Transcript: Rep. Jamie Raskin on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” April 26, 2026

The following is the transcript of the interview with Rep. Jamie Raskin, Democrat of Maryland, aired on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on April 26, 2026.

MARGARET BRENNAN: We're back now with Maryland Democratic Congressman Jamie Raskin. Congress, you were there last night.

REP. JAMIE RASKIN: Yes, absolutely.

MARGARET BRENNAN: One of the guests in the ballroom. Unfortunately, this is not the first encounter with political violence. Among the many people in that room, the president, Steve Scalise, who survived the shooting himself, was Charlie Kirk's widow, RFK Jr. as we said, and you were in that Capitol on the sixth of January, taking refuge in fear of your life at that time. How did that affect what happened last night? What did you do?

REP. RASKIN: So I just walked into the room, and I was talking to some reporters who came to me from the Boston Globe. Their table was near the surrounding area. As I entered the ballroom. Kerry Kennedy was their guest, and we were talking in a loud voice. There was a cry, plates, glasses, silverware hit the floor, and everyone shouted, come down. Someone pushed me from behind, and we all ended up on the ground. When it was over, Kerry, who actually lost his father to an assassin and his uncle, President Kennedy, said, I can't believe that school children are going through this all over America and they don't have the resources to process their trauma. And so that started a conversation about gun violence and how you know, somewhere between 275 and 300 people are shot every day in our country, and we lose over 100 of them every day. So as this nightmare was unfolding at the White House Correspondent's dinner, dozens of people were shot and killed in our country. So I hope this is not just an inside beltway story. I hope we will talk about the situations of school children and people all over the country who are going through this.

MARGARET BRENNAN : No, good point. We benefited from all that security. Those children all over the country don't have any of this.

REP. RASKIN: Yes, of course. And you know, I heard President Trump talk about this showing the importance of the new ballroom, and he sent some messages about the ballroom, and that would help people who visit the White House, but what about the people in the malls and theaters and high schools and elementary schools across the country? So I hope we can have a serious national conversation about what we can do to improve public safety for everyone.

MARGARET BRENNAN: On that point, I mean, we're in the 10th week of the partial shutdown of Homeland Security, which, by the way, the Secret Service, falls under the Homeland Security umbrella, and so do a lot of key personnel. This has recently been compounded by this policy conflict in Congress. Do you think things are changing after last night?

REP. RASKIN: I certainly hope so. I mean, we, you know, of course, we had a unanimous vote out of the Senate, all the Republicans, all the Democrats, and then all the Democrats in the House voted to restore all the funding, except for ICE. And of course, it was about ICE killing innocent people in Minneapolis, Alex Pretti and Renee Good that led to this disagreement about this so I hope we can improve public safety for everyone.

MARGARET BRENNAN: But it was in the house, and the Republican leadership didn't want to do that. But do you think it's changing now that the Democrats and Republicans are going to say, fully fund everything?

REP. RASKIN: Yes, and we have three-fourths of Congress together in moving forward, solving the remaining problems and getting everything financed. Fortunately, you know, there's no interruption in any of the ICE funding because it was very high, very well funded in the beginning. So that's why it's like a contradiction, because they have the money they need, but we still have to deal with the problems that led to this in the first place.

MARGARET BRENNAN: It was the Democrats' position to hold on to that–

REP. RASKIN: –to catch?

MARGARET BRENNAN: Making the argument for changes, policy wise, to ICE and CBP

REP. RASKIN: Well, after the massacre in Minneapolis, yes, exactly.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Understandably, because you said it was done–

REP. RASKIN: -The majority of Americans agree- no, the idea is that ICE is somehow not getting its money.

MARGARET BRENNAN: I understand.

REP. RASKIN: It's been getting, I mean, money for a long time because of the original, you know, “big, good credit.”

MARGARET BRENNAN: President. I want to make sure I understand what he said, because I don't hear him talk like this very often. He said, I asked all the American people to give their hearts again, to resolve our differences peacefully, and he talked about integration with members of the media.

REP. RASKIN: Yes. Yes, that's for sure- that's a new message from him. That's good. You called the media, of course, you are an enemy of the people, and you have held many cases against your work.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yes, yes. We're heading into this politically charged midterm season. There will be a nationwide campaign with the members of the law. I mean, does anything change? He said, this, does anything change? Does the language of democracy need to change?

REP. RASKIN: We said a long time ago that we need every politician in the country, every leader of the country, and every citizen in the country to condemn all political violence, regardless of where it comes from. So, you know, I find this a welcome change in rhetoric. But you know what happened last week, they sued the Southern Poverty Law Center, whose entire purpose is to investigate or discriminate against right-wing extremism in the country, and now they're prosecuting them using undercover agents, which of course, the FBI uses and the government uses all the time.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Understood. And there is, along party lines, some political violence, too much right now. And in fact, Speaker Emerita Pelosi on this show said to me recently that she thinks the threat or concern about violence or threats to your family is what hurts the recruitment of candidates, especially mothers, especially women. Do you see that? That people are afraid to even join public life because of this?

REP. RASKIN: Sure, anyone thinking about running for office no doubt thinks about that. Anyone thinking of running for president is undoubtedly thinking about that. And those people have a lot of protection with the Secret Service, and other people don't have the same kind of protection. So look, we have to rediscover the great American tradition of nonviolence and Dr. King and civilized organizations have always opposed violence against violent groups that have historically used violence, starting with the Ku Klux Klan, to terrorize other people.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Congressman Raskin, thank you for joining us, and we're glad you were able to do so. We will be right back.