In a now-viral video released in February, far-left Maryland congressman and election denier Jamie Raskin said a civil war could break out if former President Donald Trump defeats Vice President Kamala Harris on November 5.
Raskin, who falsely claimed that Trump did not win the 2016 presidential election, made irresponsible and inflammatory comments at a bookstore in Washington, DC.
Raskin warned that if Trump wins, he and other insurgent leftists could use the 14th Amendment to the Constitution to stop him from taking office.
Democrats rejected such a plan in March, but that could change if Trump holds off on another four years of the administration.
threat
Raskin made the threat during a conversation with other Trump-hating leftists at the Politics & Prose bookstore as the U.S. Supreme Court was considering a Colorado Supreme Court decision disqualifying Trump from running for president in that state.
The state court agreed with those who argued that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment bars Trump from running, after he allegedly encouraged protesters to breach the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as Congress was certifying the 2020 presidential election.
Section 3 states:
No person, who, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State Legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, has, after having taken an oath to support the Constitution of the United States, engaged in rebellion or subversive action against the Constitution, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof, shall be eligible to be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or an elector for President and Vice-President, or to hold any civil or military office of the United States, or of any State, except that Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each House, revoke such a person.
Raskin had feared the Supreme Court would rule in Trump's favor, but ultimately ruled that only Congress, not the states, can disqualify candidates under Article III. Raskin complained that the Supreme Court would not bend to the dictates of Trump-hating leftists.
And the biggest example of this happening right now is Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. It couldn't be clearer what it says, and yet they're trying to make it disappear with a magic wand, as if it never existed.
Raskin correctly predicted the Court's decision and warned of its consequences: If states could not block Trump from taking office because he “had engaged in insurrection or rebellion,” Congress could. Thus, Raskin speculated, Congress might disqualify Trump. That would spark a civil war.
“And you know they're trying to force it on Congress,” he continued.
So on January 6th, 2025, it's up to us to tell the raging Trump mob that he's unfit to serve, and then everybody's going to need bodyguards and we're going to have a Civil War kind of situation, because nine justices, not all of them, don't hear that many cases a year, they don't have that much work, they're well staffed, they've got all the protection, and they don't want to go out and do their job and interpret the meaning of the great 14th Amendment.
Despite Raskin's irresponsible comments, Democrats said they would not seek to invalidate Trump's victory under Section 3 of Article 14 after the Supreme Court overturned the Colorado court's decision in March.
“We're not rejecting elections,” Michigan Democratic Sen. Gary Peters told Roll Call. “This is all about the ballot box. This is about democracy, and voters deciding who they want to be their elected officials.”
Similar comments were made by far-left Congressman Ted Lieu of California, who is managing the second impeachment trial of Trump.
“I don't think you should object to the election just because you don't like the results. That's what Republicans do, that's sour grapes,” he told the website.
Raskin himself said disqualifying Trump under Article III was “dealing with a set of assumptions.”
Election denier
Maybe so, but Raskin himself was one of the sour losers in 2016. On January 6, 2017, when Congress met to certify Trump's victory, Raskin challenged the electoral votes of Florida, claiming they were illegal.
“I am challenging 10 of the 29 electoral votes cast by the state of Florida because they were cast by electors who were not lawfully certified in violation of Florida's dual office rules,” Raskin said.
Vice President Joe Biden, who was presiding over the meeting that day, asked Raskin if the objection had been written and signed by a senator, and since it had not been signed by a senator, VP Biden dismissed Raskin's objection.
Raskin joined the ranks of Democratic election deniers, but Biden silenced them all.
In November 2022, Raskin said people must ignore those who deny the election results.
“I accept that we cannot accept the election results as handed down by the civil service and election officials, but if they are challenged in court and the courts reject all allegations of fraud and corruption related to Donald Trump's big lie, then in a democratic society we have to accept that,” he said.
He said those who deny the elections are “outside the constitutional order and the rule of law.”
He did not tell his enthusiastic supporters at the bookstore where a Section 3 14th Amendment challenge to Trump's victory would place Raskin and his ilk.
