'Unworthy of this body': Raskin blasts GOP’s 'unnecessary' 'election integrity' hearing

The United States House of Representatives Committees on House Administration and Oversight and Accountability held a hearing on Wednesday morning called American Confidence in Elections: The Path to Election Integrity in the District of Columbia, in which lawmakers alleged that election laws in DC lead to fraud.

But as Congressman Jamie Raskin (D-Maryland) pointed out, the Republicans' argument is a red herring.

"The Heritage Foundation's election fraud cases database identifies zero instances of voter fraud in Washington DC since 1979," Raskin said. "That's no election fraud in the nation's capital in the last forty-four years and DC's very strong pro-voter, pro-registration policies are clearly conducive to election integrity and have not led to any episodes of voter fraud that I'm aware of, but perhaps, the majority has some in mind."

Raskin blasted his colleagues for what he sees as a nakedly partisan attack on democracy in the nation's capital.

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"The only plausible reason for this legislation today is for people who really know nothing about local Washington DC beyond Capitol Hill, to use DC as a whipping post, a Guinea pig, and a sacrificial lamb in their effort to constrict the vote and depress participation nationally with this hearing," Raskin stated.

"Our friends in the GOP have moved from the macro suppression of representation, voting rights, and political voice in Washington," Raskin added, "to the micro suppression of local voting rights to keep people from even getting to the polls to cast ballots for candidates for the few offices that DC residents are actually allowed to fill this bill's unnecessary, unfair, undemocratic, and unworthy of this body."