Jamie Raskin

I just want to briefly return to something you mentioned at the start of the meeting.

I feel the obligation to stand in defense of this subcommittee, which I was the first and I guess the only chair up until this point.

I am glad that we are, indeed, going to begin on COVID-19 relief and some abuses that have taken place under that program.

Let us live up to the legacy of this committee. Let us show the American people that we hear them and we are fighting for them.

It is our duty to rise to the occasion and conduct oversight and provide accountability on this crucial subject.

It is undeniable that the civil rights of American people are under threat, and this committee must do something about it.

This is precisely the way to do it. It protects equal access to the right to testify.

I think this committee room and the Halls of Congress need to be filled with the voices of regular Americans.

I rise in support of the gentleman's amendment.

No one should be prevented from performing their duties on behalf of their constituents due to unavoidable and uncontrollable health conditions.

This amendment would simply allow remote participation in committee activities for members when in-person participation would potentially compromise the member's health.

The rules work best when they work symmetrically and fairly for everyone.

The only problem with the statement you just made is that it does create a change in introducing asymmetry into the rules.

I am offering the amendment to strike the provision of rule 7 granting the Chair the unilateral discretion to allow committee members to participate in the hearings of subcommittees on which they are not members.

Much of it--most of it--we are able to go along with, but we definitely have a few issues that we wanted to raise today.

What we need to proceed and succeed in this committee is common sense, to use our five senses and our reason in order to make sure that we are vindicating the public interests that our Constitution exists for.

Our job is to make government and America serve not as an opportunity for greed and self-enrichment, not as a violator of the rights and liberties of the people, but rather as the protector of the rights and liberties of the people.

Mr. Chairman, thank you so much. It means a lot to me.

I would say, in closing, that I was moved by what Mr. Palmer had to say, that democracy is based on consent, and consent is based on access, but there is no access if you don't have transparency. I think about something that James Madison…

Immediate and proper action to notify the National Archives. Confidence that the Attorney General took the appropriate steps.

The vast majority of our witnesses have been Republicans who are in Donald Trump's administration, who were in his White House, who are in his family. And so we feel like we've gotten the unvarnished truth of what's happened.

Obviously, Donald Trump thought from the very beginning that being President meant that he could convert the government into a money-making operation, an instrument for his self-enrichment and enrichment of his friends and his cronies.

The whole principle of the rule of law is that it applies against people who actually have the power.

This is a radically unique event in the history of the United States. This is the first time that a President ever tried to thwart the peaceful transfer of power by helping to orchestrate and organize a violent mob that followed through on…

Generations to come will praise you and the Vice Chair for your unswerving devotion to the rule of law.