The video features Representative Raskin's impassioned critique focusing on recent events related to American justice and the handling of the January 6th Capitol riot aftermath. He highlights controversial decisions, such as pardons granted to rioters by former President Trump, payout settlements to the family of a rioter, and the lack of attention or compensation to injured officers and their families. Raskin also points to a reversal of priorities where those who assaulted the Capitol are treated as heroes while those who protected democratic institutions, or performed oversight duties, face legal and political retribution.

Raskin challenges the politicization of justice and public safety, especially criticizing the prosecution of a Congressional member for performing oversight at an ICE facility, and the lack of accountability for those responsible for undermining justice and law enforcement. He underscores inconsistencies in the application of justice, the partisan nature of decision-making within the Department of Justice, and the apparent disregard for congressional protections and the welfare of public servants.

Main takeaways from the video:

Please remember to turn on the CC button to view the subtitles.

Key Vocabularies and Common Phrases:

1. exacerbate [ɪɡˈzæsərbeɪt] - (verb) - To make a bad situation or feeling worse. - Synonyms: (aggravate, worsen, intensify)

The decision to give millions of dollars to the Babbitt family and nothing to to the families of the police officers who defended this Capitol, who defended us, exacerbates the insult of Speaker Johnson's continuing refusal...

2. clemency [ˈklɛmənsi] - (noun) - Mercy or leniency granted to an offender by a chief executive, such as a president or governor. - Synonyms: (mercy, leniency, pardon)

...when President Trump granted him clemency as part of the mass pardon of 1600 insurrectionists and rioters for the thousands of crimes committed on that day.

3. seditious [sɪˈdɪʃəs] - (adjective) - Inciting or causing people to rebel against the authority of a state or monarch. - Synonyms: (rebellious, insurgent, subversive)

...assaulting the police or engaging in seditious conspiracy or destroying federal property.

4. partisan [ˈpɑːrtɪzən] - (adjective) - Strongly supporting a particular party, cause, or ideology, often in an unfair or biased way. - Synonyms: (biased, one-sided, factional)

...a blatantly partisan prosecutor who has bragged about working to turn New Jersey red.

5. craven [ˈkreɪvən] - (adjective) - Lacking courage; cowardly. - Synonyms: (cowardly, timid, faint-hearted)

The Speaker's stubborn refusal to respect the law is craven's submission to the executive branch, to Donald Trump...

6. manifest [ˈmænɪˌfɛst] - adjective (also verb) - Clear or obvious to the eye or mind; to show or demonstrate. - Synonyms: (obvious, evident, clear, demonstrate)

This indictment is a manifest fraud clearly designed to distract America this week...

7. debacle [deɪˈbɑːkəl] - (noun) - A sudden and ignominious failure; a fiasco. - Synonyms: (fiasco, disaster, catastrophe)

...he said it was a debacle worse than 9 11.

8. pander [ˈpændər] - (verb) - To gratify or indulge an immoral or distasteful desire or a person with such a desire. - Synonyms: (cater to, indulge, gratify)

So Donald Trump can continue to pander to his private militia of pardoned rioters and insurrectionists...

9. militia [mɪˈlɪʃə] - (noun) - A military force that is raised from the civil population to supplement a regular army in an emergency. - Synonyms: (paramilitary, irregular forces, citizen soldiers)

...continue to pander to his private militia of pardoned rioters and insurrectionists...

10. overdue [ˌoʊvərˈduː] - (adjective) - Not having arrived, happened, or been done by the expected time. - Synonyms: (late, delayed, behind schedule)

A plaque mandated by law and now more than two years overdue on the west front of the Capitol.

WATCH - Jamie Raskin Fires Back At GOP Lawmakers Decrying LaMonica McIver By Playing Jan. 6 Video

Committee, Mr. Raskin for his opening statement. Thank you kindly, Chairman Van Drew. And for your opening statement. This week's events show how MAGA has turned American justice completely upside down and inside out. Over the last week, we've been talking about a single rogue Doge employee who unilaterally canceled more than $500 million in Department of Justice grants to local law enforcement and victims rights organizations and those assisting the victims of rape and sexual assault across the country. That's what right wing policies do. I would say to my friend, the chair of the full committee, we tried to restore that money. Nobody seemed to know how any of this happened, but our colleagues didn't utter a word against our amendment and, and yet they all voted against it.

What else happened? Well, a 33 year old January 6th rioter who assaulted our police officers at the Capitol and he smashed the glass pane through which Ashley Babbitt climbed before she was fatally shot by a Capitol officer was arrested again yesterday. This time they got him for burglarizing neighbors homes. This was a guy who was pardoned by President Trump, now robbing houses in Virginia. This Zachary Alam was serving an eight year sentence after a jury convicted him of seven criminal felonies and three misdemeanors when President Trump granted him clemency as part of the mass pardon of 1600 insurrectionists and rioters for the thousands of crimes committed on that day. At sentencing, U.S. district Court Judge Friedrich described the testimony of police who recalled Alam as, quote, by far the loudest, most combative and most violent of the January 6 rioters who attacked the police in the part of the Capitol that these officers were defending.

And yesterday, the Trump Department of Justice agreed to pay nearly $5 million to the family of Ashley Babbitt, the rioter who tried to storm the House speaker's lobby on January 6th after she broke into the Capitol and after the aforementioned Mr. Alam broke that window. The Department of Justice originally took the position that her wrongful death lawsuit brought by her family was wholly without merit, no basis. And that Babbitt's civil rights had never been violated by the police and that the police officer acted reasonably in defense of members of Congress and in defense of Vice President Pence. A Capitol Police investigation cleared the officer involved, saying his actions at the height of the riot, quote, potentially saved members and staff from serious injury and possible death from a large crowd of rioters who had forced their way into the Capitol, into the House chamber where members and staff were steps away. In 2023, then House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said I think the police officer did his job.

Now, although Trump's new Attorney General is set to give $5 million to the rioters family, Trump has not proposed to give a penny to the more than 140 police officers injured, wounded, hospitalized, disfigured and or disabled in their violence and and nothing to their families. He's proposed no money payments to the bereaved family of Officer Brian Sicknick, an army veteran with two tours abroad who died at age 42 here on January 7, 2021, the very next day after being brutalized by rioters. The decision to give millions of dollars to the Babbitt family and nothing to to the families of the police officers who defended this Capitol, who defended us, exacerbates the insult of Speaker Johnson's continuing refusal to hang a simple plaque in honor of the officers who defended the Capitol and the Congress and the Vice President. A plaque mandated by law and now more than two years overdue on the west front of the Capitol.

The the Speaker's stubborn refusal to respect the law is craven's submission to the executive branch, to Donald Trump, who wants to pretend that the rampaging mob that he sent to Congress was made up of patriotic heroes and that the people he pardoned were, quote, hostages and, quote, political prisoners. A hostage is someone who's been illegally abducted by a terrorist group like Hamas and held for a financial or political ransom. A political prisoner is someone like Alexei Navalny or Nelson Mandela, who's been imprisoned for ideological reasons, not for violently assaulting the police or engaging in seditious conspiracy or destroying federal property.

But the administration's effort to create big news yesterday was Trump's acting U.S. attorney, New Jersey, a blatantly partisan prosecutor who has bragged about working to turn New Jersey red. Well, she announced her intention to indict our colleague, Congresswoman Lamonica McIver, on charges of assaulting, resisting and obstructing law enforcement based on the now famous May 9 incident outside of Delaney hall, an ICE detention facility in McIver's district where she was conducting a scheduled oversight visit with other members of Congress, including our 80 year old colleague Bonnie Watson Coleman and the Mayor of Newark. Well, Delaney hall is operated by the private prison company geo, a major Republican donor that gave a million dollars to Make America Great Again, Inc. And has faced numerous lawsuits for its treatment of detainees and unsafe conditions.

The members had a lawful right to be there and to investigate. And even after ICE initiated a scuffle to arrest the mayor of Newark on public property, the House members were let in to tour the facility to conduct nonviolent oversight. And the tour went smoothly. This indictment is a manifest fraud clearly designed to distract America this week from the administration's savage and unpopular effort to strip 14 million Americans of their Medicaid and health coverage and 11 million Americans of of Head Start, Meals on Wheels, and other nutritional assistance programs. Like SNAP, Representative McIver was of course, executing one of the core duties of a member of Congress, oversight pursuant to her precise statutory right to enter and visit an ICE facility. The Supreme Court has repeatedly held that oversight is a central element of the legislative process because if we can't research the facts on the ground, we we don't know what laws to pass this.

For the Department of justice to charge McIver with assault is an outrage against the Constitution, which protects members of Congress from civil and criminal prosecution for performance of their core legislative duties. It is also a scandal in light of the DOJ's constant backing of cop beating insurrectionists, including with the shocking policy that that these pardons can even apply to criminal charges wholly unrelated to the events of January 6, as well as the DOJ's jaw dropping decision to fire more than a dozen senior criminal prosecutors simply because they had worked on the January 6th case. Yet now we've got colleagues who celebrate January 6th insurrectionists actually calling for prosecution of members of the House for for doing their jobs. Representative Buddy Carter called our colleagues rioters. Representative Bishop actually said this was an insurrection. I didn't know that was in his vocabulary, but this was an insurrection and he said it was a debacle worse than 9 11.

No police officers or ICE agents were injured at Delaney Hall. No one died. No one had a heart attack like Officer Fanon did. There were no strokes. There were no broken jaws, no broken necks. Nobody was forced out of police work like Sergeant Gunnell was. Yet we've got members of Congress who would gladly jettison the speech and debate clause which protects all of us in our work, the First Amendment, and the Article 1 powers of Congress to score a few cheap political points at the expense of their own colleagues. In Trump world, violent insurrectionists and cop beating extremists are heroes. The they're martyrs. They're patriots. Members of Congress performing oversight functions are criminals and insurrectionists. And veteran criminal prosecutors of January 6th felons are fired. So Donald Trump can continue to pander to his private militia of pardoned rioters and insurrectionists and a reserve army of extremists who've proven themselves willing to stand back and stand by.

Let me show you what a real assault on police officers. Looks like if you roll the T. Sam. Mr. Chairman, if this is an oversight hearing on ICE, and ICE believes a real assault took place in New Jersey. Where are they? Why are they not present today? The star of the show is absent. And that, my friends, is no oversight. I yield back.

POLITICS, LEADERSHIP, JUSTICE, OVERSIGHT, CAPITOL RIOT, PARTISANSHIP, FORBES BREAKING NEWS