Jamie Raskin doesn’t hold back on the Trump Administration: “It’s like watching The Sopranos. This is a gangster state”

MSNBC’s Chris Hayes interviewed Maryland Congressman Jaime Raskin (D) on Friday evening, where he compared the Trump administration to the mafia. Raskin, who was elected to Congress in 2016, voiced outrage over what he sees as blatant and public corruption by Trump’s White House.

Rep. Raskin rails against the Trump administration’s corruption

“This is a gangster state,” warned the Congressman, who sees the corrupt actions being taken as not an occasional issue, but as a “corrupt enterprise,” using the public’s wallet and political power to enrich the president and his associates.

"It’s like watching The Sopranos. Every day, they get up and they try to figure out how to plunder and pillage the people."

Attacks on the federal judiciary by the White House are an attempt to consolidate power, warns Raskin

“The power of the courts to hold people in contempt is an inherent power of the courts,” explained the Congressman. The courts must have a way to enforce their decisions, or else there is no real power behind them. Now, facing a mountain of legal challenges, Raskin says the Trump administration is “trying to strip the courts of their power to coerce compliance with their orders.”

One way this is occurring is through attacks on the entire branch of government, including the Supreme Court, by the president and high-ranking advisors within his administration. Various officials have responded to court orders that halted their plans by labeling the cases as part of a larger judicial coup led by radical judges. The Congressman also addressed threats to the systems of checks and balances that prevent any one branch of government from overpowering the others. He criticized President Trump’s attacks against the judiciary, as well as the personal attacks on judges who have struck down aspects of the White House’s agenda.

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