Republicans and Independents feel deceived by Trump: Congresswoman says after congressional recess

WASHINGTON — Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-PA) returned to the U.S. Capitol along with her colleagues after the August Recess and noted that she heard from a lot of Republicans in the state that they felt cheated by former President Donald Trump.

Speaking to Raw Story, Dean said that people all over her district were "riveted" to watch the public hearings for the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on Congress.

"People all over my district were riveted to watch it. A diverse group of people. I'm talking about Republicans, Independents, Dems. They were riveted because they found it so compelling, so honest and they were hearing from Republicans who believed this man and really just exposed him for what he was."

Just a few months ago, in July, Dean told Raw Story that she wasn't worried about President Joe Biden's job approval ratings, saying that the way that Democrats can help fight those is by doing their jobs. Since then, Biden has passed a number of landmark bills aimed at helping Americans.

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"And the underpinning of the whole thing is the Jan. 6 hearing. The truth is coming out in the most profound and concerning ways," she said.

Dean went through the ordeal along with the rest of her colleagues, telling reporters this summer that she can still hear the banging on the doors by the attackers. "It still haunts me."

The Pennsylvania congresswoman was also one of the impeachment managers for the Jan. 6 impeachment trial, reinforcing that Trump lost every lawsuit, 62 of them, while threatening members of Congress.

Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) also said that while on recess he heard from constituents in his districts about Jan. 6, but that they couched it in a concern about the stability of the American democracy and the ability to vote. Texas has been ground zero for some of the most restrictive election regulations designed to make it more complicated and more difficult to vote. Mail-in ballot rejection has skyrocketed since then, local officials said. One World War II veteran said that his ballot was rejected twice.

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"People, I think, wrap all of it into one," Castro said. He too was one of the impeachment managers for the Jan. 6 impeachment trial. People haven't talked about it like this before, he explained. When there were questions about voter ID, it was one thing, "but this is different. This is about democracy being on the brink."

When asked about Trump's document scandal, Castro said that Americans seem to feel like Donald "Trump should have paid a price already. And it should have come before this. But to a lot of people, they see this as another example of Donald Trump breaking the law without consequence. And sadly they've come to expect that from him. Sadly, some people have come to expect no consequences, which is not a good thing."

He explained that the best way to explain it is that if you took away the identity of the person who committed the acts, of taking this classified information, but most importantly, refusing to give it back, you just ask somebody in a blind test, 'Person X did X, Y, Z. Should they be prosecuted?' And the answer is undoubted, 'yes.'"

With additional reporting by Matt Laslo