House Democrats will challenge the election results if Donald Trump succeeds this time in any of the unlawful tactics he tried in 2020, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) said.

“We will not participate in fraud. We are going to stand up for fair and honest elections, as we have always done,” he told the Daily Beast.

The congressman pointed to the former president’s 2020 playbook on election denial, in which he specifically highlighted Trump’s order for Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes,” as fraud that would make contesting the election results necessary.

He also pointed to the Republican presidential candidate’s plot to force state lawmakers to “nullify and overthrow the popular vote and impose a series of bogus electors.”

“What if there’s an official who says, ‘Okay, I’ll go ahead and make up 11,780 votes,’ and we confirm that?” Raskin continued. “That would be a problem. That would be something we would try to work out.

Should that happen, the leading Democrat in the House of Representatives vowed that the party would “pursue all available legal remedies.”

“If we had to go to federal court, we would go to federal court, and if we had to challenge it further, we would, but we will not accept the election fraud that Donald Trump committed. is now broadcasting openly,” he said.

The congressman’s outspokenness follows statements by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), who dismissed the likelihood of an organized effort to challenge the September election results.

However, Raskin, who led the second impeachment of the former president in 2021 and has long been an outspoken critic of Trump, accused the Republican presidential candidate of “setting the stage” for “the second big round of lies.”

“Donald Trump is telling people in this election that he is going to declare victory no matter what happens,” he explained.

During his campaign, Trump has claimed that the election is being “stolen,” falsely claimed that states are adding more days to the election, and that non-citizens are voting. Meanwhile, the Republican National Committee and other Republican Party-oriented groups have filed a number of lawsuits in swing states challenging the voter rolls.

The Maryland statesman began raising alarms in the months leading up to Election Day about the former president’s alleged “corrupt intentions” to interfere in the election process. In early October, he accused Trump of doing “everything he can” to intervene, citing “manipulating the electoral college counts in Nebraska or manipulating the vote count in Georgia or imposing other kinds of barriers.” ‘

And just days before the election, he told Bill Maher, “We will not let them steal it in the United States, or steal it at the Department of Justice, or steal it with any other election official in the country.”

His comments sparked criticism from some Republicans in the House of Representatives, including fellow House Oversight Committee member Rep. James Comer (R-KY), who hailed him as “the ultimate hypocrite” and claimed he was “sowing the seeds of doubt in American politics.” free and fair elections.” On Monday, MAGA ally Steve Bannon even called Raskin the “main man in the anti-Trump movement.”

Raskin, however, dismissed the right-wing response as “ridiculous” and an “authoritarian tactic to attack people.”

“We believe it is time for Donald Trump and his entourage to put aside all threats to individuals and their threats to the American constitutional process,” he told the Daily Beast. “And we need to get back to free and fair elections where parties support elections, rather than undermining them.

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