The following is a transcript of an interview with Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland that aired Sunday, April 3, 2022, on “Face the Nation.”
MARGARET BRENNAN: Last week, CBS News and The Washington Post revealed that internal White House phone records from January the 6th showed a seven hour gap in President Trump’s call logs during the violence at the Capitol that day. Maryland Democratic Congressman Jamie Raskin is on the House committee investigating the attack on the Capitol and joins us here now. Welcome.
REPRESENTATIVE JAMIE RASKIN: Thank you for having me.
MARGARET BRENNAN: The nation, this seven hour gap, you have subpoenaed the president, the former president’s assistant, Molly Michael. I know you’ve been trying to figure out from staff what happened. Do you have any insight?
REP. RASKIN: Well, it’s a very unusual thing for us to find that suddenly everything goes dark for a seven hour period in terms of tracking the movements and the conversations of the president. And some things we’ve been able to piece together from other people’s interviews and depositions that we know took place during that time. We are aware of other phone calls that took place during that time that included the president. But we have no comprehensive, fine grained portrait of what was going on during that period, and that’s obviously of intense interest to us.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You still don’t have that after debriefing some of these assistant- I mean, his office, the former president’s office was known for being sloppy. He used cell phones. She wasn’t- the personal assistant wasn’t in the office that day. Is there a chance here that this was just sort of large scale incompetence rather than conspiracy?
REP. RASKIN: Well, we’re taking that possibility into account. It does seem like the gaps are suspiciously tailored to the heart of the events. But we’re checking that out. And, you know, our mandate under H.R. 503 is to get a complete picture of everything that took place on January 6th, the causes leading up to it, and then what we need to do as a country to fortify democratic institutions and processes against future insurrections and coups and attempts to destabilize and overthrow our elections.
MARGARET BRENNAN: I mean, it’s just an incredible phrase: “Potential future coups.”
REP. RASKIN: Well-
MARGARET BRENNAN: It’s breathtaking to hear you say it, that.
REP. RASKIN: Congressman Mo Brooks said just a week or two ago that president- former President Trump continues to try to get him and other Republicans to rescind the election. In other words, he continues to look for a way to nullify an election that he considers fraudulent. Last night, you know, I was at the Gridiron Club dinner, and I saw the governor, the Republican Governor of New Hampshire, Chris Sununu, who I thought was a huge breath of fresh air. He said publicly he broke tradition, apparently in the Gridiron Club. He said Donald Trump is f-ing crazy and he didn’t say f-ing. So I don’t want to make any history on your show. But he also seemed to announce that he was going to run for president in 2024. Laying down the gauntlet essentially against the Trump-Putin axis within the Republican Party.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Sorry, your earpiece just popped out there.
REP. RASKIN: Even though I didn’t say the word.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, you can hear me. I mean, are you concerned that at the end of this investigation, you’re not going to find what it sounds like you’re looking for, which is substantiation of a- of a link between a pressure campaign to change the election results and the events of January 6th itself. Are you confident you’ll get that and you will be able to make a criminal referral to the Justice Department?
REP. RASKIN: Well, no, I think you put your finger on it. I mean, we know there were two things going on and one was a violent insurrection that included a mob riot which injured 150 of our officers with broken jaws and broken necks and broken vertebrae and so on. And then that was led by domestic violent extremist groups like The Proud Boys, who, you know, then President Trump had told to stand back and stand by the Oath Keepers, the three percenters, people who have been charged with seditious conspiracy, which means conspiracy to overthrow the government. They shut down the counting of Electoral College votes for the first time in American history. Didn’t even happen when Lincoln took-took the presidency, 1861. Okay. So there was that violent insurrection, but then there was an attempt at an inside coup, what the political scientists call a self-coup, not a coup against a president, but a coup that’s orchestrated by the president against the constitutional system. And what we’re looking for is the connections between the inside political coup and the violent insurrection. And I do feel confident we’re going to be able to tell that story.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But tell that story is different in the political context from making a criminal recommendation or a legal proceeding at the Justice Department. Are you confident that will happen?
REP. RASKIN: Well, we will lay out the evidence that we see. Now understand, the role of the January six select committee is to deliver a report to the American people in the Congress.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Exactly.
REP. RASKIN: And so individual criminal accountability is something that comes in the domain of the Department of Justice.
MARGARET BRENNAN: That’s why I wanted to make that clear.
REP. RASKIN: Yeah. And one of the traditions we want to rebuild that was torn down during the last administration was of not having members of Congress and the president trying to dictate policy to the Department of Justice. And that’s what the last president did. And I’m glad this president’s not doing it, and we don’t want to be part of that.
MARGARET BRENNAN: How long is too long? Because we keep hearing that the public hearings are getting pushed off. Is it May? Is it June? When do you cut this–
REP. RASKIN: I–
MARGARET BRENNAN: off?
REP. RASKIN: –think we’re- I think that the hearings should be in early May. That’s what I’m hoping for. Obviously, we’re up against a lot of obstruction now. This week–
MARGARET BRENNAN: Mm-Hmm.
REP. RASKIN: –we voted to bring contempt citations against–
MARGARET BRENNAN: Right.
REP. RASKIN: –Dan Scavino and Peter Navarro–
MARGARET BRENNAN: Right.
REP. RASKIN: –the social media guy for him, and Peter Navarro was the- the trade adviser who for some reason was off involving himself–
MARGARET BRENNAN: Right.
REP. RASKIN: –in insurrectionary coup plotting activities–
MARGARET BRENNAN: And that–
REP RASKIN: Those guys are claiming executive privilege, which is absurd.
MARGARET BRENNAN: And that vote is going to be happening this week?
REP RASKIN: We–
MARGARET BRENNAN: As we understand that–
REP. RASKIN: –hope so, yes.
MARGARET BRENNAN: We will be back with more Face the Nation in a moment.
