/crontabs/root
However end users are not supposed to edit this file directly. Users should use crontab -e which sets up a temporary mirror of the file in /tmp without the DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE warning but hell edit it anyway. it does not hurt anyone