Raskin compares Trump White House to Putin’s Kremlin

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) on Sunday compared a “public philosophy” he says was developed by former President Trump’s administration to a model similar to that of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“During the Trump administration, we saw the development of a completely new public philosophy, which is that government is not an instrument of the common,” Raskin said on “This Week,” ABC’s Sunday show. “Government is an instrument for private self-enrichment for the guy who gets in, his family, for his private businesses.”

Raskin noted that he does not approve of this model, saying “That’s what Putin is doing.” He called on House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) to conduct an analysis of what the laws should be about moneymaking in government.

Raskin was responding to a series of questions in which he was asked whether foreign business dealings by President Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, concerned him at all. He deflected and instead addressed his concerns about former President Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, during the previous administration.

“And I’m concerned, not just about public officials like Donald Trump and Jared Kushner, but even family members who go along for the ride, and I’ve been begging my colleague, Chairman Comer, for us to do a serious analysis of what the laws should be about moneymaking,” he said.

Trump’s business dealings during his time as president had been the subject of investigations by House Democrats. Raskin criticized Republicans for their focus only on the Biden family business dealings and not of the president of their own party. Comer is leading the congressional investigations into Biden family business dealings.

“And we’re gonna release a report about all of the foreign government emoluments — millions of dollars — we can document that Donald Trump pocketed at the hotels at the golf courses to business deals when he was president and that his family got,” Raskin added. “But they’ve not laid a glove on Joe Biden. As president, they haven’t been able to show any criminal corruption on his part — what they’ve got is Hunter Biden.