Quick Take
Social media users have spread a quote attributed to Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin, claiming he said “we won’t be certifying the election” if former President Donald Trump wins. Raskin responded, saying the quote is “100% fabricated” and that “America is having a free and fair election and Congress will certify the winner.” The origin of the posts appears to be a misleading account of Raskin’s comments in February.
Full Story
In the days leading up to Election Day, a supposed quote from Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland began spreading on social media, sometimes under the label of “breaking,” as in breaking news. No source was cited for the quote, and Raskin, in a Nov. 5 post on X, said it was “fabricated.”
The bogus quote read: “Let folks cast their votes for Trump if that’s their choice. But mark my words, we won’t be certifying the election. He might win, but we’ll ensure he doesn’t step foot in the Oval Office.”
Raskin, a former constitutional law professor who was the lead impeachment manager for the Trump impeachment related to the events of Jan. 6, 2021, responded: “This fictional ‘quote’ is 100% fabricated. It’s one more lie in the stream of right-wing lies designed to undermine our election. Despite this actionable libel and all the disinformation, America is having a free and fair election and Congress will certify the winner.”
Another version of the circulating quote used nearly the same words, but claimed Raskin had said Trump “may be elected but we are not going to let him be inaugurated.” We traced that quote back to an Oct. 28 podcast episode, in which Mike Benz, who worked in the State Department during the Trump administration, gave his interpretation of something Raskin said in February about a case that was before the Supreme Court at the time. Benz’s paraphrase of Raskin’s remarks is missing some important context.
The podcast showed a clip of Raskin, labeled with the date “Aug. 5, 2024,” but the clip actually comes from a Feb. 17 event at the Washington, D.C., bookstore Politics and Prose. The Supreme Court then was considering Trump’s appeal of a Colorado state Supreme Court ruling that said Trump was disqualified from the presidency based on Section 3, the insurrection clause, of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and shouldn’t appear on the state’s 2024 election ballot. The insurrection clause says that a person can’t hold state or federal office if they had previously held office and sworn an oath to support the Constitution and “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”
The state court ruled that Trump had engaged in insurrection based on his actions around Jan. 6, 2021, when his supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol and attempted to derail the certification of the 2020 electoral votes. At the time of the U.S. Supreme Court case, challenges had been filed in many other states to also remove Trump from the ballot.
At the February bookstore event, Raskin expressed concern about what would happen if the U.S. Supreme Court “decision says that it’s really up to Congress on Jan. 5 or Jan. 6, 2025, to disqualify him at the counting of the Electoral College votes, which really could lead to something akin to Civil War, if that’s, if that’s what the suggestion is, which is what I think I heard when I went to the oral argument.”
The podcast didn’t use that clip, but showed Raskin again addressing the issue later at the same event. He said that “what can be put into the Constitution can slip away from you very quickly” and talked about what the court might do.
Raskin, Feb. 7: And the greatest example going on right now before our very eyes is section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which they’re just disappearing with a magic wand as if it doesn’t exist, even though it could not be clearer what it’s stating. And so you know they want to kick it to Congress so it’s going to be up to us on January 6, 2025, to tell the rampaging Trump mobs that he’s disqualified. And then we need bodyguards for everybody in Civil War conditions. All because the nine justices, not all of them, but these justices who have not many cases to look at every year, not that much work to do, a huge staff, great protection, simply do not want to do their job and interpret what the great 14th Amendment means.
The Supreme Court ruled the next month, on March 4, that Colorado couldn’t remove Trump from the ballot, with a majority saying that the “responsibility for enforcing Section 3 against federal officeholders and candidates rests with Congress and not the States.” The justices said that Congress would have to pass legislation to enforce the insurrection clause. They didn’t say that Congress would decide such issues on Jan. 6 when the electoral votes are certified, as Raskin had feared in his remarks at the bookstore.
On the day of the ruling, Raskin told Axios that he was working on legislation so that Congress could “act.” But Congress didn’t act; Trump was on the ballot and became the Republican presidential nominee.
In the podcast, Benz claimed that “what they’re planning to do, they’re going to make the argument that Donald Trump is disqualified under the 14th Amendment.”
We didn’t find an instance of Raskin saying anything like that recently. We asked his office about the February remarks, but we haven’t received a response.
Raskin told Axios last month that if Trump “won a free, fair and honest election, then we would obviously accept it.” But the news site reported that Raskin said Trump “is doing whatever he can to try to interfere with the process, whether we’re talking about manipulating electoral college counts in Nebraska or manipulating the vote count in Georgia or imposing other kinds of impediments.”
The congressman also said on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher” on Nov. 2: “So when I say we will support a free and fair election, no, we won’t allow them to steal it in the states or steal it in the Department of Justice or steal it with any other election official in the country. If it’s a free and fair election, we will do what we’ve always done, we will honor it.”
In an email sent to us and others, Raskin’s office said that he “has always remained committed to certifying the results of a free and fair election,” pointing to his Nov. 5 statement on the viral claims.
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Sources
Raskin, Jamie (@RepRaskin). “This fictional ‘quote’ is 100% fabricated. It’s one more lie in the stream of right-wing lies designed to undermine our election. Despite this actionable libel and all the disinformation, America is having a free and fair election and Congress will certify the winner.” X. 5 Nov 2024.
@LarryDJonesJr. “BREAKING: Jamie Raskin said, ‘Let folks cast their votes for Trump if that’s their choice. But mark my words, we won’t be certifying the election. He might win, but we’ll ensure he doesn’t step foot in the Oval Office.’” X. 4 Nov 2024.
@realTrumpNewsX. “Jamie Raskin : Let people vote for Trump if they want, we’re not gonna certify the election anyways, so he may be elected but we are not going to let him be inaugurated.” X. 31 Oct 2024.
PBD Podcast. YouTube.com. 28 Oct 2024.
Constitution Annotated. Fourteenth Amendment Equal Protection and Other Rights. Section 3 Disqualification from Holding Office. Constitution.congress.gov. Accessed 6 Nov 2024.
Supreme Court of the State of Colorado. Supreme Court Case No. 23SA300. 19 Dec 2023.
Gamio, Lazaro et. al. “Tracking Efforts to Remove Trump From the 2024 Ballot.” New York Times. updated 4 Mar 2024.
Politics and Prose. “Rick Hasen — A Real Right to Vote – with Representative Jamie Raskin and Sherrilyn Ifill.” YouTube.com. 17 Feb 2024.
Howe, Amy. “Supreme Court rules states cannot remove Trump from ballot for insurrection.” SCOTUSblog. 4 Mar 2024.
Donald J. Trump v. Norma Anderson. No. 23-719. Supreme Court of the United States. 4 Mar 2024.
Solender, Andrew. “Scoop: Top Democrat ‘working on’ bill responding to Trump ballot ruling.” Axios. 4 Mar 2024.
Solender, Andrew. “Scoop: Some top Dems won’t commit to certifying a Trump win.” Axios. 10 Oct 2024.
Raskin, Jamie. HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher.” Grabien.com. 2 Nov 2024.