Jerry Nadler Stepping Down From Top Spot On Judiciary Committee, Endorses Jamie Raskin

WASHINGTON ― Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) announced Wednesday he wouldn’t run to be the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee next year, endorsing Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) as his replacement.

“As our country faces the return of Donald Trump, and the renewed threats to our democracy and our way of life that he represents, I am very confident that Jamie would ably lead the Judiciary Committee as we confront this growing danger,” Nadler wrote in a letter to his colleagues obtained by The Associated Press.

Democrats are reshuffling the deck after a disappointing election that many hoped would give them control of the House of Representatives, only for Republicans to hang on, albeit with an even tinier majority than they had for the past two years.

Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, announced his bid to take over as the top Democrat on judiciary this week, saying the committee would be “the headquarters of Congressional opposition to authoritarianism.”

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) told HuffPost on Wednesday that she might run to replace Raskin as the ranking member of the Oversight Committee, though she would need to beat Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) for the job.

At 35 years old, Ocasio-Cortez becoming a committee leader would represent a significant generational shift for Democrats. Raskin, 61, is somewhat younger than Nadler, who is 77.

The highest-ranking member of the minority party sits beside the committee chair and plays a significant role in hearings. Under Raskin’s leadership, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee frequently undermined Republican messaging as that committee tried but failed to come up with impeachment material against President Joe Biden.

Raskin told reporters in November he believed Democrats wouldn’t merely obstruct Republicans when they control the House, Senate and White House next year.

“We have to make common cause with the Republicans when it’s to the interests of the country,” Raskin said.

The House Judiciary Committee next year will be chaired by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), a strong backer of President-elect Donald Trump. Committees draft legislation and can issue subpoenas for testimony or information under penalty of contempt of Congress and referral to the Department of Justice for prosecution.

Asked about Republicans using subpoenas to harass political enemies, Raskin said he had been thinking about a 1798 letter from Thomas Jefferson to John Taylor, at a time of anti-immigrant hysteria, in which Jefferson wrote, “a little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and the people recovering their true sight.”

“This is the role of the opposition in a moment like this, we’ve got to hang tough for constitutional democracy,” Raskin said.

As chairman of the Judiciary Committee when Democrats controlled the House, Nadler led two impeachment efforts against then-president Trump.

“When Donald Trump and his administration threatened the rule of law and our democratic order, I led the Judiciary Committee’s efforts to hold him accountable for his various abuses of power, culminating in two historic impeachments,” Nadler said in his letter.

Raskin praised Nadler in a statement.

“Jerry Nadler is an extraordinary lawyer, patriot and public servant,” he said on social media. “His dogged defense of civil rights and civil liberties is a great inspiration to our people. I am honored and humbled to have his support in the battles ahead.”