Transcript
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Congressman Jamie Raskin of Maryland is among the Democrats who asked President Biden to reconsider his determination to stay in the race in a heartfelt three-page letter earlier this month obtained by this and other news organizations. I spoke with him a short time ago to ask him for his views on this moment.
Congressman Raskin, thank you so much for joining us.
JAMIE RASKIN: Well, I'm delighted to be with you, Michel.
MARTIN: You sent President Biden, you know, a lengthy letter, kind of personal, earlier in July, suggesting that - you know, you said, look, it's your decision, whether you stay in or don't stay in, but you said that you were writing to him to remind him of who he is. And I just wonder whether you think that your letter made a difference in his decision to withdraw.
RASKIN: Now, I don't know about that. I mean, look, what I was saying was that he is a truly great and magnificent leader. And one of the things great leaders do is they make space for other great leaders, and he has always invested in other people, and he knew that it was necessary. So I can't say enough about Joe Biden. He is a remarkable, amazing president. He's a remarkable public servant, and he's a great patriot. And he has just done us the most remarkable service.
MARTIN: So in that letter that you wrote to Mr. Biden, you said that, you know, he was the person who called us to revive the essential project of the American founders. Do you think that Kamala Harris is the best person to carry that vision forward?
RASKIN: Absolutely. Time and circumstance and destiny have brought her to us. And Joe Biden, who is our best political strategist with the greatest and most comprehensive insight, clearly believes in her, and I do, too. I went to see her speak in Provincetown, Mass., two days ago - I was with her. And she just gave a spellbinding speech. She is going to release her inner prosecutor, and she's going to prosecute the case against Donald Trump and his now-willing accomplice, the right-wing shillbilly J.D. Vance.
MARTIN: So the fund raising in that 24 hour period was certainly impressive, but are you at all concerned that voters might see Harris as being forced upon them instead of the party having some kind of open primary ahead of the convention.
RASKIN: Well, you know, the whole language of open primary, open convention is a misnomer. I mean, of course, it's open because all of us who are delegates can vote for whomever we please. So it is by definition open. What Joe Biden did was to endorse Kamala Harris. What I did yesterday was I endorsed her, but I don't control any other delegates in the Maryland delegation or anywhere else. I don't tell them who to vote for. The delegates who've been elected are going to vote for whomever they want.
MARTIN: If we can change topics for a minute, you're the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee. In the wake of the attempt on Donald Trump's life, you and the chair issued a rare joint statement, you know, condemning political violence, and so forth. Today, the Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle, will appear before the committee to answer questions about that. What do you want to ask her?
RASKIN: There were clearly some lapses. I mean, how is it possible that this guy had a clean shot at the stage from that building, which should have been identified very quickly as a danger zone. So I'm really interested in how that came about. And there were even people saying that the shooter was being identified and pointed out as he clambered up the roof. I want to know about that. So that's real. A second perspective is in the context of political violence in the country. We've got to be unanimous in denouncing political violence, where we're talking about the shooting of Steve Scalise when he's practicing baseball or the shooting of Gabby Giffords at a constituent meeting in public or the peaceful transfer of power on January 6, 2021. People somehow believe that you can unleash political violence in order to get your way. And it doesn't work. I shouldn't work, and we cannot allow it to work in a Democratic society.
MARTIN: That is Congressman Jamie Raskin. He's a Democrat from Maryland. He's the ranking member of the Committee on Oversight and Accountability. And we also talked about his letter to President Biden asking him to reconsider his decision to run for reelection in 2024. Congressman Raskin, thank you so much for joining us.
RASKIN: Totally my honor.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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