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At the Subcommittee on Immigration, Integrity, Security, and Enforcement
hearing, House Judiciary Committee ranking member Rep. Jamie Raskin went straight after the chair of the subcommittee, who claimed that immigration enforcement was about the rule of law.
Raskin said:
The Chairman began by saying the point here is to restore the rule of law, restore the rule of law. Can you even pretend to do that, if you stand by and support Donald Trump, who on day one, as the Chairman of the Committee just said, day one of his presidency, pardoned 1,500 insurrectionists, including hundreds of people who violently assaulted and attacked American police officers.
Let’s just take one person who is free today, Julian Khater, who had been convicted after having every due process protection, the right to counsel, the right to cross-examine witnesses, the right to introduce evidence, but they had him completely. They knew exactly what happened. Most of this was videotaped, so the whole world could see it. Well, Julian Khater repeatedly violently assaulted our officer protecting us in Congress, Officer Brian Sicknick, who then proceeded to have several strokes and died on January 7th, 2021, the next day.
The family of Officer Sicknick is absolutely devastated and demolished by what’s just happened. I invite any of my colleagues, including the new Members to this Committee who maybe weren’t here on January 6th and didn’t experience the trauma of that violent insurrection, when we saw a mob marauding through here, yelling, “Hang Mike Pence, Hang Mike Pence,” and looking to assassinate Nancy Pelosi. And now, you have the temerity to come forward and say, this is about public safety? How much safer are we now with these 1,500 criminals at large in Washington, DC and going out into the country? Are you vouching that these are not, these people are not going to be attacking any other police officers? Are you vouching that they’re no longer a threat to public safety? What an outrage. What a scandal.
Well, the hearing’s been called not on trying to deal with the public safety crisis created by the president on day one of his presidency, but on immigration.
Video of Raskin:
What Republicans really mean by the rule of law is that the law only applies to people like immigrants and not to violent extremists who tried to help them overthrow the government or to the leader of their party.
It is laughable that any Republican could look the American people in the eye and talk about the rule of law after Trump released thousands of convicted criminals back into communities across the country.
Democrats made a wise choice when they elevated Jamie Raskin to the top Democratic position on the Judiciary Committee.
Raskin is one of the leaders of the pushback against Trump and a credible voice against GOP hypocrisy.
What is your opinion of Raskin’s statement? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
