A video of Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) was unearthed on Monday that appeared to show him threatening civil war if Donald Trump won the election.
Raskin was speaking at a discussion on voter rights hosted by a left-wing professor when he made the controversial comments, which included a pledge to disqualify Trump on January 6th, 2025 based on the Fourteenth Amendment. That idea was first hinted at by Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) back in February, though she later backtracked, claiming that she had left out important context in her original statement.
SEE: Article Reveals Some Dems Mulling Over Not Certifying a Trump Win
Ultimately, the Supreme Court ruled against the State of Colorado’s attempt to use the Fourteenth Amendment to disqualify Trump from the ballot. That decision put the ball into Congress’ court, with the stated process being that only legislation pursuant the Fourteenth Amendment could essentially “convict” (in a political sense) the former president of insurrection.
That is the scenario that Raskin appeared to be referencing. Here’s the video in question.
Even if voters unquestionably elect Donald Trump as President, no matter the margin, and even if the election is universally accepted as free and fair, top Democrats are calling on Congress to block certification of the results, and prep for civil war. pic.twitter.com/U9QL5FZW10
— Lee Zeldin (@leezeldin) August 5, 2024
RASKIN: What can be put into the constitution can slip away from you very quickly, and the greatest example going on right now before our very eyes is Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, which they’re just disappearing with a magic wand as if it doesn’t exist, even though it couldn’t be clearer what it’s stating.
And so, they want to kick it to Congress so it’s going to be up to us on January 6th, 2025, to tell the rampaging Trump mobs that he’s disqualified, and then we need bodyguards for everybody and civil conditions, all because the nine justices, not all of them, these justices who have not many cases to look at every year, not that much work to do, a huge staff, great protection, simply do not want to do their job and interpret what the great Fourteenth Amendment means.
That is one of the most insane things I’ve ever heard a politician say out loud, but the first question is whether it’s real. I found what appears to be the original source, which was a YouTube posting on February 19th, two days after the discussion seen in the video occurred. That higher resolution clip shows that the lip-sync is absolutely perfect, which would typically be one of the tells of a deep fake. What’s said at the end of the clip, thanking someone for their foundation, also suggests this wasn’t faked. That’s not the kind of detail one would think to include if this were scripted and produced with AI. Multiple Republican congressmen, including Chip Roy, have commented on it as well.
Unless shown otherwise, I’m going to work from the assumption that this is real because that’s what all the evidence points to. Given that, what Raskin suggests is objectively insane, and the self-righteousness with which he proclaims it is even more so. He seems completely convinced that he would be the good guy in a scenario where he and other Democrats overturned an election based on their own political whims. He calls Trump supporters “rampaging mobs” despite them representing the side that won the election in his hypothetical.
His suggestion of needing bodyguards because civil war would commence is also incredibly disturbing. That’s not the kind of thing you just throw out there. Did Raskin have no concept of what he was saying? I suspect he did and that his hatred for Trump has led him to such delusion. For all our sakes, I hope what he’s saying is just that.
