Scoop: Raskin plots House Dems’ 2025 probes
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Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) speaks at the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 19, 2024. Photo: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), Democrats' top investigator in the House, already has a pretty clear idea of what probes his committee will pursue if his party retakes the House majority, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: Committee leaders such as Raskin are likely to have significant power to pursue their agendas if House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-Md.) becomes speaker, senior Democratic sources tell Axios.
- Raskin is particularly well positioned as his panel, the House Oversight Committee, has gradually become the House's go-to investigative body.
Driving the news: Raskin told Axios in an interview that Democrats would "probably have a pretty good start based on everything we've been asking the Republicans to look into, that they refuse to do."
- That includes hearings on longstanding policy issues such as gun control, climate change and Supreme Court ethics, with the goal of persuading the public of the merits of policy action, he said.
- Raskin said he also would likely pursue Trump-focused investigations, including the business dealings of former President Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and Trump's own business operations when he was president, to help craft anti-corruption legislation.
Zoom out: Jeffries is known as a delegator who gives broad leeway to his leadership team, putting Raskin in position to have considerable authority.
- One House Democrat familiar with Jeffries' leadership style predicted the Democratic leader would be "engaged" with his committee leads, but "not like a top-down, 'Here's what you could do'" way.
- "He would strategize with them. I don't get the sense that he would dictate, but he would also help them along," the lawmaker said.
- Sources stressed, however, that Jeffries has not been closely engaged with planning for a potential Democratic majority and is instead squarely focused on winning back the House in November.
Zoom in: A former member of the Jan. 6 select committee, Raskin said he wants to use that probe as a "role model" and get his panel out of the business of chaotic hearings and aimless, scattershot investigations.
- "One of the things I loved about my experience on the Jan. 6 committee was that we elevated the mission generally above just the little soap boxes that each member gets," he said.
- Raskin contrasted that with the "food fights segmented into five-minute blocs" that have plagued hearings by the GOP-led House Oversight panel during this Congress.
- Other cues Raskin said he wants to take from the Jan. 6 panel is delegating to rank-and-file Democrats to lead certain hearings and incorporating video and expert testimony to "educate the public in a deeper way about a social problem."
Reality check: Many of these plans of this will depend on whether Trump or Vice President Harris wins the White House in November.
- If Harris wins, Raskin will have plenty of time to pursue his goals.
- But "if Donald Trump were somehow to find his way back into the White House" while Democrats win control of the House, "then ... we would obviously be forced to spend a lot of our time just trying to defend the rule of law," Raskin said.
- Raskin also cautioned that he is not "counting any chickens before they hatch" when it comes to Democrats winning the House majority.
