Footage of a February panel has surfaced, showing Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) discussing actions that Congress could supposedly take to prevent former President Donald Trump from winning back the White House. Raskin seemed to suggest that Congress would have the power to invalidate the election if it resulted in a Trump victory, even at the risk of “civil war” breaking out. It’s not clear if Raskin was advocating this or whether it was purely a hypothetical scenario.
Raskin delivered the comments during a discussion at a bookstore in Washington, D.C., where he discussed the likelihood that the Supreme Court would block Democratic-led efforts to exclude Trump from the ballot. Liberals have argued that Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, commonly referred to as the Insurrection Clause, could disqualify Trump from appearing on ballots.
Under this logic, several states attempted to remove Trump from the ballot. However, the nation’s highest court ruled to block the states in March. The Supreme Court determined that states do not have the authority to make such a decision, whereas Trump’s removal would have to be decided by Congress. Prior to this ruling, Raskin illustrated how Congress would have to step in and stop Trump at the risk of creating “civil war conditions.”
During his comments, Raskin called out voting protocols in red states, claiming, “What I would say is, you know, we’ve got to play defense and offense in 2024. The right to vote is under attack in very specific ways in lots of states, especially in some of the Deep South states, especially in Florida, which I just returned from. There’s just unbelievable stuff going on there — like, if you have to send a mail-in ballot or absentee ballot, you have to have a — you can only have it taken to the mailbox or the polls by a member of your nuclear family who lives with you. OK? So there’s just a million traps for the unwary that are being set across the country. But at the same time, we do have to get on offense for the articulation of a constitutional right to vote that’s meaningful for everybody in the country.”
He added, “The million of people who are left out, and disenfranchised, and for everybody whose right to vote is rendered vulnerable by this Supreme Court. And you know, I like very much the point that both Sherlyn [Ifill] and Rick have been making about the Supreme Court. I mean, we’ve got to remember that for the vast majority of American history, the Supreme Court has not been a friend to the people. It has been overwhelmingly in a reactionary or conservative mode, I mean, all the way up until the Civil War. What did the Supreme Court ever do for enslaved people in our country? Absolutely nothing, other than cement their status in the Dred Scott decision, saying that African-Americans had no rights that the white man was bound to respect.”
Raskin addressed the Insurrection Clause in the Fourteenth Amendment, claiming it has been virtually done away with. He then outlined how the issue has been delegated to Congress, where he suggested the legislative body would have to inform the “rampaging Trump mobs” that their candidate would be disqualified from the election.
“And the greatest example going on right now before our very eyes is Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, which they’re just disappearing with a magic wand, as if it doesn’t exist, even though it could not be clearer what it’s stating. And so they want to kick it to Congress, so it’s going to be up to us on January 6, 2025, to tell the rampaging Trump mobs that he’s disqualified. And then we need bodyguards for everybody, and civil war conditions, all because the nine justices — not all of them, but these justices who have not many cases to look at every year, not that much work to do, a huge staff, great protection — simply do not want to do their job and interpret what the great Fourteenth Amendment means,” he said.
Watch Raskin below:
Note: The featured image is a screenshot from the embedded video.
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