YouSaid · the spoken record
Jamie Raskin
On the record 2025–2026
congress
This is everything the corpus holds for Jamie Raskin. It is not everything they have said on the record.
Every line below is reproduced as it was said and credited to the record it came from, and links to that record wherever it can be linked. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections
“Tom Homan accepted $50,000 from an undercover FBI agent posing to buy access to government contracts in the coming Trump administration. He got that in a CAVA bag, $50,000. {time} 1610 Despite knowledge of the investigation, President Trump appointed Homan to be the border czar on January 20, 2025, and soon after Trump's second term, then-Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove shut down the investigation. We still don't know. Was that a $50,000 cash bribe, or was he just holding the money? Did he declare that money on his taxes? We have got no idea what happened. Why isn't the Department of Justice looking into that? There is case after case. Justin Sun, in 2023, the SEC charged Sun for fraudulently manipulating the secondary market of a cryptocurrency.”
House of Representatives16 September 2026Source ↗
“But if the majority thinks it is important to freeze in place the name of the National Fraud Enforcement Division, great. Maybe we can use that to actually go after all of the fraud and corruption that we are seeing in this administration. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.”
House of Representatives16 September 2026Source ↗
“Luckily, the children told their families, the families told the police, and Andrew Paul Johnson was just prosecuted and convicted and sentenced to jail for life, and yet the lives of those two 12-year-olds are irrevocably altered by the fact that Donald Trump let him out of prison. He let Andrew Paul Johnson walk free to go and commit another crime. There are dozens and dozens of people like that: home invasion, domestic violence, sexual assault, threatening the life of an FBI agent, all of them just let free en masse as Donald Trump dismantled the U.S. pardon attorney's office and instead made this an operation out of his back pocket in the White House. We are seeing unprecedented grift, corruption, and fraud go unpunished in this administration and criminals being let free.”
House of Representatives16 September 2026Source ↗
“You can withstand the fire. We can trust you now.' '' His new venture, SyberJet, which he claims will transform flying, is seeking to raise a billion dollars from investors. Americans beware. Another pardoned Trump criminal on the loose today like Andrew Paul Johnson. Do you remember him? He was the insurrectionist who stormed the Capitol who Trump pardoned without looking at any of the specifics of his case. He went back out and just 2 months later, he sexually assaulted two 12-year-olds, one boy and one girl. He then tried to bribe them into silence, saying he was going to get his payoff from Attorney General Todd Blanche's plan for the $1.776 billion political slush fund to pay off the insurrectionists. He said, I will give you guys that money.”
House of Representatives16 September 2026Source ↗
“In March 2025, 2 weeks after prosecutors filed their $695.2 million restitution calculation and report, the President called Milton personally to inform him of a full and unconditional pardon and his decision, moreover, to wipe out any obligation he had to repay his victims. It was a direct transfer of money from the victims of white- collar fraud back to the criminal himself. President Trump even invoked the $750,000 contribution to RFK, his pal in the Cabinet now, telling Milton to call Bobby and thank him, too. Now, fresh off of his pardon, Milton is back at it. He has joined an exclusive group of post-pardoned businessmen seemingly empowered and sainted by Trump's pardon and favor. ``I walk into meetings now and I'll get high fives from the most wealthy people in the world,'' he said. ``They're like, `Welcome to the club.”
House of Representatives16 September 2026Source ↗
“After a yearslong investigation, the Department of Justice prosecuted him and convicted him before a jury of his peers. He was sentenced to 4 years in prison for his fraud, for stealing people's money. Prosecutors insisted that he pay back the defrauded investors nearly $700 million in restitution for what he had stolen from them. In many cases, his victims had lost their entire retirement savings. Before restitution could be paid or even ordered, Milton got a surprise pardon from President Trump. {time} 1600 How did that happen? It was classic ``Pardons, Inc.,'' the name of the report we have describing dozens of cases like this, the Democrats on the Judiciary Committee have. What happens in ``Pardons, Inc.,'' the new cash-for-clemency racket?”
House of Representatives16 September 2026Source ↗
“investors, as well as obstructing investigations by the FBI, the SEC, and a Federal grand jury. The investigation was led, in part, by the Foreign Corrupt Practices Unit that Trump, of course, dissolved upon taking office. Then, Adani started flattering the President on Twitter and promised big investments. Suddenly, DOJ dropped the entire indictment. For those fraudsters who have already been convicted, they have nothing to fear themselves. They were convicted, I should say, by a Department of Justice that once believed in the rule of law. Why have they nothing to fear? This President has a pardon waiting for you if the price is right.”
House of Representatives16 September 2026Source ↗
“Following a wave of political donations to the President's inaugural committees, the SEC closed or dismissed high-profile fraud and registration investigations into numerous crypto platforms, like Coinbase, Gemini, Binance, and Kraken. Every administration chooses its priorities. This is the first one that has made not prosecuting white-collar fraudsters, corporate crooks, corrupt politicians, international tax cheats, and narcotraffickers a number one priority. Let me give an example of the kind of people benefiting from the pro- corruption policies of the administration. After a lengthy investigation, the Indian billionaire Gautam Adani and other executives from the Adani Group were indicted in 2024 after a yearslong investigation for perpetrating a $265 million bribery scheme and a multibillion-dollar fraud scheme against U.S.”
House of Representatives16 September 2026Source ↗
“At least Republican Thomas Massie's suggestion is that they were unwilling to confront his impeachment resolution, and there was such division on that side of the aisle that they decided simply to call it quits after only 2 full days of work. This to be followed, of course, by 2 months of us being away from Washington. At least some explanation should be offered to us for why yet another day of work has been canceled. In any event, as a gesture of good faith and mercy for our colleagues, a political party whose members are fleeing the Nation's Capital like residents of South Vietnam on the roof of the embassy in Saigon at the end of the Vietnam war, I will rise in tepid support of this bill simply codifying the National Fraud Enforcement Division, which the Department of Justice has already established by regulation.”
House of Representatives16 September 2026Source ↗
“Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. We learned just before coming down to the floor that votes have been canceled for tomorrow suddenly. No public explanation has been offered by the Speaker, but they are certainly saying in the cloakrooms that the last-minute cancellation of one of three 8-hour days we were scheduled to work this week was due to Congressman Massie's filing of a detailed and compelling impeachment resolution against Secretary Pete Hegseth. He introduced the resolution asserting that there were multiple high crimes and misdemeanors that have been committed by Secretary Hegseth, including violations of the War Powers Act, ignoring laws requiring the minimization of civilian casualties, engaging in extrajudicial killings, violating the speech rights of members of the armed services, and more.”
House of Representatives16 September 2026Source ↗
“Mr. Speaker, for the aforementioned reasons, I support this legislation and recommend that all of our colleagues join us in voting for it. I yield back the balance of my time.”
House of Representatives16 September 2026Source ↗
“Regrettably, that path was narrowed, not because the policy failed but because in June 2024, the debt limit set by Congress, the maximum debt small businesses can have and still be eligible for subchapter V's streamlined process, lapsed and dropped by 60 percent from $7.5 million to $3 million. Despite clear data and near unanimous agreement among the bankruptcy bar that the $7.5 million debt limit was a success for small businesses and their creditors, we went back to the old, lower debt limit, which excludes way too many of the very small businesses that subchapter V was designed to support. Without a workable path to reorganize under subchapter V, all that remains of these businesses is used equipment and unpaid bills.”
House of Representatives16 September 2026Source ↗
“Although it remains a remedy of last resort legally, our bankruptcy system must be equipped to provide relief when economic pressures collapse the margins of household and commercial stability and solvency. A well-calibrated system does not punish misfortune or entrench failure. It provides a lawful path forward where all else fails. H.R. 7730 reestablishes a higher debt threshold for small businesses under subchapter V and working families under title 13. For 5 years, subchapter V of the bankruptcy code, the streamlined bankruptcy process for small businesses to reorganize and restructure, offered small businesses a path back to viability by providing a simpler pathway to restructure debt, save jobs, and continue serving in the communities.”
House of Representatives16 September 2026Source ↗
“Although we don't recommend that frequent usage, it is there for all of us when we need it, and we do hope that those who are able to exercise their bankruptcy rights, like the President, will learn from the experience. Alas, he has already added $11.6 trillion to our national debt in his one-and-a-half terms in office so far. In any event, it should be there in less extreme cases for people who need it in order to get through tough times. All across America, small businesses and working families are shouldering debts that would have once been considered extraordinary, but now really just reflect the cost of staying afloat in today's economy.”
House of Representatives16 September 2026Source ↗
“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I am very happy to support this bipartisan bill which would restore and make permanent higher debt limits for working families, individuals, and small businesses under both chapters 11 and 13 of the Bankruptcy Code. Too often, bankruptcy is spoken of in hushed tones or considered something not really relevant to the lives of people in our economy, but it is not just a footnote in the American economy. It turns out to be a major force in it. At its core when it is used properly and not abused, it is a guardrail for the life and the dignity and the livelihoods of American people. Even the President of the United States has filed for bankruptcy six times under chapter 11 alone.”
House of Representatives16 September 2026Source ↗
“Mr. Speaker, in closing, I thank the distinguished gentlewoman for her legislative initiative here and for bringing that to the Judiciary Committee. We very much applaud the effort to recognize these victories for modern archeology, geology, and science. We are glad that we can endorse this bipartisan effort. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.”
House of Representatives16 September 2026Source ↗
“It is our sincere hope that by designating the fossils of these creatures as national symbols, it will inspire all of our fellow Americans, and not just the kids, to investigate the natural world and natural history and to appreciate that through the application of the miracles of modern science, we have discovered that the Earth is more than 4 billion years old. It is so old that it has been inhabited by organisms, which in the case of dinosaurs evolved and died off many millions of years before humanity came into existence. For these reasons, Mr. Speaker, I express my strong support for the legislation, which will be enthusiastically greeted by millions of children across America, especially my T. rex-loving nephew Maddox. I reserve the balance of my time.”
House of Representatives16 September 2026Source ↗
“I must admit, I am partial to Maryland's State dinosaur, the Astrodon johnstoni, a long-necked brachiosaurid that probably spent its days munching on plants and whose fossils were first found in the suburbs right outside the District of Columbia, either in my district, the beautiful Eighth, or the Fourth Congressional District, Congressman Ivey's district, depending on the state of dinosaur gerrymandering at the time. Recent research suggests that the T. rex descended from dinosaurs that crossed a land bridge from Asia, indicating that immigrant dinosaurs were making America great even before humans walked the Earth. As for the choice of the mastodon, an extinct prehistoric elephant, please accept my endorsement of this bill as a gesture of true bipartisanship.”
House of Representatives16 September 2026Source ↗
“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I rise in strong support of this legislation and am delighted to work on it with my colleague, Ms. Lee of Florida. H.R. 9191, the National Fossil Act, would designate the American mastodon, an extinct relative of the modern elephant, as our national fossil mammal. It would also designate the famous and beloved Tyrannosaurus rex as our national fossil dinosaur. Both the mastodon and T. rex fossils have only ever been found in North America, and therefore this is a fitting and appropriate honor. I love the T. Rex, and I am glad it beat out apparently its closest competitor for national fossil dinosaur, which was the modern Republican Party.”
House of Representatives16 September 2026Source ↗
“I thank my colleagues, Congresswoman Dean, Congressman Cohen, Congresswoman Lee of Florida, and Congressman Knott for their hard work on this bipartisan legislation. I urge all of my colleagues to support H.R. 7834, the Safe Cloud Storage Act. Mr. Speaker, in closing, for all of the aforementioned reasons, I strongly support passage of the bill and urge all of my colleagues to join me in doing that. I also would just mention that we are being supported here by the Fraternal Order of Police, the Child Rescue Coalition, the National District Attorneys Association, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, the Association of State Criminal Investigative Agencies, and the International Justice Mission. I yield back the balance of my time.”
House of Representatives16 September 2026Source ↗
“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the bipartisan Safe Cloud Storage Act, and I salute the gentlewoman from Florida for her leadership on this legislation. For more than a decade, we have seen exponential growth in the volume of child sexual abuse images and videos, or CSAM, and child obscenity material that offenders distribute and share online, and our law enforcement agencies have struggled to keep up with it all. This legislation will allow cloud service providers to work with law enforcement to maintain and store relevant evidence in a safe and secure way.”
House of Representatives16 September 2026Source ↗
“Let's see fewer DUI hires and more DEI hires and let people succeed on their actual merit. Mr. Speaker, we have made progress in America when we dismantle the professional chokehold of good old boy networks and race and gender- exclusionary policies adopted by the groups that have dominated forever. There are established networks that thrive on keeping other people out. Let's open the market and government up to merit and hard work.”
House of Representatives2 September 2026Source ↗
“It turns out that was the chief of staff to Speaker Mike Johnson, but he was forgiven immediately for what he had done. I am not saying he shouldn't have been, but let's just say generally, and I am not speaking necessarily in terms of legal prosecutions here, but in terms of culture, we have the DEI hires who are being fired by the DUI hires. There is a frat-boy culture, which is what I am referring to, which dominates within the Trump administration, and those people are sacking, firing, kicking out of their careers people who have done nothing other than to thrive and succeed because the doors of discrimination have been taken down in the past. They, the Trump administration, want to put them back up. They want to reinstate all of the blockades to people's progress.”
House of Representatives2 September 2026Source ↗
“The Director of the FBI, Kash Patel, who made news this spring because his security team reportedly requested breaching equipment when he was completely unresponsive one morning. He has been spotted chugging beers with the U.S. men's hockey team in their locker room and giving out free personalized bourbon bottles that say ``Kash Patel FBI Director'' on them. These are the people who were brought in who end up firing all of the so-called DEI hires. I remember when the new administration came back into power and there was a joint session of Congress in this room. The President came and made his big speech about everything they were going to do. Then, when it all broke up, afterward, somebody went outside and plowed his car into the back and side of a parked police cruiser.”
House of Representatives2 September 2026Source ↗
“Navy to serve in a combat role and rose steadily through the ranks of the military to become the first woman ever to lead the United States Navy. Throughout her extraordinary 40-year career, Franchetti commanded at every level of the Navy, including the guided-missile U.S. destroyer USS Ross, Carrier Strike Group 9, and the U.S. 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean. So here we have two people who are at the very top of their profession, and of course, there were many more periods in American history where they would not have been able to do that because women and African Americans were excluded. They were able to do it in our time, precisely because the armed services opened up their vision and opened up their vista to include women, African Americans, and others who had been traditionally excluded.”
House of Representatives2 September 2026Source ↗
“Mr. Speaker, I thank our floor leader here on our Special Order hour, Congressman Jackson, for being such an extraordinary leader for all of us in keeping the movement for civil rights, for civil liberties, and for democracy going in the country. I want to start by just saluting Congressman Jackson for bringing national focus to the assault on DEI, which, of course, has been primarily just a system for opening up the doors to institutions that have discriminated in the past. I am seeing two kinds of people or, I should say, two kinds of categories of people working in the government under the Trump administration. One is what they call DEI hires. Who are some of the DEI hires?”
House of Representatives2 September 2026Source ↗
“Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays. The yeas and nays were ordered.”
House of Representatives2 September 2026Source ↗
“The only power we have is the power they want to give up. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.”
House of Representatives2 September 2026Source ↗
“That is not in the original Constitution. The President has it, but they made it up. Where did that come from? The stork brought it. They invented it. They call themselves originalists. It wasn't in the Federalist Papers. It wasn't in the original Constitutional Convention records. It is not in any of the ratified convention records. Where did that doctrine come from? They made it up. Mr. Speaker, we all can argue about what the Supreme Court does, but nobody yet has made a single satisfactory argument about why we should freeze, for the first time in American history, the number of Justices at nine when it has always been up to the Representatives of the people in the House and the Senate. Let me just close on that thought. The Senate already gets some say over the Supreme Court by rendering the power of advice and consent.”
House of Representatives2 September 2026Source ↗
“We have won more than 80 percent of the cases against President Trump in those courts, which is why they have been calling for the impeachment of judges, including Republican-appointed judges like Judge Boasberg, who was appointed by President Bush. They have called for his impeachment. That is making a political football out of it. We have had colleagues who have put up posters to impeach this judge and impeach that judge. They wanted to have a hearing about it in the Judiciary Committee, where they are talking about it. That is making a political football about it. I think we can all be intellectually honest. We know after Brown v. Board, the right-wingers, the anti-integrationists said to impeach Earl Warren, and the Republican platform for decades had language attacking the Supreme Court for Roe v. Wade.”
House of Representatives2 September 2026Source ↗
“They haven't told us, which shows this is just frivolous political confetti that is being thrown into the air. It is not an attempt to really think through the powers of Congress, the powers of the Court, and so on. My friend from Kansas said that the Court shouldn't be a political football, and I agree with him about that because there are important things entrusted to the Court, like the freedom of speech, the freedom of the press, and due process, all things under attack by this administration. Their gerrymandered Supreme Court, well, they have done all right sometimes, not as good as the district courts and the appeals courts have done.”
House of Representatives2 September 2026Source ↗
“That is what a tariff is. It is not a tax on China or any other country. It is a tax on our businesses and our people. Now we are in a trade war with Canada. If you travel to the north of Michigan in the Upper Peninsula, you go to the Boundary Waters of Minnesota, you go to the Adirondacks in New York, the small businesses are crying out for help because Canadians are boycotting us because of the whimsical, irrational, and deranged trade policies of this administration. We have real problems to deal with. We don't really need to be giving away the powers of Congress and upsetting the proper balance of powers that was set by the Framers originally. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.”
House of Representatives2 September 2026Source ↗
“Yet, the gentleman leaves us by saying: Well, we are actually going to turn it over to the people to decide whether to revoke this power that the Framers invested in Congress. Of course, that is what it would mean to amend the Constitution. Why would we want to do that? We have dealt with this in a responsible way throughout American history. We are suspicious that our colleagues first gave away the war power to the President. Then they give away the spending power by letting him just abolish entire agencies and entities, like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, USAID, and the Department of Education. Then they give the President the power over tariffs, which we have because we have the power to regulate commerce domestically and internationally, and he imposed the largest tax in American history unilaterally.”
House of Representatives2 September 2026Source ↗
“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, finally, a serious argument. I thank the distinguished gentleman, the former attorney general of Kansas, for responding. First of all, he describes this as the Keep Nine Amendment. If you want to keep at nine, you don't need a constitutional amendment. You just make that argument in Congress, just like people argued in prior centuries to keep it at ten or keep it at six or let's move to seven, so we don't need to freeze it into the Constitution. Secondly, he says that this should be a bipartisan issue. It should not be partisan. Agreed. We should have a bipartisan commitment to the handiwork of the Framers. It is in the Constitution that it is up to Congress.”
House of Representatives2 September 2026Source ↗
“Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to how much time is remaining.”
House of Representatives2 September 2026Source ↗
“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I am moved by the remarks of the distinguished gentlewoman from Colorado. It seems to me if it doesn't make money for the Trump family, they call it socialist. That is interesting, especially when it is President Trump who is taking large pieces out of American corporations, like Intel. No other American President has done anything like that. He is, obviously, the state socialist and hanging around and palling around with every communist dictator on Earth. Again, we have not heard a single positive argument for why we should cement for all time nine as the number of Justices on the Supreme Court. I am beginning to conclude that there simply is no argument. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.”
House of Representatives2 September 2026Source ↗
“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, quickly, just as Congress has exercised its authority seven different times to reduce the size of the Court or increase the size of the Court according to appropriate historical circumstances, it has rejected numerous proposals to do that, including in the famed Court-Packing Plan. I don't know why our colleagues insist on thinking that FDR's field proposal is somehow an argument for giving our power away. We exercised our power properly in that moment. The gentlewoman from Wyoming refers to the Democratic political program. I am not sure what she is referring to, but it is certainly the opposite of the GOP political program of endless war, inflation, corruption, illegal tariffs, and billion-dollar ballrooms. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.”
House of Representatives2 September 2026Source ↗
“He kept it at eight for an entire year in order to get to the next administration so they could put Justice Gorsuch in instead of my constituent, Merrick Garland, who is one of the most talented people ever nominated to the Supreme Court. He was the chief judge of the D.C. Circuit, and they kept him off. Eight was fine with them then. Now, they want to go to nine because President Trump likes it just fine. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Menefee).”
House of Representatives2 September 2026Source ↗
“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman quotes me as having said that I said there was no possible reason that someone would want nine. No, I didn't say that at all. I think there might be a number of reasons. One very clear one is they want to freeze into place the majority they have in the Court right now, a majority that was created by the most suspect political maneuvers on the Senate side. The gentleman would like to lionize the number nine and place it in cement. Why wasn't it nine when Senator McConnell blocked any confirmation or vote on a replacement for Justice Scalia after he died?”
House of Representatives2 September 2026Source ↗
“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I will add to the remarks of the distinguished gentlewoman, this point: It is interesting that our colleagues suddenly want to dabble in constitutional amendment politics. Nobody is crying out for this, as my colleagues have argued, but you know what people want by 85 percent? People want the equal rights amendment. Where is the Republican Party on that? They used to support it. Three-quarters of Americans, more than 75 percent, want to overturn Citizens United by a constitutional amendment, which transformed every corporate treasury in America into a dark money political slush fund. We want to get rid of that. How come they are not here today on that?”
House of Representatives2 September 2026Source ↗
“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. By ``leftwing socialist group,'' I assume the gentleman is referring to the Framers of the Constitution. It is the Framers who set up the system. They are trying to overthrow the system that the Framers created. The Framers gave Congress the power to control the number of Justices on the Court. Where does the number nine come from? I still await a single positive argument for why we should inscribe into law forever the number nine as the number of Justices we should have and nullify the power that the Framers of the Constitution and the Founders of the country gave to us. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from New Mexico (Ms. Stansbury).”
House of Representatives2 September 2026Source ↗
“That is what circuit riding was all about. You don't need some conspiracy theory to explain it. He was very overt about why he wanted to go from 9 to 13, which we could discuss another day. Here the question is whether we should nullify, obviate, and destroy our own power to decide who should be on the Court. Still, the gentleman has not offered one single argument explaining why the number nine should be magic other than it cements into place all the decisions of this rightwing Roberts Court. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Pennsylvania (Ms. Scanlon), the distinguished ranking member of the Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government.”
House of Representatives2 September 2026Source ↗
“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I will try to answer the interesting questions raised by my distinguished colleague, Mr. Jordan, in seriatim. First of all, anything that we do to try to improve the fortunes and the well-being of the American people, our colleagues call socialist. They call Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid socialist. That is just water off our back. The President talks about communists. The only communists on Earth today are his best friends and his role models, like Kim Jong-un, who he writes love letters to, and President Xi, who he has praised more than two dozen times in public. How about Vladimir Putin, who he follows around like a puppy dog? Vladimir Putin was head of the KGB. If there is a problem with communism, it is over on that side of the aisle.”
House of Representatives2 September 2026Source ↗
“In the meantime, they have not offered a single argument to explain why nine Justices should be the number that we constitutionalize and place in cement forever. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Johnson), who is the ranking member of the Courts, Intellectual Property, Artificial Intelligence and the Internet Subcommittee.”
House of Representatives2 September 2026Source ↗
“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. The floor leader offers a charming and completely self-defeating argument when he goes to the Roosevelt plan. FDR was a President, and Congress rejected his plan. The gentleman acknowledges that Congress has changed the size of the Supreme Court seven different times, and we have also declined to change it several times. Now, he describes what Roosevelt wanted to do as Court packing. This is Court packing on steroids. The gentleman wants to say that this President happens to like the people on the Court right now, through all of the packing and stacking and gerrymandering that has taken place in the last few years, and therefore we should freeze it, not just only for his own term but for all time. That is extraordinary.”
House of Representatives2 September 2026Source ↗
“In Federalist 51, Madison said that the major safeguard against tyranny and despotism in America would be the natural identification and loyalty that Members of Congress would show to our own branch of government. We would stand up for ourselves, Madison thought. ``Ambition must be made to counteract ambition,'' he wrote, but today's Republicans show no loyalty to the constitutional architecture of Congress, to our rights, our prerogatives, our powers. They are content just to keep their heads down, to close up shop, to go home as early as possible just to keep their jobs so the President will not mobilize social media and Elon Musk's money against them in a primary. They want to preserve their survivability, their marketability.”
House of Representatives2 September 2026Source ↗
“As gas and diesel prices soar out of control and Trumpflation spirals up for groceries, healthcare, housing, as Trump's reckless and forever war of choice in Iran spirals downward, and America increasingly stands isolated in the world, MAGA wants to impose a straitjacket clamp-down on our democracy, our freedom, and our constitutional rights. The Roberts Court overthrew Roe v. Wade and destroyed the constitutional right of women to comprehensive healthcare in every State in the country. It demolished the Voting Rights Act in Shelby County v. Holder in 2013, and the Callais decision just this term. Also, these fraudulent textualists invented out of thin air Presidential immunity from prosecution for felony crimes committed in office.”
House of Representatives2 September 2026Source ↗
“Now, by essentially stealing these two seats from the American people, MAGA has put four of the five seats in the ruling majority rightwing faction in the hands of Justices appointed by two Presidents who lost the Presidential popular vote--George W. Bush in 2010 and Donald Trump in 2016. The rightwing capture of the Court, fueled by corporate dark money and the Citizens United decision, has plunged this Court into a legitimacy crisis, an ethics crisis, and a jurisprudential crisis like has never been seen before in American history. Trump's followers in Congress now seek to freeze into place the political Court that MAGA built for decades to come. Thus, they urge us to give away another critical power that the Framers vested in us.”
House of Representatives2 September 2026Source ↗
“Senator McConnell did not even allow hearings in the Senate Judiciary Committee, much less a vote in the committee, much less a vote on the floor. He said he wanted to let the people decide, and 11 months was too close to the next election; forgetting, I suppose, that President Obama had won one of those genuine constitutional 4-year terms in office. That seat sat open for a record-setting 422 days before they filled it with Justice Gorsuch.”
House of Representatives2 September 2026Source ↗
“Well, surprise, surprise, America, it is another partisan power grab by MAGA, our colleagues who fear for the results of the November election, as their policies have brought us nothing but war, inflation, corruption, lawlessness, and a $40 trillion debt, one-quarter of it supplied by this Presidential administration. The MAGA party wants to cement into place a profoundly partisan and lopsided 6-3 Roberts Court that was gerrymandered and engineered by Mitch McConnell after the untimely deaths of Justice Scalia and Justice Ginsburg, each in the final year of a Presidential term. After Justice Scalia died on February 13, 2016, President Obama nominated my constituent, Merrick Garland, to fill the seat.”
House of Representatives2 September 2026Source ↗