Jamie Raskin Hits Trump With Menacing 'Mob' Comparison: 'Whole World Is Friend Or Foe'
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) likened Donald Trump’s view of judges to the mafia on Saturday following the former president’s guilty verdict in his New York hush money trial.
After he was convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, Trump exited the New York courtroom and spoke on the decision.
“This was a disgrace. This was a rigged trial by a conflicted judge who was corrupt as a rigged trial, a disgrace,” he said. “They wouldn’t give us a venue change. We were at 5% or 6% in this district, in this area. This was a rigged, disgraceful trial.”
While speaking with Raskin, MSNBC’s Ali Velshi pointed to Trump’s remarks and brought up former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann’s take on the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, who noted that Trump “cannot imagine that a jury can actually do its job.”
“In Donald Trump’s world, everything is politically black and white,” Velshi said. “This was a Democratic district, and hence these jurors could not have actually been able to be jurors and do their job and adjudicate this case fairly.”
“I mean, this is like an Atlantic City mob understanding of people who go into federal or state courts as judges, that somebody owns them,” Raskin replied.
“I think Trump’s position is either he owns the judge, he controls the judge — he feels that way about [Judge] Aileen Cannon, obviously — or there’s someone who can’t be trusted, they’re a political enemy,” he continued. “The whole world is friend or foe, which, of course, is a fascist way of looking at things.”
Raskin went on to say that people used to believe that there was a rule of law that included judges who would be trusted to interpret and apply the law “to the facts.” However, he feels this has changed because of Trump.
“I’m just afraid that his kind of authoritarian, extremist approach to jurisprudence has begun to infect judges and justices, as well as large parts of the population,” Raskin said.
Raskin: This is like an Atlantic City mob understanding of judges. Trump's position is either that he owns the judge, he feels that way about Aileen Cannon, or there someone who cannot be trusted and they are a political enemy. That is the fascist way of looking at things. pic.twitter.com/9lTFxsqacK
— Acyn (@Acyn) June 2, 2024
