Jamie Raskin shoots down GOP anti-impeachment arguments one by one at impeachment hearing
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) (Screen cap).

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) on Tuesday make an impassioned speech before the House Rules Committee in which he shot down Republican arguments against impeaching President Donald Trump.


Raskin started off by debunking the argument that the president cannot be impeached because the articles of impeachment issued against him do not explicitly say that he broke the law.

"We are not criminal prosecutors prosecuting a criminal defendant in court to send to jail," he said. "That's not what we're doing. We're members of Congress. We're working to protect the country against a president who is committing high crimes and misdemeanors -- that is, constitutional offenses against the people of the country."

Raskin then tore apart Republicans' argument that the impeachment inquiry was light on fact witnesses.

"There were 17 fact witnesses who appeared before the House Committee on Intelligence, the House Oversight Committee, and the House Foreign Affairs Committee!" he said.

He then took a sledgehammer to Republicans' complaints about the fairness of the process by noting that all witnesses who have come forward so far have told the same story -- and they all point to the president's guilt.

"All of their testimony was published, everybody can find it," he said. "And all of their testimony is essentially unrefuted and uncontradicted. It tells one story, which is the president of the United States conducted a shakedown of a foreign power."

Watch the video below.