Rep. Jamie Raskin didn’t say Democrats wouldn’t certify election results if Trump won

Former President Donald Trump won the presidential election on Nov. 5 to become only the second president in history to return to the White House in non-consecutive terms.

Prior to that, a quote began circulating online, allegedly from Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Democrat from Maryland, implying Democrats would refuse to certify the election results if Trump won. 

“Let folks cast their votes for Trump if that’s their choice. But mark my words, we won’t be certifying the election. He might win, but we’ll ensure he doesn’t step foot in the Oval Office,” Raskin allegedly said according to the viral tweet. People commented that this quote was fake.

Some social media posts include a video purportedly showing Raskin talking about not certifying the election. The caption of the post with the video says, “Here’s a video of @RepRaskin where he declares that they won’t certify the election and allow Donald Trump to become the president.”

THE QUESTION

Did Rep. Jamie Raskin say Democrats wouldn’t certify election results if Trump won?

THE SOURCES 

• U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin Nov. 5 X post
• Axios report from Oct. 10, 2024
• Original video and transcript from a February 2024 panel in Washington D.C.

THE ANSWER

No, Rep. Jamie Raskin didn’t say Democrats wouldn’t certify election results if Trump won. The quote is fake.

WHAT WE FOUND

U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin did not say he or the Democratic Party would refuse to certify election results if Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election. VERIFY found no credible news reports or evidence that Raskin made the comment seen in the viral post. 

On Nov. 5, Raskin refuted the alleged quote, saying: “This fictional ‘quote’ is 100% fabricated … Despite this actionable libel and all the disinformation, America is having a free and fair election and Congress will certify the winner.” 

He recently told Axios that if Trump "won a free, fair and honest election, then we would obviously accept it.”

The video being circulated with the false claim shows a clip from a February 2024 panel in Washington, D.C., where participants discussed adding a Constitutional amendment to guarantee the right to vote.

During the panel, Raskin said the Supreme Court has “not been a friend to the people” and mentioned the challenges that come with enforcing constitutional amendments.

The video clip being shared shows him referring to Section 3 of the 14th Amendment – commonly known as the insurrection clause – which bars politicians from holding office if they engage in insurrection. He was discussing the Supreme Court’s reluctance to enforce constitutional amendments. He appears to be describing a hypothetical repeat of what happened on Jan. 6, 2021.

Here is a transcript from the panel, beginning at the one-hour mark:

“But the court is not going to save us. That means the only thing that really works is people in motion, amending the Constitution. But again, it's necessary but not sufficient, because what can be put into the Constitution can slip away from you very quickly, and the greatest example going on right now before our very eyes is Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which they're just disappearing with a magic wand as if it doesn't exist, even though it could not be clearer what it's stating. They want to kick it to Congress, so it's going to be up to us on Jan. 6, 2025, to tell the rampaging Trump mobs that he's disqualified. And then we need bodyguards for everybody and civil war conditions, all because the nine justices, not all of them, but these justices who have not that many cases to look at every year, not that much work to do, a huge staff, great protection, simply do not want to do their job and interpret what the 14th Amendment means.”

Legal experts have told VERIFY whether the 14th Amendment would apply to Trump is an untested gray area, because the clause has never been invoked for a president.