Jamie Raskin takes dig at SCOTUS as he blasts 'disgraceful’ GOP for embrace of Trump
House Oversight and Reform Democrat Jamie Raskin (MD) is disgusted by how easily the Republican Party has embraced the cult of Donald Trump.
Speaking to The Guardian ahead of the State of the Union address Thursday, and after Super Tuesday, Raskin expressed his shock at seeing the GOP turn so quickly and easily toward Trump.
He also took a dig at the U.S. Supreme Court, saying that he had believed any court — regardless of partisanship — would uphold the Constitution, and yet in considering Trump's removal from the Colorado ballot as an insurrectionist under the 14th Amendment, the court declined to act and instead punted the decision to Congress.
"I think my assumption was that of the Constitution itself, which is that someone who participates in an insurrection against the union should never be allowed to hold office again," Raskin explained.
“It is disgraceful that a great political party, much less Abraham Lincoln’s [Republican] party, a party of liberty and union, should be reduced to a cult of authoritarian personality in league with autocrats and kleptocrats and dictators all over the world," he lamented.
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He went on to explain that he's very concerned about the 2024 election. Raskin is about to hit the road to help Biden, visiting 17 campaign stops over the next several weeks, he told a crowd of supporters on Monday.
“What we’ve seen in this election, and we’ll have to follow what happens with Nikki Haley, is the Republicans break, but they can’t bend," Raskin explained of the GOP primaries. "In other words, there’s no ability to accommodate other views because everybody has to follow Donald Trump, like a monarch.”
He gave props to his former colleagues on the House Select Committee that investigated the 2020 election and Jan. 6 attacks — Republicans like Wyoming's Liz Cheney and Illinois' Adam Kinzinger.
Wednesday, when Nikki Haley dropped out of the presidential race, Cheney announced she was starting a new political action committee called The Great Task. It pledges to focus "on reverence for the rule of law, respect for our Constitution, and a recognition that all citizens have a responsibility to put their duty to the country above partisanship."
Cheney told "The View" that she wasn't ready to endorse anyone for president when she spoke to them, but it's unclear if she's willing to now that Haley has dropped out of the race.