Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD) said Thursday on MSNBC’s “Alex Wagner Tonight” that the Republican Party had “turned into a messianic cult of personality around” former President Donald Trump.
When asked about House Republicans requesting Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg testify, Raskin said, “Let’s start with this, we actually have jurisdictional authority over the Department of Justice and the House Judiciary Committee. But it’s very well-established that even there, with the DOJ, where there is real jurisdictional oversight responsibility, that we cannot intervene in an ongoing case. Then you take it from the federal level to the state and local level, where we have no jurisdictional power over the investigator and prosecutorial authorities, and this is unheard of and outrageous. It’s clearly an attempt to elevate Donald Trump completely above the law, completely above the Constitution. And that’s what’s so scary about this.”
He continued, “That is what is so scary about this. The GOP has turned into a messianic cult of personality around one guy who has proven himself to be a one-man crimewave, and they have all wrapped themselves in their careers, their destinies around Donald Trump.”
Raskin added, “The emperor has no clothes at any level. During the impeachment trial, the rhetoric of all the Republicans was, ‘Well, if there is a real problem, you don’t need to impeach and convict him. Just prosecute him when he leaves office.’ That’s fine. Now all the prosecutors are saying that there are these criminal offenses we want to investigate and they’re saying, ‘How dare you prosecute a former president. Someone that’s put himself forward to run for president again.’ They will devise any argument to try to guarantee the total immunity and impunity of one Donald Trump.”
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