Exclusive: Rep. Jamie Raskin says Trump either knew he was lying or was mentally incapacitated

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) told reporters after the second day of the House Select Committee hearings about the Jan.6 attack on Congress that the only two options for Donald Trump are that he knew he was lying about the 2020 election fraud or he was mentally incapacitated.

Testifying under oath, former Attorney General Bill Barr commented that if the former president truly believed the things he was saying then he was "detached from reality."

Raskin explained to Raw Story that the committee has chosen to believe that the former president was in his right mind during this period and thus understood what he was doing.

"It's very important for everyone to see that not only was the 'big lie' a big lie, but Donald Trump must have known it was a big lie unless as William Barr put it, 'he was detached from reality. But we're going to assume that the president of the United States was connected to reality. And in that case, he had to listen to the attorney general of the United States, all of the White House lawyers, and the campaign lawyers and campaign advisers — they were all telling him the same thing. It was over. He'd lost the election."

RELATED: Donald Trump’s head is exploding right now': CNN political analyst

Instead, however, the former president parroted unsubstantiated claims, and conspiracy theories, and then told his followers to come to Washington, D.C.to fight for his presidency.

With additional reporting from Matt Laslo.