HARTFORD, Conn. — President Donald Trump could be impeached for the third time if the Democrats regain control of the U.S. House of Representatives in the fall, a key lawmaker said Monday in Hartford.

U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin would become the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee if Democrats recapture the House in the November election, which Democrats believe is likely even as some Republicans remain skeptical.

In a campaign stop outside the Old State House in downtown Hartford, Raskin endorsed his friend, U.S. Rep. John B. Larson of East Hartford, and said he will be filing a new bill Tuesday on the steps toward removing Trump by invoking the 25th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which was originally adopted in 1967. Larson has already filed articles of impeachment against Trump after numerous threats during the ongoing war with Iran, including Trump threatening that “a whole civilization will die” if a deadline was not met.

“Trump circumvented the Constitution,” Raskin told Larson supporters. “There’s no Congressional declaration of war. There’s no Congressional authorization of war. He’s also avoided the War Powers Act, which requires that the president can go to war without Congress only when there’s an imminent threat to the security of the country — an attack on the country — and obviously those things didn’t exist. The framers of the Constitution talked about this as an impeachable offense. … Going ahead and threatening nuclear extinction against a whole civilization? Well, that sounds like a pretty impeachable offense, as well. As John says, that just scratches the surface.”

Raskin came to Hartford as Larson is facing the toughest re-election fight of his long career — a potential four-way primary against Hartford mayor Luke Bronin, state Rep. Jillian Gilchrest of West Hartford and Hartford attorney Ruth Fortune. They will be battling for delegates at a convention May 11 and those with 15% of the delegates will qualify for a Democratic primary in August.

A constitutional scholar, Raskin served as the lead manager of Trump’s second impeachment concerning the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

He now wants Trump to take a cognitive test under the supervision of the White House physician because of his statements about Iran. Raskin has also asked for a list of “any medications he is currently taking and their potential cognitive side effects.”

The requests were made following Trump’s Easter Sunday social media post to “open the … strait” and a later statement about wiping out a “whole civilization.”

But the White House has pushed back hard against Raskin, one of the most prominent Democrats in Congress.

“Lightweight Jamie Raskin is a stupid person’s idea of a smart person,” White House spokesman Davis Ingle said in a statement. “President Trump’s sharpness, unmatched energy, and historic accessibility stand in stark contrast to what we saw during the past four years when Democrats like Raskin intentionally covered up Joe Biden’s serious mental and physical decline from the American people.”

Larson ahead in poll

The Larson campaign recently released an internal poll that showed Larson in the lead with 49%, followed by Bronin at 26% and Gilchrest at 9%. An additional 15% were undecided or supported other candidates. The live telephone survey of likely primary voters was taken in late January with a margin of error of 4.9 percentage points.

Despite being behind Larson in the poll by 23 points, Bronin said the survey was not good news for Larson.

“I was surprised that he put that poll out there because I think it showed weakness, not strength for Congressman Larson,” Bronin said when asked by The Courant. “To be a 28-year incumbent and to be losing to a combination of challengers and ‘I don’t know’ in a poll is not a strong position to start. I think what it reflects is what we see out there, which is a tremendous hunger for new energy and new voices in the Democratic Party.”

Bronin declined to predict whether Gilchrest will win the necessary 15% of the delegates to qualify for the August primary, while her supporters say that she will qualify. Gilchrest, 44, is highly concerned about the ongoing war in Iran.

“Trump is dangerous and behaving like a lunatic with American lives and the global economy on the line,” she said. “We don’t need a cognitive test to prove what’s obvious — he needs to be removed from office immediately. I’ve been calling for impeachment for months.”

Gilchrest added, “As the mother of a 17-year-old, the thought of young Americans dying in a fool’s war terrifies me and pisses me off. Our imperialist approach to foreign policy has been disastrous, and comes at the expense of basic needs at home. America should protect human rights — here and abroad.”

On Monday, Fortune said, “I respect Congressman Raskin’s leadership, particularly his work investigating the January 6th riot. It’s not surprising when members of Congress endorse colleagues facing tough primary challenges. If I were the incumbent, Congressman Raskin would probably endorse me. Congressman Raskin will work with the Democrat the First District elects.”

One of the repeated issues in the campaign is that Larson is 77 years old and has served for nearly 28 years in the Congress. All three of his opponents are younger, and Bronin, in particular, says that Larson has served long enough.

Bronin, 46, said that Raskin, 63, has served only nine years in Congress and has been elevated to be the top Democrat on two different committees.

“Jamie Raskin is sort of the perfect example of why it’s so important to get new energy and new voices in our Democratic caucus down there,” Bronin said outside of his Hartford home overlooking Bushnell Park. “Congressman Raskin is somebody who in his fifth year in Congress managed the impeachment of Donald Trump, who challenged a 30-year Democratic incumbent to lead the judiciary committee and who was one of the first Democrats to have the courage to say that President Biden should step aside in a moment that every minute mattered.”

Bronin unveiled a television commercial that was broadcast during the Final Four basketball games that have high viewership among fans of the UConn men’s and women’s teams. In addition, his commercial was broadcast on Sunday night on “60 Minutes,” a popular program among news junkies and primary voters.

Larson recently filed 13 articles of impeachment against Trump after Trump posted on social media that “a whole civilization will die” if Iran failed to meet a deadline, which was later extended. He is also asking Trump’s Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from the White House.

“Donald Trump has blown past every requirement to be removed from office. And it’s getting worse,” Larson said. “His illegal war in Iran is not only driving up prices for American families — it has cost American lives. He’s becoming more unstable by the day. His profane and sacrilegious Easter Sunday and subsequent threats, including ‘a whole civilization will die’ and ‘open the Strait … or you’ll be living in hell’ not only foreshadow war crimes, but put our security at risk.”

Like Raskin, Larson says that the 25th Amendment can be invoked.

“People across my district know he is unfit to lead and are calling for impeachment,” Larson said of Trump. “While Republicans in the majority have so far failed to uphold their constitutional responsibility to initiate impeachment proceedings, that does not absolve others of their duty. Members of the Cabinet and those closest to the President can act immediately. They have an obligation to put patriotism over politics and invoke the 25th Amendment. Donald Trump is unable or unwilling to faithfully execute the responsibilities of the office and he is putting the nation’s security and economy in jeopardy.”

Larson foreshadowed actions ahead if Democrats regain control of the House.

“In Congress, I will continue to help build a clear and undeniable record of Donald Trump’s corruption, high crimes, and violations of the Constitution,” Larson said, “so that when the moment comes, whether in this Congress or the next, we are prepared to act decisively and uphold the rule of law.”

Bronin recently said that Trump should be removed from office if he orders American troops into Iran in a ground war. A U.S. Navy veteran who was deployed to Afghanistan as an intelligence officer, Bronin has followed the military action closely.

‘This president, whose presidency was bought by Elon Musk, who sells pardons to the highest bidder, who takes bribes from foreign governments that invest in his crypto schemes, and who has empowered ICE to be a lawless agency that tramples on our constitutional rights every day and needs to be abolished, if that president crosses this next line and commits our men and women to a ground war in the Middle East yet again, let that be the last straw,” Bronin said at a recent rally. “He should be removed from office. Not censured. Not criticized in some subcommittee. Not the recipient of a strongly worded letter. Removed from office.”

After Trump’s Easter Sunday post, Bronin went a step further.

“This is insane,” he said. “He cannot be President of the United States. Impeach, 25th, the tools are there – but he has to be removed.”

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