Rep. Jamie Raskin says impeachment isn’t a ‘fetish’ for Democrats but ‘a critical tool’

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., told NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday that President Donald Trump has “undoubtedly” committed impeachable offenses but that Democrats would also focus on issues like healthcare if they win back the House.

“Everybody on our side understands that impeachment is a critical tool in the toolbox for constitutional self-defense against a president acting like a king, an imperious, lawless, arrogant king,” Raskin said, responding to a question about whether Democrats should move to impeach Trump if they retake the House.

He added, though, that Trump’s two impeachments constituted half of all impeachments in U.S. history, noting that after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, Democrats were unable to persuade enough Republicans to side with them to convict the president.

Trump has been impeached twice , though he has never been convicted. As midterm elections approach, Democrats have not closed the door on moving to impeach Trump again if they retake the House. Trump, too, has warned his supporters that Democrats could try to impeach him again.

Moderator Kristen Welker pressed Raskin again on his stance toward impeachment, and Raskin said that “impeachment is not a taboo with us.”

“It’s not a fetish with us,” he said. “We understand it’s not a panacea. It is a tool in the toolbox. We will not hesitate to use it if we need to use it.”

Raskin, who previously served as a lead impeachment manager against Trump, said that the president had “undoubtedly” committed impeachable offenses in his second term, adding: “We don’t have time to remotely scratch the surface.”

“But going to war without a declaration of war, for example, continually defying Congress in terms of our appropriation of money, stealing our spending power from us,” he continued. “I mean, I would say even just bulldozing the East Wing of the White House. If he can bulldoze the East Wing, he can bulldoze the West Wing. He believes that he is a king. They’ve been plundering money from our government in the most massively corrupt presidential administration in American history.”

Raskin added that “nothing comes close to the kind of plunder and corruption we’ve been seeing in this administration, and all of that could warrant an impeachment investigation if we wanted to do it.”

“But more important to us right now is getting healthcare to the American people and ending the lawlessness,” he said.

Trump has warned Republicans that if they do not win in the midterms, Democrats would “find a reason to impeach me.” Trump was impeached for the first time in 2019 over allegations that he pressured Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden and his son while withholding hundreds of millions of dollars in aid.

He was impeached for a second time after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. The president was acquitted both times.

Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., said last month on “Meet the Press” that Democrats should not make impeaching Trump a priority if they regain the House majority. Instead, he said, Democrats’ priority should be “making housing, education, energy, healthcare affordable and accessible for all of our citizens.”

“Impeaching the president will not do that,” he added.

In June, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said on “Meet the Press” that Democrats “haven’t ruled anything in or ruled anything out in terms of accountability” when asked about whether his party would try to impeach Trump if they win the House.

“What we have said is that our focus is going to be to make life more affordable for the American people,” he said at the time.