Raskin brings charges against Trump and his MAGA allies

During his first campaign for public office in 2006, when he defeated a 32-year-old senator in the Democratic primary, U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-8th) referred to his numerous young volunteers as “the Democracy Corps.”

Over the years, this loose coalition of youth energy evolved into Democracy Summer, a comprehensive program sponsored by Raskin and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee that sends young people across the country to campaign for progressive candidates and causes.

But “Summer of Democracy” could also describe part of the campaign that Democrats are waging against former President Donald Trump and his political allies.

And Raskin was right in the middle of it.

He has already traveled to two dozen states this election cycle, campaigning for and sometimes against various candidates. He was frantically traveling around Chicago this week during the Democratic National Convention, speaking to various groups. And on Monday night, he was the first of three high-profile Maryland politicians to speak in prime time at the convention (the others were Gov. Wes Moore and Angela Alsobrooks, the Prince George's County executive).

At the same time, he has repeatedly made humorous remarks to his political opponents that also reveal the severity of the challenges facing the United States.

Raskin's speech to the House drew on his experience as a constitutional lawyer – and his role as the head of Trump's second impeachment trial and as a key member of the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Much of his speech focused on that terrible day – although he began it with the words “Hello, America! Welcome to the Democracy Convention!”

He subsequently brought charges against Trump and his vice presidential candidate, Republican U.S. Senator JD Vance (Ohio).

“Make no mistake, a man who uses fraud, theft and violence to gain power will commit any crime to keep it,” Raskin told delegates. “We will defeat Donald Trump, the career criminal and incorrigible, recidivist con man, and his chameleon pet, JD Vance.”

But the convention speech was only part of Raskin's agenda this week.

According to a schedule provided by the congressman's campaign office, Raskin has spoken to eight state delegations, including Maryland — nearly as many as Moore. He spoke at a meeting of the Democratic National Committee's Interfaith Council and a meeting of the DNC's Climate Crisis Council. And he hosted one of the Maryland delegation's late-night after-parties at Harry Caray's Tavern on Chicago's Navy Pier — a celebration that was just what Raskin wanted.

There he hosted a reunion of some members of the indie band The Dispatch, which delighted some members of the Maryland congressional delegation.

“My favorite band,” said party chairman Ken Ulman.

“The soundtrack of my college years,” said Democratic Frederick County Executive Jessica Fitzwater.

There, the band played some songs from the rock opera “1972,” written by Dispatch leader Chad Stokes. The opera is about a young woman who tries to get an illegal abortion and features some of the characters she meets along the way.

Raskin advised the fawning politicians to go outside if they didn't want to listen to the music. But first he introduced the crowd to Harry Dunn, the former U.S. Capitol Police officer whom Raskin credited with saving his life, and Michael Cohen, Trump's former lawyer and mediator, whom Raskin called a “born-again patriot.”

“Everyone has their own sugar daddy”

By midday Thursday, a large room in a makeshift building in downtown Chicago known as Democracy House resembled an MSNBC junkie's dream. Gathered there to discuss the prospects for Supreme Court reform were Melissa Murray, a law professor at New York University and MSNBC commentator; Elie Mystal, a justice reporter for The Nation magazine who can evoke outrage the way most people breathe; Michael Waldman, director of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School, who has written a book about the court; Adrianne Shropshire, head of Black PAC, an organization that mobilizes black voters; U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), a ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee; and Raskin.

For the congressman, focusing on the Supreme Court is part of his crusade to save democracy.

“There is a huge ethics crisis on the court,” Raskin told the crowd.

When Murray described the court as “an emotional support group for millionaires,” Raskin chimed in: “Everyone [on the court] has his own sugar daddy … The highest court in the land has the lowest ethical standards. Anyone in Congress would be in jail” if they accepted favors from wealthy patrons, as Raskin says some justices do.

Whitehouse suggested that something sinister had been afoot at the Supreme Court for years, but only came into focus after the justices voted to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022.

“You can't use the term conservative to describe this court,” he said. “That's the wrong term. You have to use the term covert operation. Or regulatory interference.”

Mystal called Leonard Leo, who as chairman of the Federalist Society promoted conservatives for federal judgeships, “a groomer.”

“People like [Justices] Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett were not born, they were created in the laboratory of Leonard Leo,” he said.

Shropshire said black voters have become increasingly concerned about the direction of the Supreme Court since the justices began to curtail voting rights laws. When black voters are asked by pollsters what they fear most, the Supreme Court comes in second, just after Trump's re-election.

“I think we all have to stop loving the Supreme Court of the United States,” Raskin said. “But that doesn't mean we stop loving the Constitution or the Bill of Rights.”

Raskin expressed regret that he wanted to talk more about the Supreme Court during his address to the convention, but joked that convention organizers asked him to cut his 5,000-word speech by 4,550 words. Still, he said, he was proud to be able to use the term “kangaroo Supreme Court of the United States” at the convention.

“I would just like to point out that [conversation] is unusually sharp,” Murray once said.

“Mustard that agrees with your constitution”

Also spicy are the jars of mustard that Raskin distributed during the convention week: “Jamie's Strong and Sweet Democracy Mustard,” whose label reads “Mustard That Aligns With Your Constitution.”

The mustard was made by Raskin's cousins, who run the National Mustard Museum in Middleton, Wisconsin.

Things got going particularly quickly when Raskin spoke to the convention delegation in Maryland on Thursday morning, hurling insults at Trump and the Republicans to the delight of his audience. He noted Vance's transformation from Trump's opponent in 2016 to Trump's running mate in 2024 and said, “Everyone is waiting for the big debate between our great candidate Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. I'm waiting for the debate between JD Vance and JD Vance.”

Raskin also said that in response to Republicans who insist on referring to Democrats as “the Democratic Party,” he has resorted to calling Republicans “banana Republicans.” When he told his wife that he had “finally gotten his revenge on them,” she remarked, “That was an extremely immature response.”

But he's still using the slogan, and the weary aren't resting: This weekend, Raskin's show will go on tour again, traveling to Saranac Lake, New York, in the Adirondack Mountains – not exactly a hotbed of progressive politics – where he will raise money for his own campaign and for “Democracy Summer.”

Maryland Matters is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) nonprofit organization. Maryland Matters maintains its editorial independence. If you have questions, contact Editor Steve Crane at [email protected]. Follow Maryland Matters on Facebook and X.

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