'That is deranged!' Jamie Raskin blows up GOP's 'three-card monte' defense of Trump

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) on Sunday took a blowtorch to Republicans' efforts to defend former President Donald Trump on charges that he tried to defraud the United States by overturning the results of the 2020 election.

Appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press," Raskin was asked by host Chuck Todd about a defense floated by one of Trump's lawyers that his actions on January 6th were a "technical" violation of the Constitution but were not necessarily criminal.

Raskin noted that the Constitution has several passages that make clear that waging an insurrection against the United States is a grievous offense.

"Our Constitution is designed to stop people from trying to overthrow elections," he said. "There's a whole apparatus of criminal law which is in place to enforce this constitutional principle. That's what Donald Trump is charged with violating."

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Raskin then hammered Trump lawyers for saying that Trump's pressure campaign to get Pence to throw out certified election results was well within his First Amendment rights.

"That's deranged!" he said. "That is a deranged argument!"

Raskin also attacked Republicans for claiming that it was wrong to charge Trump with crimes at a time when he's the frontrunner to be the GOP's 2024 presidential nominee.

"During the impeachment, they were saying, 'Well let's not do it during the impeachment because he's already left office, deal with this as a matter of criminal law,'" Raskin charged. "Now, it's like a three-card monte. You can't get him for impeachment because he's already left office but you can't get him through criminal law. People can see what's going on here."

Watch the video below or at this link.

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