Raskin labels GOP ‘isolationist MAGA cult’ that wants to side with tyrants

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) labeled Republicans in Congress a “right-wing isolationist MAGA cult” that has sided with tyrants.

Raskin, the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, joined MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Wednesday, where he said House Republicans “cheapened the meaning of impeachment” and have continued to “shred the Constitution” after the conference voted Tuesday evening to impeach Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in a historic vote.

“You know, the impeachment is an extraordinary remedy for a president or another high official who engages in treason, bribery, or high crimes and misdemeanors against the republic,” Raskin said. “It’s not a tool for trying to settle policy difference.”

Raskin commented on “the irony, of course,” of House Republicans blaming Mayorkas for the immigration crisis at the southern border while GOP senators last week tanked a bipartisan deal that’s been in the works for months to address the situation.  

The Maryland Democrat argued that partisan policy differences led to Mayorkas’s impeachment, and partisan ties led to the GOP backing the interests of former President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on the border deal and foreign aid package.

He questioned whether the U.S. would be able to support its allies in Israel, Ukraine and the Indo-Pacific, as well as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, all of which would have received funding through the package. He seemed pessimistic that it would happen.

Raskin argued that aid for the pressing issues will have the best chance “on the Senate side,” largely because of GOP representatives in the House who do what Trump asks. He named Reps. Lauren Boebert (Colo.), Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.) and Matt Gaetz (Fla.) as examples.

“What we’ve got is a right-wing isolationist MAGA cult that has overtaken the Republican Party, and they know that democracy and freedom are under siege all over the world, and they want to be on the side of the tyrants, autocrats and dictators,” he said.

Raskin continued, saying that the “shrinking minority” of Republicans like Sen. Mitt Romney (Utah) and former Rep. Liz Cheney (Wyo.) are becoming “distraught and are increasingly desperate” because the GOP has been reduced to a “cult of authoritarian personality.”