众议院委员会成员杰米·拉斯金众议员调查2021年1月6日的暴乱周日在国会大厦表示，与了解暴力是如何发生的以避免暴力重演相比，对试图推翻2020年大选的人(包括前总统唐纳德·特朗普)的刑事指控不是他的“主要兴趣”。
“我们的民主岌岌可危。我们的宪法危在旦夕。我们的选举会遭到暴力袭击吗?我们会有对选举结果失望的政客，试图推翻选举，夺取政权吗?这就是美国民主在21世纪的样子吗?”这位马里兰州的民主党人告诉《本周》的主持人玛莎·拉达茨。
“所以，对我来说，我主要感兴趣的是告诉美国人民真相，这样我们就可以加强我们的机构，防止未来的政变和叛乱，”拉斯金继续说道。
“但我知道公众非常渴望追究个人的刑事责任，我相信司法部和司法部长梅里克·加兰会做出正确的决定，对特定案件做出所有困难的决定，”他说。
拉斯金发表上述言论之前，该委员会于1月6日举行了最近一次公开听证会，概述了时任总统特朗普向司法部施压，要求推翻他在2020年大选中失利的证据。
该委员会表示，其调查显示，这场旷日持久的竞选活动包括，除其他外，试图用一名更愿意承认特朗普要求的忠诚者取代代理司法部长，以及没收投票机的建议和赦免在该计划中合作的保守派议员的谈判。
在周日的“本周”节目中，拉斯金对这一努力表示震惊，但也赞扬了确保2020年竞选不会被推翻的地方官员。
“我们看到了一系列像布拉德·拉芬斯佩格这样的国务卿的选举官员和州立法官员的连续改组。我们看到了许多英雄，像叶莎·莫斯这样坚韧不拔的人，他们不愿意被阻止履行他们的公共职责，”他告诉Raddatz，指的是佐治亚州在选举中面临压力的官员。“我们在司法部看到了与特朗普自己任命的人相同的事情，这些人告诉他，他们不能做他要求他们做的事情。”
拉达茨向拉斯金追问他认为听证会对公众意识的“真正影响”，引用了最近美国广播公司新闻/益普索的一项民意调查，即34%的美国人在一定程度上或非常密切地关注听证会，“尽管有些人非常关注，”拉达茨说。
“人们很忙，所以我们知道很多人，尤其是年轻人，将通过电视或网络上的片段了解听证会，人们现在能够以不同的方式处理信息，”拉斯金说。“这不像水门事件听证会那样，因为当时的技术相对落后，每个人都必须在同一时间观看。随着时间的推移，人们将能够吸收这一点。”
拉斯金还讨论了亚利桑那州众议院议长罗斯·鲍尔斯(Rusty Bowers)的证词，鲍尔斯是一名共和党人，他也曾被要求推翻特朗普在2020年在该州的失利。鲍尔斯告诉委员会，这样做违背了他的信念，但如果特朗普成为共和党提名人，对抗总统乔·拜登，他仍会在2024年投票支持特朗普。
拉斯金说:“拉斯提·鲍尔斯的证词以及他的宪法信仰和爱国精神让我非常感动。”。“当他这么说的时候，我心想，嗯，如果你想让唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)重新上任，而且这真的要成为现实，你必须准备好下次做完全相同的事情，因为特朗普已经证明自己完全不尊重法治，完全不受宪法管辖。”
Charges for Trump or others not a 'principal interest,' Jan. 6 committee's Jamie Raskin says
Rep. Jamie Raskin, a member of the House committeeinvestigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riotat the Capitol, said Sunday that criminal charges against the people involved in trying to overturn the 2020 election -- including former President Donald Trump -- were not his "principal interest" compared to understanding how the violence unfolded to avoid it being repeated.
"Our democracy is on the line here. Our Constitution is at stake. Are we going to have violent assaults against our elections? Are we going to have politicians who, disappointed with the results, try to overthrow the election and just seize power? Is that what American democracy is going to look like in the 21st century?" the Maryland Democrat told "This Week" co-anchor Martha Raddatz.
"So, for me, I'm principally interested in telling the American people the truth so we can fortify our institution against coups and insurrections going forward," Raskin continued.
"But I know that there's a great public hunger for individual criminal accountability, and I've got confidence in the Department of Justice, in Attorney General Merrick Garland, to do the right thing in terms of making all the difficult decisions about particular cases," he said.
Raskin's remarks come after the Jan. 6 committee held its latest public hearing, on Thursday, outlining evidence of then-President Trump's pressure campaign on the Department of Justice to overturn his loss in the 2020 election.
The committee says its investigation showed the sprawling campaign involved, among other things, an attempt to replace the acting attorney general with a loyalist more willing to concede to Trump's demands as well as suggestions of seizing voting machines and talks of pardons for conservative lawmakers who cooperated in the scheme.
On "This Week" on Sunday, Raskin expressed alarm at the effort but also praised local officials who ensured that the 2020 race was not overturned.
"We saw a series of successive shakedowns of the election officials of secretaries of state like Brad Raffensperger, of state legislative officials. And we saw a lot of heroes, people who hung tough, like Shaye Moss, and were not willing to be deterred from doing their public duties," he told Raddatz, referencing officials in Georgia who faced pressure over the election. "We saw the same thing at the Department of Justice as Trump's own appointees, who were telling him they could not do what he was asking them to do."
Raddatz pressed Raskin on what he saw as the "real impact" of the hearings in the public consciousness, citing a recent ABC News/Ipsos poll that 34% of Americans had been following the hearing somewhat or very closely -- "as much as some people are very riveted," Raddatz said.
"People are busy and so we know a lot of people, especially younger people, will learn about the hearings through snippets that go out on TV or online and people now are able to process information in different ways," Raskin said. "It's not like the Watergate hearings where everybody had to be watching at the same moment because of the relatively primitive state of technology then. People are going to be able to absorb this over time."
Raskin also discussed the testimony of Arizona state House Speaker Rusty Bowers, a Republican who was also pressed to overturn Trump's loss in the state in 2020. Bowers told the committee it was contrary to his faith to do so but that he would still vote for Trump in 2024 if Trump were to be the GOP nominee against President Joe Biden.
"I was very moved by Rusty Bowers's testimony and his constitutional faith and patriotism," Raskin said. "When he said that, I thought to myself, well, if you want to get Donald Trump back in office, and that were actually to materialize, you got to be prepared to do the exact same thing next time because Trump has proven himself to be absolutely disrespectful of the rule of law and completely ungovernable by the Constitution."
