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JUDY WOODRUFF: For more
takeaways from last
night's hearing, we
turned to a member of

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the January 6 Select Committee,
who also served as the
lead impeachment manager

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in former President Trump's
second impeachment trial.

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He is Maryland Democratic
Representative Jamie Raskin.

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Congressman Raskin, thank
you very much for joining us.

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What do you think the
committee accomplished
with last night's hearing?

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REP. JAMIE RASKIN (D-MD): Well,
we showed not only that the
whole plot against the 2020

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presidential election was based
on a big lie, but that Donald
Trump knew it was a big lie,

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that all of his closest
legal advisers, including
Attorney General William Barr,

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the White House counsel,
all of them told him
that this was nonsense,
there was nothing there.

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And yet he proceeded
anyway. And he engaged
in the seven-part plan

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to try to strip Joe Biden
of his lawful majority in
the Electoral College vote.

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He tried to usurp the will
of the American people
and replace the will of
a sitting president who

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wanted to seize the
presidency and essentially
become an autocrat, a
tyrant over the people.

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And we are also showing -- and
you saw a good piece of this
last night -- the way in which

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mob violence was
recruited to the cause,

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and there were domestic violent
extremist groups that came
together to overthrow the

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election and to engage in
insurrectionary violence against
the constitutional order.

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JUDY WOODRUFF: And,
Congressman, given that, what
do you say to Republicans
who are out there, like

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Congressman Jim Banks,
who spoke today with my
colleague Lisa Desjardins,
who are saying that the

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committee used selectively
edited videos, that it
was mainly theatrical,
and that you really didn't

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do -- prove anything with regard
to President Trump directing
what happened at the Capitol?

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REP. JAMIE RASKIN: Well, they
have obviously been over our
hearing with a fine-tooth comb.

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In other words, they come
back, and they cannot
challenge a single fact.
They cannot challenge a

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single piece of evidence,
but they have to call
the whole thing a sham,
which is meaningless.

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They have tried that in
court too, and all of the
courts that have looked
at it have rejected their

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claims that somehow we're
unlawfully composed.
No, they say we are a
perfectly lawfully composed,

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bipartisan entity, unlike our
critics, who are all of one
particular political party.

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And we are engaged in the
essential legislative work
of trying to investigate
an assault on the

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constitutional order
itself. And the first rule
of thumb for a democratic
government is survival

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and self-preservation against
those who would tear it down.

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And it's sad, because, as
we have been able to show
already, a lot of them

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were very upset about what
had happened. They were
begging the president to act.

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They were very tough on the
president for the first few
days later. Then, essentially,

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Donald Trump brought
them all back into line.
It's a sad thing to say.

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JUDY WOODRUFF: Congressman, one
other point that Republicans
continue to make is that

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House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi and others in the
Democratic leadership
prevented, in effect, the

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National Guard from being
there to bolster what
security, the Capitol
Police were able to provide.

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What's the response to that?

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REP. JAMIE RASKIN: Well, that's
utterly false and baseless.
There's nothing to support that.

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And we will explain,
best we can, how

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the National Guard's response
was so slow. But it's the
president of the United States

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who oversees the Army, which
oversees the National Guard
of the District of Columbia,

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which has no governor for
itself. So that's a bizarre
argument for them to make.

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But they're throwing up a lot
of ridiculous stuff because
they don't want to focus on

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the essence of this
investigation, which is that we
have a disappointed president

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who was defeated by more than
seven million votes, 306 to
232 in the Electoral College,

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who refused to accept his
defeat, and decided to
disseminate propaganda
about this big lie,

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and then work in a whole
bunch of different ways
to try to illegitimately

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undermine and destroy his
opponent's victory in the
presidential election.

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And that is not going to work
for us as a constitutional
democracy in this century.

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JUDY WOODRUFF: And,
Congressman, given how divided
the country is politically,

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how do you expect to change
the minds of the millions
of Americans who today

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believe former President Trump
that the election was stolen?

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REP. JAMIE RASKIN: Well,
it's divided because of this.
It's divided because there

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has been a big lie. It's
divided because there's been
this onslaught against fair

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elections across the country
administered by Republicans,
Democrats, independents.

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I think it's a responsibility
that's not just on
the shoulders of the

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nine of us on this committee or
everybody in Congress. It's the
responsibility of everybody,

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and the parents to talk to
their kids and teachers to
talk to their students and to

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explain how a constitutional
democracy works,
and that there's a
difference between fact

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and fiction, there's a
difference between truth and
lies and conspiracy theories.

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And the struggle to
defend democratic
institutions is interwoven

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with the struggle to arrive
at the truth and to tell
the truth to the people.

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JUDY WOODRUFF: Representative
Jamie Raskin of Maryland,
a member of the House

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January 6 Select Committee,
thank you so much.

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REP. JAMIE RASKIN: It's always
a pleasure to be with you.