Rep. Jamie Raskin says there will be a peaceful transfer only if the election is 'free and fair'

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said Friday that the Democrats will support the peaceful transfer of power in January, but only “If it’s a free and fair election.”  

Raskin was on "Real Time with Bill Maher" on Friday, where he said, "When I say we will support a free and fair election, no we we're not going to allow them to steal it in the states, steal it with the Department of Justice or steal it with any other election official in the country. If it's a free and fair election, we will do what we've always done: Honor it." 

Maher responded, "That is the Democrats' history: They honor it. That's the big difference between the parties." 

Former President Donald Trump, now the GOP candidate for president in this Tuesday’s election, has said much the same, while reminding everyone that in spite of the predictions last time around that he would refuse to leave office, there was a peaceful transfer. 

"Of course there'll be a peaceful transfer, and there was last time," Trump told a news conference back in August, a pledge he has often repeated. "I just hope we're going to have honest elections."

Back in March of this year, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously overturned a Colorado case that attempted to keep Trump off the ballot in that state because, they said, he had “engaged in insurrection” by inciting the January 6 riot, in violation of the 14th Amendment. The Supreme Court ruled that only Congress could enforce the language in the 14th Amendment to bar anyone from holding federal office.  

Though Trump was never charged, among the myriad federal charges against him, for insurrection, Raskin’s reaction at the time was to begin crafting legislation that would get around that Supreme Court decision. He told Axios at the time that "Congress will have to try and act." 

Raskin, the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee and a former member of the Jan. 6 select committee, pointed to legislation he introduced in 2022 designed to allow the Justice Department to sue to keep candidates off the ballot under the 14th Amendment.

He told Axios that "We are going to revise it in light of the Supreme Court's decision."

Raskin was one of several Democratic congressmen who attempted to block Trump’s taking office in 2017 after he had defeated Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election, according to CNN.