Lead House impeachment manager Raskin changes his tune, calls failed effort ‘dramatic success’

U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin apparently likes to have it both ways.

Four years ago, the Maryland Democrat objected to recognizing Florida’s Electoral College members after Republican Donald Trump won the state. But when Republicans made a similar move in 2021, it was the end of the Republic for Raskin.

So his reaction to the outcome of the impeachment trial should not be surprising.

On Sunday, Raskin told Chuck Todd of “Meet the Press” that the Senate impeachment vote was a “dramatic success.” That’s primarily because some GOP lawmakers sided with the Democrats.


(Source: NBC News)

“It was the largest impeachment conviction vote in U.S. history,” Raskin noted. “It was by far the most bipartisan decision and a complete repudiation of the president’s conduct,” he added. “We successfully prosecuted him and convicted him in the court of public opinion and the court of history.”

Raskin also maintained that Trump would continue to be a “problem” for the GOP and for American democracy.

But as BizPacReview noted on Saturday, Raskin was near tears over the Senate verdict. He also didn’t see it as a “dramatic success” when GOP lawmakers outmaneuvered Democrats on the issue of witnesses and essentially forced them to back down.

“We could have had 5,000 witnesses and Mitch McConnell would be making the same speech,” an exasperated Raskin declared Saturday. “Because what he’s asserting is that the Senate never has jurisdiction over a former president.”

“The point is that no number of witnesses demonstrating that Donald Trump continued to incite the insurrectionists even after the invasion of the Capitol would convince them. They wouldn’t be convinced.” he added.

He also said that if critics were looking to blame someone, they should start with him because he “made the call” on how to proceed.

As one Twitter user put it, Raskin’s “dramatic success” was “Just like the (Kansas City) Chiefs successfully defended their Super Bowl title.”

But the Democrats’ pursuit of Trump in this fashion has raised the issue of who could be next.

During the impeachment trial, for instance, GOP Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida asked, “Voting to convict the former president would create a new precedent that a former official can be convicted and disqualified by the Senate. Therefore, is it not true that under this new precedent a future House facing partisan pressure to ‘lock her up’ could impeach a former Secretary of State and a future Senate be forced to put her on trial and potentially disqualify her from any future office?”

It was a reference to Hillary Clinton.

But as BizPacReview reported on Saturday, Sen. Lindsey Graham has suggested Vice President Kamala Harris could be subject to impeachment under the Democrats’ rules for Trump.

“If you use this model, I don’t know how Kamala Harris doesn’t get impeached if the Republicans take over the House, because she actually bailed out rioters, and one of the rioters went back to the streets, and broke somebody’s head open,” Graham said.

“So we’ve opened Pandora’s Box here, and I’m sad for the country,” he said.

Graham also offered a vastly different take than Raskin’s viewing on Trump as a liability for the GOP.

We need to unite the party,” he said. “Trump-plus is the way back in 2022….We can’t do that without Donald Trump, so he’s ready to hit the trail, and I’m ready to work with him…the Trump movement is alive and well.”

“All I can say is that the most potent force in the Republican Party is President Trump…the president is a handful, and what happened on January 6 was terrible for the country, but he’s not singularly to blame,” he added. “Democrats have sat on the sidelines and watched the country burn down for a year and a half and not said a damn word, and most Republicans are tired of the hypocrisy.”

DONATE TO BIZPAC REVIEW

Please help us! If you are fed up with letting radical big tech execs, phony fact-checkers, tyrannical liberals and a lying mainstream media have unprecedented power over your news please consider making a donation to BPR to help us fight them. Now is the time. Truth has never been more critical!

Success! Thank you for donating. Please share BPR content to help combat the lies.

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

BPR INSIDER COMMENTS

Scroll down for non-member comments or join our insider conversations by becoming a member. We'd love to have you!

Latest Articles