Ranking Member Jamie Raskin delivers his opening statement

Mr chairman welcome judge timkovich I'm delighted to see you and thank you for joining us today um we've convened because of a broken promise and I don't mean Donald Trump's promise that uh egg prices would be lowered immediately on the first day of office of course they're now more expensive than they've ever been in US history and I don't mean the promise to end Russia's filthy war on Ukraine on day one uh everybody knows that Donald Trump has now uh declared that president zalinski is a dictator and that he start Ed the war against Russia even though we've got tape of Donald Trump at the time declaring uh Putin's war on zalinski as an active genius but now I refer to a promise of the old-fashioned legislative variety the kind that Congress used to run on when our word was our bond around here Democrats and Republicans agree that the courts need to have more federal judges it's been more than three decades since we passed a law to increase the numbers of judges on the bench we had a bipartisan deal last Congress to give the courts the added judges they need our stalwart ranking member Mr Johnson and our distinguished chairman Mr Isa worked on a painstaking and honorable bipartisan uh deal to create a bill that would have spread additional District Court judgeship appointments recommended by the judicial conference over multiple presidential administrations beginning with the next unknown president that was the key pass the bill before the election so neither side no one would know whether this party or that party might benefit in the short term the Senate upheld their end of the bargain and passed the bill on a bipartisan basis last August then the House GOP leadership suddenly broke the promise and refused to bring the bill up for a vote before the presidential election in other words before the winner of the next election was known instead they waited to know who would be president if it was Harris they would oppose it if it was Trump they would support it so now of course they support it itching to appoint loyal Mega judges to the bench to uphold the lawlessness of Elon Musk and Donald Trump which has already elicited more than 25 temporary restraining orders and preliminary injunctions across the land they are very happy to talk about creating new seats on the federal bench they broke their deal they've undermined Justice in the courts we were willing to enter into a fair deal because we believe in Equal justice under the law our friends seem to believe today only in heads I win tails you lose if my GOP colleagues want to do it the right way the fair way and the way that they agreed to do it last year let's do it I've got the exact same bill the precise Bill we all agreed to last year drawn up for this Congress and we're ready to support it this is the deal we all agreed to to last year the number of judicial appointments Mr Chairman's exactly the same the order of appointments by the states exactly the same and just as before these appointments would begin with the next president whoever that may be right it could be JD Vance it could be Hank Johnson it could be if the Constitution changes and I know some people are itching for that it could be Donald Trump for all we know whoever is the President we would do it but we don't know that's the whole thing we're in the Rian original position here and just as before um these appointments would begin with the next president with unanimous bipartisan support please join me in ranking member Johnson today in moving to seriously fix our federal Judiciary without destroying it with last minute Party politics and if you can't support the exact same agreement we all enter to then we must call this hearing out for what it is a power grab a week ago president Trump signed an executive order declaring that he and the Attorney General will interpret the law for the executive branch that statement Cuts directly against the decision in Marbury versus Madison this is what I want to ask you about today judge timkovich so I'll give you a little uh forew warning I want to talk about Marberry versus Madison um there the Supreme Court said the Judiciary could order Secretary of State Madison to deliver assigned judicial commission to William Marbury even if the president told him not to remember marbor versus Madison is Secretary of State James Madison not President Madison Jefferson was the president and he was telling Madison not to deliver the judicial commission that had already been uh signed and sealed though not delivered chief justice Marshall said it is emphatically The Province and the duty of the judicial Department to say what the law is debunking more than two centuries ago the delusions of executive Supremacy and interpreting the law that are circulating in Washington today uh former Trump Chief of Staff John Kelly told the press that President Trump quote prefers the dictator approach to government candidate Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity in December of 2023 that he would be quote a dictator on day one just last week the official White House X account posted a picture of Donald Trump wearing a crown and proclaiming long live the king um he must have forgotten about Tom Payne who he actually had the audacity a quote on inauguration day uh who said that in the autocratic societies the king is the law but in the free societies the law is King the law is King we overthrew monarchy in a revolution and our constitution explicitly bans the award of titles of nobility president Trump has been hard at work removing safeguards against lawlessness and Corruption he's been gutting the career civil service and replacing it with an army of sick offense he's illegally sacked 18 Inspector General the people responsible for rooting out waste Fraud and Abuse he's been slashing into independent and bipartisan agencies charged with protecting the rights of workers the Integrity of Elections the safety of consumer products our bank deposits he's been ordering career prosecutors to carry out unlawful orders in criminal cases to test whether their loyalty is to the Constitution or to him personally he's been firing people who refuse to bend the knee including staunch conservative Republicans he's been threatening FBI agents for doing their jobs and investigating um members of violent extremist militias who beat cops as they mobbed the capital uh in their drive to overturn the 2020 election he's attempted with the stroke of a pen to revoke birth Birthright citizenship which is enshrined in the 14th Amendment he's shut down agencies created by the Congress which he has no power to do now our GOP colleagues who have a slight majority in the house and the Senate have done nothing to stand up for congress's powers under article one instead they've surrendered to this President who's trampling the powers of congress Republican senator Tom Tillis Shrugged off Trump's power grab and laughed it off quote that runs a fou of the constitution in the strictest sense he said but it's not uncommon for presidents to flex a little bit on where they can spend and where they can stop spending despite the gop's abdication of congressional Authority there's still something that stands between Trump musk and their dreams of tyranny the independent Judiciary which is why we're watching in real time as the Republicans putting their loyalty to Trump and musk over their oath to the Constitution turn on the federal court system the attacks on the Judiciary did not come out of nowhere for decades the Federalist Society has sought to undermine judicial in Independence meanwhile some of the same donors who fund right-wing candidates political campaigns are funding right-wing justices vacations further undermining the Court's credibility but recent statements made by President Trump go further they threaten to abolish our system of checks and balances vice president uh Vance has posted that judges aren't allowed to control the executive's legitimate power um and Elon Musk has repeatedly undermined the Judiciary on social media saying things like activist judges should be removed from the bench where there's no justice and no judge is greater than the consensus will of the people not to be outdone president Trump posted He Who saves his country violates no law but here's the good news despite is gentleman prepared to summarize I'm prepared to summarize thank you Mr you guys have given us a lot to talk about um look um over the last few days I've seen colleagues introduce articles of impeachment against federal judges because they don't like judges who actually stand up to these violations of the Constitution and now we're seeing yet another plan to corrupt our Judiciary take place let's go back back Mr chairman to the nonpartisan agreement that was broken last Congress we have no quarrel about the need for new judges we all agree to it but it's got to be done in a way that it's always been done it's done for the next Administration when nobody knows who it's going to help or who it's going to hurt Madison said in Federalist 47 the accumulation of all powers legislative executive and Judiciary in the same hands whether of one a few or many whether hereditary self-appointed elective may be pronounced the very definition of of tyranny let's avoid that now you back to you Mr chairman