The Maryland lawmaker said Democrats may challenge the election results if they believe the election had been ’stolen.’
U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) has vowed to honor the results of the 2024 Presidential election if former President Donald Trump wins, provided the election is “free and fair.”
The Maryland lawmaker made the comments during an appearance on the Nov. 1 edition of HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher,” where he echoed comments made by Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, who has also promised to accept the results of the election if they are fair and legal.
“If it’s a free and fair election, we will do what we have always done—we will honor it,” Raskin said on the show in response to questioning from the political pundit regarding whether or not Democrats would accept the results of the Nov. 5 election.
Raskin, ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, noted that Democrats would potentially challenge the election results if they believe the election had been “stolen,” echoing language used by many Republicans after the 2020 election.
“No, we’re not going to allow them to steal it in the states, or steal it in the Department of Justice, or steal it with any other election official in the country,” he said.
The Democrat did not provide further details regarding what would constitute a stolen election or how it would be determined.
“If it’s a free and fair election, we will do what we’ve always done,” he said. “We will honor it.”
Raskin was among multiple members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus who objected to the certification of the 2016 election, in which Trump won the race against Democrat Hillary Clinton. He also refused to attend Trump’s inauguration, writing in a statement at the time that the “moral and political legitimacy of this presidency are in the gravest doubt” and that he “cannot risk my presence at his inauguration being interpreted as any kind of endorsement of the normality of our situation.”
During his appearance on Maher’s show, Raskin, who led the second impeachment effort against Trump, alleged the former president was “trying to commit election fraud” during the 2020 presidential race.
The lawmaker referenced Trump’s phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in January 2021, during which Trump asked Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes,” referring to a figure that is one more than the margin he lost by.
A transcript of the call later released by multiple media outlets shows that Trump said that he won Georgia and urged state election officials to probe possible election irregularities. Raffensperger declined, noting the state had done several re-tallies of the vote count.
“That’s not him trying to stop election fraud, that’s him being caught red handed trying to commit election fraud,” Raskin said of the January 2021 phone call.
Trump has repeatedly defended his phone call with Raffensperger, noting that other officials who were also on the line during the call did not raise any objections or complaints about anything he said.
The Republican has maintained that his only goal in challenging the 2020 election results was to defend American democracy amid concerns over possible irregularities in the election.
Despite his concerns, Trump promised an orderly transition.
As protesters breached the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021, while Congress was certifying Biden as president-elect, Trump used social media to call on his supporters to remain peaceful and respect the law, telling them to “go home, and go home in peace.”
Trump did not attend President Joe Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20, 2021.
In August 2023, Trump was charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction or an attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.
The former president has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges and maintains the case is aimed at hindering his 2024 presidential bid.
Correction: A previous version of this article misstated the timing of President Joe Biden’s inauguration and Congress’s certification of the 2020 election. The Epoch Times regrets the error.