Rep. Jamie Raskin says 'whipping up mob violence to destroy fair elections' is the 'oldest domestic enemy' of US democracy

• The House Select Committee to investigate the Jan. 6 on the Capitol held its seventh hearing Tuesday.
• Rep. Jamie Raskin said that attempts to overturn elections are the "oldest domestic enemy" of America.
• Raskin cited similar mobs in US history that threatened democracy.

At the seventh public hearing held by the House Select Committee to investigate the January 6 attack on the Capitol on Tuesday, Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland said that former President Donald Trump's effort to overturn the election is one of the oldest tricks in the book.

"The problem of politicians whipping up mob violence to destroy fair elections is the oldest domestic enemy of constitutional democracy in America," Raskin said in his opening statement.

Raskin mentioned the 1837 racist mob in Alton, Illinois during Abraham Lincoln's presidency in which rioters broke into the offices of an abolitionist newspaper and murdered the newspaper's editor, Elijah Lovejoy. The congressman compared that mob to the crowd of Trump loyalists, which included white supremacists, who stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021. And he quoted Lincoln saying "mobs and demagogues" will put this country on the "path to political tyranny."

"If racist mobs are encouraged by politicians to rampage and terrorize, Lincoln said, they will violate the rights of other citizens and quickly destroy the bonds of social trust necessary for democracy to work," Raskin said.

Rep. Raskin said that the integration of the Internet and social media have served as tools of "propaganda" and "disinformation" that the Founding Fathers could have only "dreamed of."

The hearing featured clips from former Trump counsel Pat Cipollone, who was deposed by the committee the week before, as well as focused on the role of extremist groups the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers.

—NowThis (@nowthisnews) July 12, 2022