Democrats Might Take Back the House. Then What?

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David Remnick (1:08)

Welcome to The New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick.

A complaint that you often hear about Democrats, even from their own supporters, is that they're not tough enough. They're not fighters. And if that criticism has any merit, Maryland Congressman Jamie Raskin is an exception, and one that proves the rule. He's been combative and relentless in his role as ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee. He was the lead manager in the second impeachment of Donald Trump after the January 6th insurrection. And that resulted in the most bipartisan vote on impeachment in American history. Over the last two years, Raskin and his fellow Democrats have watched with real horror. As most of the efforts to secure accountability for conduct during the first Trump administration have been wiped away. Prosecutor Jack Smith's myriad investigations into Trump were shut down. And all of the January 6th insurrectionists, including the most violent ones, have been pardoned. And now the new Attorney General is breaking with decades of precedent by claiming that he sees no need at all for independence from the White House. That could all change, of course, if Democrats win back Congressional control in the midterms. And with a Democratic victory would surely come new investigations and even possibly hearings into Donald Trump. Jamie Raskin will be there, front and center.

How high is your level of confidence that this will be a fair ballot, and there will be an accurate count, and that the President of the United States, Joe has a habit of contesting every election, particularly the ones he's lost. Contesting is a mild word for it.

What's your level of confidence that we won't be hearing from him on that score after the election?

Jamie Raskin (3:02)

Well, let's start with that one. It's very clear that Donald Trump knows only two kinds of elections, the ones that he wins and the ones that are stolen from him.

So he thinks in terms of fraud, everything is a quid pro quo transaction for him.

That's a given and the country is conditioned and ready for that. But in terms of your other questions, it's interesting because let's start with the question of whether or not it's a fair ballot, as you say. So much of the Machiavellian manipulation of elections takes place long before election day. For example, take North Carolina, where I've been several times over the course of the campaign.

The Democrats have won the governorship. The Democrats have won the Attorney General position. The Democrats are about to win in a very resounding way, the US Senate position with Roy Cooper. So when you look at what's happening statewide, the Democrats are just dominant. But then when you look at the US House delegation, North Carolina's congressional delegation, that's 10 Republicans and four Democrats. And now you should note that's kind of strange, right? The Democrats are clearly a majority in the state, and yet the Republicans dominate in terms of the congressional delegation. Why is that? Well, it's very simple. It's because the Republicans have been gerrymandering themselves into power in the state legislature for decades. And by doing that, they are then able to gerrymander the US. House delegation as well. So when you say, well, it will be a fair ballot, no, it's definitely not a fair ballot. The Republicans swear by gerrymandering. We've, the Democrats have tried in the Democracy for All Act, in the For the People Act, the Fair Redistricting Act. We've tried multiple times to mandate independent, non-partisan redistricting commissions in every state in the Union. Every Democrat has voted for it and every Republican opposes it. And then Trump created this mid-decade gerrymander, the extreme gerrymander in Texas in order to squeeze out five more districts. It might backfire on him. Nonetheless, it certainly worked in some other states where he's doing it and they're gonna make it work more in 2028 So if you just start with the gerrymandering and you don't even get to the other forms of voter suppression that are taking place, no, it has not been fair balloting. Nonetheless, we accept the rules as they are and we are fighting to win within those rules.