Jamie Raskin

Mr. RASKIN

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 45 seconds to the gentleman from California (Mr. Bera).

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 45 seconds to the gentleman from California (Mr. Gomez).

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire how much time both sides have remaining?

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentlewoman from California (Ms. Waters).

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Garcia).

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California (Mr. Swalwell).

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 10 seconds to the gentleman.

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Johnson).

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I am honored to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Katko).

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 45 seconds to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Soto).

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Krishnamoorthi).

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Clyburn).

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself an additional 30 seconds. Mr. Speaker, this resolution is simply asking Vice President Pence to exercise his powers under the 25th Amendment of the Constitution, section 4, to convene the Cabinet and to mobilize the Cabinet to state and articulate what is obvious to the American people--this President is not meeting the duties of office and is clearly not capable of it-- and to transfer the powers to the Vice President under the 25th Amendment. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I heard one of our colleagues say it was the fault of the mob, not Donald Trump. But who summoned the mob? Who created the mob? Who assembled it? You don't have to trust us if you don't like what you call ``Democrat Members.'' We do prefer Democratic Members for the new ones, but how about this? Listen to the chair of your own conference. The chair of the Republican Conference, Liz Cheney, said, ``The President of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack. Everything that followed was his doing. None of this would have happened without the President.'' So you can hate the Democrat Members all you want. That is the chair of the Republican Conference. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Carolyn B. Maloney).

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire how much time is remaining on both sides?

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentleman from California (Mr. Schiff).

Mr. RASKIN

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 45 seconds to Mr. Espaillat from New York.

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 45 seconds to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Danny K. Davis).

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 45 seconds to the distinguished gentleman from California (Mr. Thompson).

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. David Scott), who is the distinguished chairman of the Agriculture Committee.

Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. RASKIN

Mr. RASKIN. Madam Speaker, I claim the time in opposition to the objection.

Mr. RASKIN. Madam Speaker, I thank you first and all my dear beloved colleagues for your love and tenderness, which my family and I will never forget. Abraham Lincoln, whose name is a comfort to us all, said: ``We have got the best government the world ever knew.'' It is best because the first three words of the Constitution tell us who governs here: We the People. Watch this proceeding today and tell the world with pride, as Lincoln did, about the brilliant meaning and promise of our country. Our Government belongs to the people. As President Ford said: Here the people rule. Today we are in the people's House to complete the people's process for choosing the people's President. We assemble into joint session for a solemn purpose that we have all sworn a sacred oath to faithfully discharge. The 12th Amendment obligates each and every one of us to count the electoral votes to recognize the will of the people in the 2020 Presidential election. We are not here, Madam Speaker, to vote for the candidate we want. We are here to recognize the candidate the people actually voted for in the States. Madam Speaker, the 2020 election is over and the people have spoken. Joe Biden received more than 80 million votes. Seven million more than President Trump. A number larger than any other President has received in U.S. history. The sweeping popular victory translated into an electoral college victory of 306-232, a margin which President Trump pronounced a landslide when he won by those exact same numbers in 2016. So now we count the electoral votes that were just delivered to us in the beautiful mahogany cases brought by those hardworking Senate pages. These mahogany cases contain only the 538 electoral votes that were sent in by the States, not the 159 million ballots that were cast by our constituents. Those were counted 2 months ago by hundreds of thousands of election officials and poll workers across America who risked their health and even their lives in the time of COVID to deliver what our Department of Homeland Security called the most secure election in American history. Many of these officials have endured threats of retribution, violence, and even death just for doing their jobs. Just as the popular vote was for Biden, so was the electoral vote. On December 15, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell recognized it. ``The electoral college has spoken,'' the Senator said from the Senate floor. ``Today I want to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden.'' Yet, we have seen escalating attacks on our election with unfounded claims of fraud and corruption. More than 60 lawsuits have been brought to date seeking to overturn the results. They have failed repeatedly and they have failed spectacularly. Every objection we hear today maligning our States and their officials--both Republican and Democrat--has been litigated, adjudicated, and obliterated in both Federal and State Courts. The President has not just had his day in court, Madam Speaker, he has had more than 2 months in court looking for a judge to embrace these arguments. In more than 50 cases, Madam Speaker, at least 88 different judges, including many appointed by the President himself, have meticulously rejected the President's claims of fraud and corruption. Take Georgia U.S. District Court Judge Steven Grimberg, who was named to the bench by President Trump last year. He rejected President Trump's prayer to block certification of Biden's victory in Georgia, saying it ``has no basis in fact or law.'' Take U.S. District Judge Brett Ludwig, another Trump nominee who took the bench in September. He dismissed a lawsuit seeking to overturn the results in Wisconsin, calling it ``extraordinary.'' He said: ``A sitting President who did not prevail in his bid for reelection has asked for Federal Court help in setting aside the popular vote based on . . . issues he plainly could have raised before the vote occurred. ``This court allowed the plaintiff the chance to make his case, and he has lost on the merits.'' Trump has asked for the rule of law to be followed, Judge Ludwig observed, and he said definitively: It has been. I have been a constitutional law professor for 30 years, and if I were to test my students on these decisions, it would be the easiest test in the world because the plaintiffs have lost nearly every case and every issue in the most sweeping terms. That is all they would have to remember. There is no basis in fact or law to justify the unprecedented relief that is being requested of nullifying these elections. We are here to count the votes. Let us do our job.

Mr. RASKIN. Madam Speaker, the baseless attack on Pennsylvania and its electors brought to mind, for me, the great Tom Paine, the champion of popular democracy, who came over to America to fight with us in the Revolution against the king. He lived in Philadelphia, where he wrote ``Common Sense'' and ``The Age of Reason.'' And Paine said: In the monarchies, the king is the law; but in the democracies, the law will be king. When you think about it, the peaceful transfer of power is the central condition of maintaining democracy under the rule of law. That is why the famous election of 1801 was such a big deal. When John Adams relinquished the Presidency to his passionate adversary and lifelong friend Thomas Jefferson, it was the first peaceful transition of power between democracies in a democratic republic in the history of the world. And he said, as he rode back to Massachusetts from Washington, Adams said that he did this because we are a government of laws and not of men. We will betray this principle if we trade a government of laws for a government of men or, even worse, a single man, or an impressionable and dangerous mob intent on violent sedition and insurrection against our beloved democratic Republic. Here is Abraham Lincoln right before the war. At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected? I would answer, if it ever reaches us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must, ourselves, be its author and its finisher. Madam Speaker, my family suffered an unspeakable trauma on New Year's Eve a week ago. But mine was not the only family to suffer such terrible pain in 2020. Hundreds of thousands of families in America are still mourning their family members. Many families represented in the Congress are still mourning their family members who have been taken away from us by COVID-19, by the opioid crisis, by cancer, by gun violence, by the rising fatalities associated with the crisis in mental and emotional health. Enough, my beloved colleagues. It is time for America to heal. It is time for our families and communities to come together. Let us stop pouring salt in the wounds of America for no reason at all. Let us start healing our beloved land and our wonderful people.