Rep Jamie Raskin (D-Md) followed a two-minute speech made by the gentlelady of Georgia, Marjorie Taylor Greene. He ended up admitting he used “unparliamentary” language on the House floor and agreed to having his words taken down.
Marjorie had taken the floor on a discussion about a bill to help Ukraine receive military aid quicker, but Marjorie immediately bee-lined to the Mexico-U.S. border “conflict.”
“Gentlelady talked about a massive invasion. We had a massive invasion of our own chamber. And she continued to be a cheerleader for the insurrection, and deny what happened here,” an animated Raskin said.
Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (R-Pa.) said Raskin’s words should be taken down as they were offensive. After fifteen minutes, Raskin agreed.
“The House rules do forbid engaging in personalities and I accept the advice of the parliamentarian that I used unparliamentary language to make my point and I certainly respect the necessity for parliamentary decorum,” the Maryland Democrat said, but added, “I accept the idea that they were unparliamentary but I do not believe they were untrue.”
NPR reports that Raskin and California Rep Ro Khanna are planning to turn around the messaging of Democrats by coalition building the progressive and Democratic caucuses ahead of the mid-term elections.
Khanna said their brainstorming sessions started after a phone call from Biden into a closed-door Congressional Progressive Caucus meeting last October. Raskin made a poignant remark to the president.
“He got up and he said, ‘Yes, we’re all progressives, but we’re also Democrats. And most importantly, we have to recognize that the challenge against us is the return of authoritarianism and then that those are the stakes,’ ” Khanna said of his colleague.
Khanna says he learned from a Pennsylvania focus group that characterized Republicans as “crazy” and Democrats as “preachy.”
“Preachy is to go on TV and say, ‘Well, if you’re not for Medicare for all, then you must be evil and you must want people to die and you must be wrong,’ right?” Khanna said. “As opposed to saying, ‘Here is why we want to make the case for Medicare For All.’ “
Raskin says that Republicans are trying to destroy faith in democracy, and that progressives and Democrats need to better defend those attacks. So Raskin thinks of himself as a liberal, but also a conservative.
“I love to call myself a conservative, too, because I want to conserve the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, the land, the air, the water, the climate system, the Voting Rights Act, the Civil Rights Act, the National Labor Relations Act, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid,” Raskin said. “Everything that our friends across the aisle seem to want to be tearing down is everything that we want to conserve.”