On MSNBC, Rep. Jamie Raskin says House Speaker Mike Johnson is “in the Steve Bannon mode” of trying to dismantle democracy
Published
Citation From the October 25, 2023, edition of MSNBC's All in With Chris Hayes
CHRIS HAYES (HOST): Congressman, new Speaker Mike Johnson, your thoughts?
JAMIE RASKIN (GUEST): Well, you cannot get to the right of Mike Johnson in the MAGA caucus. It's just inconceivable that you could get to the right of him. And there are people who are definitely more lunatic than he is, and he's got very good manners, and he's an able lawyer. But when we say he opposed democracy, we know that from his giving a legal gloss and finish to all of Donald Trump's arguments about electoral fraud, and making the Independent State Legislature Doctrine argument, which the Supreme Court fortunately did not bite on.
But if he's not for democracy, what's he for? He's for theocracy. He wants a nationwide ban on abortion with no exceptions for rape or incest. He voted against affirming women's right to travel across state lines for the purposes of obtaining health care. He's also voted against reaffirming women's contraceptive rights.
He is a real enemy of social security, from my perspective. He wanted to increase the age of social security retirement to 70 years old. He's very much in the Steve Bannon mode of trying to dismantle the regulatory state, by which they mean democracy itself. And so, he's a decent guy, and he's a nice guy, but nobody should be fooled by it.