As readers of this space may have occasionally sensed, I’m not the world’s biggest admirer of the current Oval Office occupant. But I’m certainly one of his moderate, restrained critics, at least compared to second-term U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin.
Without using any dirty words and without screaming like Alex Jones does, and without, so far as I can tell, lying, Raskin, D-Maryland, nonetheless tore Trump a new orifice in his hindquarters earlier this week, treating his House colleagues to an overview of some of his objections to said incumbent’s sayings and doings as a candidate and as a president. It was impolite, but you are invited to decide for yourself whether it was inaccurate or unfair in any important details.
In case you never heard of him, Raskin was a law professor who taught constitutional law before winning in 2016 his current seat in the U.S. House. In running, he stated: “My ambition is not to be in the political center, it is to be in the moral center.”
According to his Wikipedia page, Raskin’s first action (House members take office a few weeks before the president is inaugurated) was objecting to necessary congressional certification of Trump’s election because of Russian interference in the election and alleged voter suppression efforts. That was ruled out of order (by Joe Biden, no less, who was presiding as the outgoing vice president).
In June 2017, Raskin was the chief sponsor of legislation to establish a congressional “oversight” commission with the authority to declare a President “incapacitated” and removed from office under the 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution. Raskin co-chairs the Congressional Freethought Caucus, which he helped found and which advocates “public policy formed on the basis of reason, science, and moral values.”
The link below, will get you a tweet from the lefty site “Now This News” in which is embedded footage of Raskin summarizing for three minutes-plus some of his objections to Trump’s conduct, in the category of things you don’t do. Here’s the link. But please come back here if you want to comment.
Nice euphemism!
Haven’t followed the Raskin link.
I’m sure it’s more inventive than Trump’s bleats, but that’s not hard — Trump is basically a second grade (and rate) name caller.
What he wants is attention, and Raskin is giving him that, so he’s playing Trump’s game.
Eric: I haven’t gotten to follow the Raskin link yet, but I intend to do so some time this weekend. I was just reading some readers’ comments on the interview with James Comey at the CNN Town Hall with Anderson Cooper. I missed that too, and I had planned to watch it. I’ll have to catch it on YouTube if I can. But what gets me is that most of the readers were against James Comey and FOR President Trump! I mean, no one could have any doubt how many lies President Trump has told so far – is it over 10,000 yet? He contradicts himself constantly – is NO ONE listening?!? Do people only hear what they want to hear? This concerns me greatly with the presidential election of 2020 looming ever near. Can this country survive another four (4) years of Trump? We need some stability and dignity in the office of our Commander-in-Chief. I, for one, do not see where we have that at the moment, and it frightens me.
Eric:
Well, I just listened to Rep. Jamie Raskin and I must say that I now have a new hero to admire for his honesty and courage. Yes, I agree with ALL that Rep. Jamie Raskin had to say. What more can I add to what was spoken? The man speaks the truth, which is more than can be said about the present occupant of the oval office and all of the minions he has working for him.
Courage?
It requires courage to criticize President Trump? Have you been off the grid the past three years? The left’s epic preoccupation with criticism of this President is unprecedented. No courage required.
Except for Trump’s extra-constitutional practice of using the powers of the executive branch to attack his critics.
Don’t you think it smacks of hypocrisy for Republicans to clutch their pearls about the “unprecedented” criticism of President Trump after their eight-year frolic against President Obama? Or their “preoccupation” with the Clinton presidency?
No pearl clutching here. I merely find it laughable that Eric wrote a column in 2019 about a Democrat that doesn’t like Trump. News flash!
I find the misuse of the term “unprecedented” to be laughable, but that’s just me.
Let’s not pretend that the media’s coverage of President Trump hasn’t been overwhelmingly negative (92%) and highly selective. Not the case for President Obama.
https://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/media-trump-hatred-coverage/
An editorial in Investor’s Business Daily that cites a study by the Media Research Center (a group whose stated mission is to ‘”expose and neutralize the propaganda arm of the Left: the national news media.”) is perhaps the least persuasive thing you could cite for this argument.
Okay, a Tweet from Trump or a Sarah Huckabee Sanders presser would probably be less persuasive.
Off topic.
Pretty astonishing.
It would read like the preamble to articles for impeachment.
I haven’t followed the Raskin link either. However, I am fairly certain I know the criticisms it contains. I could probably write the diatribe based on all the news reports of the past two years.