'Constitution wasn't set up for this': Lawmaker alarmed as Trump impeachment debate rages

Rep. Jamie Raskin said the Founding Fathers would be speechless at Republican lawmakers' refusal to hold President Donald Trump accountable, and lamented that the Constitution simply wasn't built for a president like him.

The Maryland Democrat and lead House manager in Trump's Jan. 6 impeachment trial made the claim in a wide-ranging interview on Slate's Amicus podcast, arguing that the Framers never imagined partisanship would override Congress members' loyalty to their own branch of government.

"I think Madison and Jefferson and Hamilton would be astonished that anybody in Congress would vote not to impeach or not to convict a president for inciting a violent mob to attack Congress itself, and to try to interfere with the peaceful transfer of power. The antidote to us operating from fear, whether it’s fear of mob violence or fear of personal attacks or fear of nuclear war or fear of what an out-of-control president might do, is for people to act with some courage and with some common sense, as much as possible across party lines," Raskin said.

Raskin argued that the constitutional crisis posed by Trump has exposed the limits of the document the Founders wrote, noting that a president threatening nuclear devastation and vowing to destroy "an entire civilization" was "obviously outside of the contemplation of the Framers."

"The Constitution wasn't really set up for this," Raskin said flatly.

The congressman also dropped an explosive assessment of Vice President JD Vance, calling him "morally invertebrate" for being in Hungary campaigning for Viktor Orbán's reelection during the Iran crisis, and predicted Trump would attempt to steal the 2026 midterms.

"Will they try to steal the election? Of course they will try to steal the election. They’re trying to steal it every day, when they close down precinct polling places in Texas, and when they throw people off the rolls in Georgia," he said.

Raskin argued impeachment shouldn't be treated as a taboo or a "fetish," but as an essential tool in Democrats' broader strategy to hold Trump and Republicans accountable heading into November.