Raskin slams Trump attorney comment about Kavanaugh as ‘New York mobsters’ mentality

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) slammed a comment by former President Trump’s lawyer where she insinuated Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh will “step up” when it comes to the the former president’s ballot cases, claiming it shows a “New York mobsters” mentality.

“Well, this is the way that New York mobsters think about judges,” Raskin told MSNBC Friday. “‘Yeah, we own that one. We own that one. Get in that court. That guy’s in our pocket.’ And for fascists and authoritarian parties and movements, the law is really not what you know, but it’s who you know. And it’s always better for them to know the judge than to know the law.”

“But to know the law here is to understand that Donald Trump is disqualified,” he added in the interview highlighted by Mediaite, just hours after the Supreme Court agreed to take up the case.

Colorado’s Supreme Court ruled in December that Trump was disqualified from the state’s primary ballot under the 14th Amendment’s insurrection clause. The court affirmed that the former president violated the clause — which prohibits those that take an oath of office from rebelling against the government — by inflaming his supporters with false claims of election fraud and directing them to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, speaks at a news conference at the Capitol on threats to democracy three years after the January 6th riot, in Washington, Friday, Jan. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Trump’s campaign appealed the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday, setting up what will likely be a fiery battle running parallel to the 2024 election.

“I think it should be a slam dunk in the Supreme Court. I have faith in them,” Trump attorney Alina Habba told Fox News’s Sean Hannity a day before the high court agreed to hear the case. “You know, people like Kavanaugh, who the president fought for, who the President went through how to get into place, he’ll step up.”

Raskin also blasted Republicans that have called the Colorado and subsequent Maine decisions to remove Trump from the ballot “undemocratic.”

“There’s nothing undemocratic about it, which is what I keep hearing from, you know, the far precincts of the right,” he argued Friday.

“It’s no more undemocratic than saying that you’ve gotta be 35 years old to be president, which means that there are a lot of qualified Democrats and Republicans and independents who simply can’t run because they’re not qualified under the Constitution — just like a lot of people born abroad don’t meet the native birth qualification,” he added.

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The Supreme Court is expected to hear oral arguments in the Colorado case on Feb. 8.

Dozens of other states have also challenged Trump’s eligibility under the 14th Amendment though many have been rejected by lower courts.