Jamie Raskin

That is how long the government has been closed.

for over 40 days.

Democrats here in this body and in the Senate have chosen chaos over our country.

They chose to shut the government down because politics demanded it, not policy.

The elites who dominate their party's decision-making are the ones least impacted by its decisions.

Were the far-left activists and Democrats here in this body the ones not getting paychecks?

No, Mr. Speaker.

That was the air traffic controllers, our troops, and our Capitol police officers.

When these same people passed Obamacare, were they the ones impacted?

Well, it's obviously an outrage.

It's a scandal.

And it does feel like a major lurch into further lawlessness in the country because it was Donald Trump's own handpicked U.S.

attorney, Mr. Siebert, who was originally charged with investigating James Comey and came back with the conclusion that there was not remotely enough evidence to prosecute for any offense.

So under a system of a rule of law, that would have been the end of the story.

But instead, President Trump decided that there wasn't a problem with his case.

There was a problem with the prosecutor and decided to sack this Republican U.S.

attorney who demonstrated complete fidelity to the rule of law.

Then he replaces him with a handpicked sycophant underling

who never had had a day working as a prosecutor, who gets into office and, what do you know, dusts off the exact indictment that had been rejected by the U.S.

attorney and decides to indict James Comey for it.