All posts tagged "jamie raskin"

Pam Bondi hearing erupts into shouting: 'She's embarrassing you!'

A hearing with lawmakers and Attorney General Pam Bondi erupted into an explosive shouting match Wednesday.

Bondi was testifying before lawmakers at a House Judiciary Committee Hearing on Capitol Hill when the tensions heightened, as she started shouting insults, name-calling and interrupting congressional members asking her questions under oath. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) pushed Bondi to respond to the Department of Justice's investigation of late convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and argued that the she and the DOJ had not apologized or acknowledged the survivors whose personal information was unredacted.

"Your'e obsessed with Donald Trump. You have Trump derangement syndrome," Bondi claimed.

Raskin pushed back on Bondi's statement and focused again on Epstein survivors and brought up that Bondi was avoiding responding to lawmakers' questions and not adhering to committee rules.

"I want the whole country to look at this, because this is the attorney general of the United States whose job is law enforcement," Raskin said. "We've never had a witness who has misunderstood our rules and been unable to conform his or her conduct to our rules before. We have only five minutes. And so we use our time to ask you specific questions."

"How long are you giving me to answer?" Bondi interrupted.

"Excuse me? I'm not yielding to you right now," Raskin said. "I'd like that second restored to. So, Miss Bondi, the way it works is we ask you a question and you answer it. And if you go off on a wild goose chase, another tangent. You start reading statistics or you start talking about stuff going on our district. And by the way, I invite you to my district, come to my district. But that's not what we're here to do today. OK. So and you do that, then we're allowed to say we reclaim our time. At that point, you have to be quiet. You have no choice. You have to be quiet."

Raskin demanded a joint task force to investigate the crimes against survivors of Epstein. That's when Bondi started discussing another topic and interrupting again.

Raskin responded to Bondi's remarks and directed his comments to chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH).

"This is your committee, and she is embarrassing you," Raskin said.

Lawmaker rips Pam Bondi in scathing opening: 'You're running a massive Epstein cover-up'

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) Wednesday delivered a scathing opening statement and directly criticized Attorney General Pam Bondi, accusing her of deliberately blocking the investigation into late financier and convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Raskin, a ranking member, was one of several lawmakers questioning Bondi during a House Judiciary Committee Hearing on Capitol Hill. In a fiery speech, he demanded answers from Bondi about the Epstein files and investigation, and recent Department of Justice actions — reminding her that her clients are the American people — not President Donald Trump.

"But to promote justice for the people, you've got to listen to the victims like the women seated behind you today," Raskin said. "Those are just some of the hundreds of survivors of Jeffrey Epstein's global sex trafficking ring who are demanding that the truth be told and are demanding accountability for the abusers who trafficked and raped them you still haven't met with these survivors."

Raskin named several survivors and family members in the room and described his concern that Bondi and the DOJ have not met with them or taken interest to hear their stories. He accused her of standing on the wrong side of history.

"Now, you're not showing a lot of interest in the victims, madam attorney general, whether it's Epstein's human trafficking ring or the homicidal governmental violence against citizens in Minneapolis, as attorney general, you're siding with the perpetrators and you're ignoring the victims that will be your legacy unless you act quickly to change course," Raskin said.

"You're running a massive Epstein coverup right out of the Department of Justice," Raskin said. "You've been ordered by subpoena and by Congress to turn over 6 million documents, photographs and videos in the Epstein files but you've turned over only 3 million."

Raskin called Bondi out for redacting names of abusers, enablers and accomplices in the Epstein files and not redacting the names of survivors, which she was required to do by Congress.

"Some of the victims had come forward publicly, but many had not," Raskin said. "Many had kept their torment private even from family and friends. But you published their names, their identities their images on thousands of pages for the world to see. So you ignored the law. And even with over 100,000 employees at your disposal, you acted with some mixture of staggering incompetence cold indifference, and jaded cruelty towards more than 1,000 victims raped abused and trafficked. This performance screams cover up."

He criticized the DOJ's move to move Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's co-conspirator, to a Texas minimum security camp where she has "five start treatment, including catered meals, private gym time and access to a therapy puppy."

Raskin then described the ongoing attacks on protesters, the killings of two American citizens in Minneapolis under ICE and the DOJ's response.

"There's no sign of any movement at the Department of Justice," Raskin said. "You even launched a criminal investigation into Renee Good's grieving widow. How sick is that? But it's even worse. You've turned the people's Department of Justice into Trump's instrument of revenge. Trump orders up prosecutions like pizza, and you deliver every time."

His last comment was a stark warning for Bondi.

"So we ask you politely but firmly, madam attorney general please do not waste one second of our precious time by evading questions, by changing the subject, or engaging in personal attacks against members of Congress. We saw your performance in the Senate, and we're not going to accept that this isn't a game," Raskin said. "The Senate you brought something with, you called a burn book, a binder of smears to attack members personally for doing the people's work of oversight please set the burn book aside and answer our questions."

Yelling erupts in Jack Smith's hearing as lawmakers clash: 'I yield in disgust'

Shouting broke out between lawmakers during former Special Counsel Jack Smith's first public testimony on Thursday.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) got into a yelling match during the House Judiciary Committee hearing over Smith's investigations into President Donald Trump. Issa was questioning Smith, who was attempting to answer the lawmaker's questions over seeking phone records following the Jan. 6, 2021 Insurrection probe, when the lawmakers started to interrupt each other — and Smith.

"My office didn't spy on anyone," Smith said.

"Wait a second. I, the question I asked you, Mr. Smith, was pretty straightforward," Issa said.

"We complied with the department," Smith responded, when Issa elevated his voice and interrupted him.

Raskin then interjected, calling Issa out for not letting Smith respond. Issa attempted to question Smith again.

"Mr. Smith, I asked you a question and you were not responsive to it and I want you to be responsive to it. Did you, whether you think it was legal or not, whether you think it was right or not, did you withhold the name of Kevin McCarthy, speaker of the House, when you were seeking records on Kevin McCarthy, the speaker of the House or Jim Jordan, the chairman of the committee."

Then Issa's time expired. He tried to argue that he wanted his time back.

"We did not provide that information to the judge when we requested a non-disclosure order, consistent with the law and consistent with the department policy," Smith said.

More shouting erupted among the committee.

"We have the evidence... with that I yield back in disgust of this witness," Issa said.

Smith was speaking on his decision to prosecute Trump on a series of federal crimes in 2023. He wasted no time declaring that Trump "broke the law" at a congressional hearing Thursday.

Smith, a career federal prosecutor, was appointed as a special counsel by Attorney General Merrick Garland in November 2022 to investigate Trump's handling of classified documents and his role in the events surrounding the Insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021.

Smith led high-profile criminal investigations and prosecutions against Trump on multiple counts, including obstruction of justice and violations of the Espionage Act related to classified materials at Mar-a-Lago, though the cases faced significant legal challenges and delays, with Trump ultimately avoiding trial on these charges following his 2024 election victory.

'Like a giant manbaby': UK right-winger gets into screaming match with Dem Jamie Raskin

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) got into a screaming match with controversial UK right-winger Nigel Farage during a presentation about free speech, Politico reported.

Raskin was in London as part of a bipartisan congressional delegation led by House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) to discuss the free speech implications of the UK's new Online Safety Act. Republican lawmakers argue the law "violates free speech and unfairly targets U.S. tech companies," according to the report.

In an interview with Politico, Raskin said he had begun talking about the history of free speech in the United States when he brought up "current threats posed by President Donald Trump."

That's when Farage, a Trump supporter, interrupted, exclaiming, "We’re not here to talk about Donald Trump,” Raskin said, adding, “[Farage] said that I am a guest here, and I should act like a guest. And I told him that he was a host, and he should act like a host.”

The leader of the right-wing Reform UK Party then accused Raskin of being “the most pig-headed person he’d ever met,” causing Raskin to retort, “This is why we had a revolution against you guys.”

Politico said the story was confirmed by Democratic reps Lou Correa (CA), Jasmine Crockett (TX) and Eric Swalwell (CA). "All called Farage’s eruption ironic for happening at the tail end of what had been a respectful discussion on free speech," the report stated.

Swalwell remarked, "Farage just looked unhinged and like a giant manbaby."

"Raskin said the outburst was the 'explosive reaction of one British politician who obviously didn’t want any challenge to his view that he’s a free speech victim,' a reference to Farage saying he’d been locked out of banking services and threatened online over his political speech," according to the report.

Read the Politico story here.

'Clearly not an emergency': Jamie Raskin puts Trump on notice over war powers

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) put President Donald Trump on notice Friday, saying Congress should decide whether to strike Iran, not him alone.

Raskin told CNN's Boris Sanchez that he was co-sponsoring a war powers resolution, as he always does, "when it looks like military hostilities might begin."

"The Constitution is very clear in Article One that it is Congress which has the power to declare war," Raskin said. "That is the sole and exclusive power of Congress."

Raskin conceded that presidents have taken swift action in emergency situations.

"But obviously, if Donald Trump has said, 'Well, nobody knows what I'm going to do. I might do it, I might not. Now I'm going to take two weeks to think it over.' It's clearly not an emergency."

Raskin added that it's up to Congress to consider "all of the complicated policy factors" that enter into a decision to stage a military strike on a foreign country.

When asked if he would support a "regime change," Raskin said he supports it "all over the world where people don't have democracy, where you've got a theocratic regime, an autocratic regime, a dictatorial regime. But, generally, the way that has worked is through Democratic struggle within the particular society itself."

Sanchez then asked if Raskin thought Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was "exaggerating claims of Iran's proximity to a nuclear weapon in order to try and drag the U.S. into war."

"I just have no factual basis upon which to render that judgment," Raskin said. "And that's why the Constitution and the framers of the Constitution designed the process in such a way that the country is never hurtling into war, but rather considering it in a serious way. And I think that there's a bipartisan commitment to do that."

Watch the clip below via CNN.

Trump has 'unleashed his own army': former GOP lawmaker

Donald Trump has successfully "unleashed his own army" that's ready to take up arms whenever he gives the word, according to a former GOP lawmaker.

Former Rep. David Jolly (R-FL) told MSNBC Thursday that pardoning members of the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and other extremists who participated in the J6 riots was akin to readying the troops.

"Culturally, and within the country, we have some very dark movements," Jolly said. "The Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers are far-right organizations that ultimately would like to take down our own government. They are dangerous and they will remain dangerous."

Trump addressed the Proud Boys directly during a presidential debate in 2020 when asked by moderator Chris Wallace, "Are you willing tonight to condemn white supremacists and militia groups, and to say that they need to stand down and not add to the violence in a number of these cities..?"

Trump answered, "Proud Boys, stand back and stand by. But I'll tell you what, somebody's got to do something about Antifa and the left because this is not a right-wing problem, this is a left-wing."

ALSO READ: Inside the parade of right-wing world leaders flocking to D.C. for Trump's inauguration

The Proud Boys themselves believed Trump was issuing a call to action, with one member posting at the time, "Proud Boys Shout at the Presidential Debate! President Trump told the proud boys to stand by because someone needs to deal with ANTIFA...well sir! we're ready!!"

Ex-Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes were just two of the violent criminals released from custody when Trump pardoned 1,500 J6 insurrectionists this week.

Jolly continued, "I think that is what is so unsettling about the pardons is Donald Trump did this almost out of vengeance. This is not just about the 70-year-old grandmother who got caught up in going into the Capitol, and maybe she acknowledges her wrongdoing, and mercy is due. This is not the case. Many of these people got out and said, 'Where are we going now? Where's the next fight? I'm going to buy a gun.' And for Donald Trump, I mean, he just unleashed his own army here."

Jolly concluded, "If you're an undocumented immigrant who assaults a cop, you go away, you go to prison, or you get deported immediately. But what Donald Trump says is, 'If you assault a cop in my name and in a spirit of white nationalism, I'll pardon you. you get out of jail.'"

Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) echoed Jolly's concerns, posting to social media that Trump has created "a reserve battalion of violent political shock troops" that will be disastrous "for public safety and democracy."

Watch the video below or at this link.

GOP serving 'broligarchs' and doing 'nothing to bring down grocery prices': Jamie Raskin

Rep Jamie Raskin (D-MD) unleashed on the GOP for pandering to tech "broligarchs" and using immigration as a smokescreen to distract from President Trump's actions since he took the oath of office Monday.

In his statement during Wednesday's hearing on immigration enforcement, Raskin slammed the House GOP for enabling Trump's stunts by promoting "tiny little messaging bills" that accomplished nothing.

Raskin began, "All these fine speeches and all these fancy parties with billionaires and congressmen in tuxedos, all these executive orders for big oil and the tech 'broligarchs,' and these pardons for Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and violent extremists who chanted, 'Hang Mike Pence!' and smashed and wounded our police officers in this building with steel poles, baseball bats and confederate flags. All this sound and fury on day one and week one, but nothing to bring down grocery prices or nothing to bring down the cost of rent as they promised, nothing to improve our health care system or build on our success in the last Congress in reducing prescription drug prices, nothing to get health insurance coverage for millions of people who don't have it, nothing to bring down the cost of housing or build new housing, nothing to combat the nightmare of climate change other than the full-scale retreat of withdrawing from the Paris Climate Accord, nothing to address the real problems faced by the American people."

ALSO READ: Inside the parade of right-wing world leaders flocking to D.C. for Trump's inauguration

Raskin then addressed the matter at hand, having to do with immigration enforcement.

"So, today they want to change the subject from the indelible and shocking public safety disaster of the president releasing hundreds of convicted felons, specifically violent cop-beating felons caught on tape in the act whom he incited January 6, 2021, back into the population with no plan for protecting the American people or the public safety. So, what do they want to talk about today in their wisdom? Public safety and immigration!"

Raskin went on to describe Republican-backed bills proposed to solve the immigration problem, "tiny little messaging bills that move a few words around, but don't fundamentally change anything."

Watch the video below or at this link.

Top Oversight Committee Dem seeks 'full account' from Army secretary on Arlington incident

Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, demanded Friday a "full account" of a reported incident between Donald Trump and his campaign and their collective appearance this week at Arlington National Cemetery.

Trump and his campaign faced intense backlash following a reported physical altercation with a cemetery official and faced questions over whether they may have violated federal law banning campaign materials from being photographed or filmed in certain sections of the cemetery.

A TikTok video showed Trump in Section 60, where the altercation purportedly occurred, smiling and giving a thumbs-up. Trump has said the family of a soldier laid to rest in the section invited him, and his campaign has said they were allowed to bring a photographer.

"The fact is that a private photographer was permitted on the premises and for whatever reason an unnamed individual, clearly suffering from a mental health episode, decided to physically block members of President Trump's team during a very solemn ceremony," spokesman Steven Cheung said in the statement.

Now, Raskin wants to get to the bottom of what happened and whether any laws were violated.

In a letter to Christine Wormuth, secretary of the Army, Raskin referenced reports of a "verbal and physical altercation" between members of the Trump campaign and cemetery staff.

"It appears that the Trump campaign refused to abide by Arlington National Cemetery's absolute prohibition on 'filming for partisan, political, or fundraising purposes' and 'abruptly pushed aside' Cemetery staff trying to 'ensure adherence' to these rules," he said in the letter obtained by Punchbowl News.

ALSO READ: The real reason corporate media won't cover Trump's attacks on democracy

In doing so, he asked the Army secretary to hand the committee an incident report and deliver a briefing on what happened, "including whether Trump campaign staff violated federal law or Cemetery rules and whether the Trump campaign informed the families of servicemembers buried at the Cemetery that their gravestones would be used in Mr. Trump's political campaign ads."

Raskin later said that while Trump was at the cemetery for a wreath-laying event, it appeared his campaign arrived with a photographer and videographer and "completely flouted the laws and rules they were informed of and filmed footage in the restricted area for use in a political Tik Tok video."

To boot, he said, campaign staffers also "allegedly engaged" in an altercation with a cemetery staffer who tried to enforce rules "aimed at preserving the sanctity and nonpartisan character of the Cemetery."

Read the full letter at Punchbowl News.

Joke’s on Donald Trump as Democrats laugh at national convention

CHICAGO — President Joe Biden may be old, but former President Donald Trump is a joke — and the butt of one — at the Democratic National Convention.

Many senior Democratic officials gathered here in the Windy City say they aren’t worried that Trump and GOP officials keep trying to paint a host of top Democrats — Vice President Kamala Harris, congressional Democrats and Biden’s staff, along with "the media" — as complicit in the “cover-up” of what they argue is a mentally incapacitated commander-in-chief.

ALSO READ: Joe Biden gave his best to us

“Why are Republicans so interested in what Democrats do? It's like, you all said [Biden] was bad, and, maybe, we took you at your word and fixed it. Now you mad?” Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) told Raw Story through a laugh as he and his mini-entourage walked through the corridors of the convention.

After Biden’s poor debate performance against Trump in June, Democrats basically freaked out for most of a month as Fox News talking points about Biden’s age and cognition became their party’s nightmarish reality.

Then, Biden quit the 2024 presidential race.

ALSO READ: ‘Absolutely essential’: Son of Oath Keeper Stewart Rhodes is all in for Kamala Harris

Trump no longer had Biden, 81, to kick around. Democrats quickly shook off the bad dream and are now laughing here at the Democratic National Convention as Trump wrestles with this new reality, one where — at 78 years old — he’s the geezer whose mental acuity and attachment to reality is incessantly questioned by naysayers.

So as Trump and, say, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) — who called Biden’s health the “biggest political cover-up that we have ever seen” — continue harping on Biden, Democrats giggle louder and savor the prospect of him facing Harris head-to-head in debates next month.

“There's a phrase called grasping at straws,” Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) told Raw Story. “They have to run against him because they don't want to run against her. I mean, the debate happened, and now he's no longer our nominee.”

Democrats say Trump’s still failing to grasp policy.

“They are really struggling. Honestly, the former president is really struggling on how to respond,” Rep. Annie Kuster (D-NH) told Raw Story at Chicago’s United Center. “The Republicans are just really struggling on how to deal with that, and they don't have a response.”

While this may feel new, according to Kuster, it’s far from novel.

“They've never had a policy response,” Kuster said. “Eight years we heard about ‘repeal and replace Obamacare’ and all this — nothing. So they don't have any other place to go except these sort of personal negative hits, and they're just not landing. Everybody's excited — young, old — everybody's excited.”

Excited — and relieved.

“I am excited about having a ticket that wants to be joyful and bring people together. I have had my fill — I'm exhausted by every possible negative comment that Republicans say,” Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) told Raw Story. “They don't know how to be positive. They don't know how to govern, and so they just complain about everything. And so they can do that, but we're putting together a coalition to win the election.”

Relief turns to laughter at some point in the continuum, it seems. Thompson — who chaired the U.S. House’s select Jan. 6 committee under former Speaker Nancy Pelosi — says Republicans messed up by metaphorically tarring and feathering Biden.

“They were not the smartest people in the world, by trying to roll that out, beat him up and then in their mind, they succeeded — but they really lost, because they created a bigger path for Kamala Harris,” Thompson said.

“You think Trump's scared of Kamala Harris?” Raw Story asked.

“I think he’s got a real problem. Anytime he says he looks better than Kamala Harris, he got a problem,” Thompson said. “Washington Post said he lied over 30,000 times. All I can say is, he’s continuing to lie.”

'This is what I’m here for!' Raskin cheered for giving 'banana Republicans' history lesson

Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin slammed his rival party as "banana Republicans" at the Democratic National Convention on Monday, as well as the party's "cult of personality" as it moves forward with MAGA leader Donald Trump.

Raskin began his rousing speech by welcoming Democratic supporters to the "freedom convention" and thanking Chicago for the "beautiful weather."

"It's been a little rough on Capitol Hill, where it's not just the heat — it's the stupidity," he said, to a smattering of laughs and applause.

Raskin drew a direct line between this election and those in the past that took on insurrectionists and fascists. He noted that the convention was being held in the same city where Abraham Lincoln was nominated in 1860 to "save the union from fanatical insurrectionists," and where Franklin D. Roosevelt was re-nominated in 1940 to "defeat fascist dictators."

"Now, we fight in our time to defend our freedom and our democracy against the banana Republicans who have converted Lincoln's party into a dangerous cult of personality," said Raskin.

ALSO READ: ‘Absolutely essential’: Son of Oath Keeper Stewart Rhodes is all in for Kamala Harris

He shared how he'll never forget the screams during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol, nor the pounding on the doors from rioters wielding baseball bats and steel pipes. He slammed former President Donald Trump as a "sore loser" who "doesn't know how to take no for an answer."

" J.D. Vance, do you understand why there was a sudden job opening for running mate on the GOP ticket? They tried to kill your predecessor," he said.

He added: "Someone should have told Donald Trump that the president's job under Article II of the Constitution is to take care that the laws are faithfully executed, not that the vice president is executed."

Raskin earned cheers on social media for his speech on Monday night, including from Elie Mystal, justice correspondent for The Nation.

"OMG Jamie Raskin: 'This sore loser [Trump] who doesn’t know how to take no for an answer from the American voters, American courts, or American women.' Yes. Yes this is what I’m here for!!" he exclaimed on X.

The Angry Staffer account on X posted three cry-laughing emojis at Raskin's jab that, "Someone should have told Donald Trump that his duty under article 2 of the constitution was to make sure that the laws were faithfully executed, NOT to make sure his Vice President was executed."

And former prosecutor Andrew Weissmann called Raskin's "speaking about justice and the rule of law, after recovery only recently from a grave illness," a "poignant moment."

Watch the link below or at this link.