Former President Donald Trump’s attorney and Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin traded barbs on NBC’s “Meet the Press” over which legal team in Trump’s federal prosecution for allegedly attempting to overturn the 2020 election is actually “deranged.”
Trump has called the prosecutor in the case against him “deranged” multiple times, including on his Truth Social platform and again Saturday night at a South Carolina Republican dinner.
“Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd asked Trump’s lawyer John Lauro if he agrees that prosecutor Jack Smith is “deranged.” Later in the show, Democratic Rep. Raskin joined the program and responded to comments from Lauro arguing that violations of the Constitution aren’t violations of criminal law.
Raskin responded by noting that criminal law is in place to enforce the Constitution, which is what the former president is charged with violating. Raskin laid out the argument that Trump was involved in using fake electors to attempt to overturn the 2020 election.
“I mean, there are people who are in jail for several years for counterfeiting one vote,” Raskin said. “He tried to steal the entire election, and his lawyer’s out there saying ‘Oh that’s just a matter of him expressing his First Amendment rights.’”
“That’s deranged. That is a deranged argument,” Raskin added.
Earlier in the show, when asked by Todd whether Trump is right that prosecutor Jack Smith is “deranged,” Lauro pivoted. He argued that President Joe Biden has said that he wants Trump out of the race for president, going on to say that Biden has “put in motion a political prosecution in the middle of an election season.”
He added that “everything is open to politics,” painting Trump’s comments as political. Lauro added, “I’m not involved in politics, I’m just representing a client. I’m ensuring that justice is done in this case.”
Todd responded by asking if innocent people attack prosecutors. Lauro responded by calling the case against his client a “political campaign” and saying that, during a political campaign, “people are going to speak out.”
He went on to say that his role isn’t to address “anything about prosecutors,” before adding, “I will say this: There’s been a history in the Justice Department of rogue prosecutions.”
You can watch the full interviews with Lauro and Raskin above.
