Jamie Raskin
Role at the time: U.S. Representative from Maryland, in a quote-post on his official X account (@RepRaskin)
Statement summary
In a post quoting an Associated Press report that fencing had gone up around the main Kennedy Center building after the board voted to close it, Raskin calls closing the center an affront to President Kennedy's memory, an attack on Congressional power and an assault on the livelihoods of the artists and workers who operate and perform there. He adds, 'We're demanding it remain open and free from the President's graffiti, vandalism and desecration.'
“Closing the Kennedy Center is an affront to President Kennedy's memory, an attack on Congressional power and an outrageous assault on the livelihoods of the artists and workers who operate and perform in our cultural center. We're demanding it remain open and free from the President’s graffiti, vandalism and desecration.”
Raskin's own post on the X account his House site lists, a quote-post of the Associated Press post about the fencing; it is not a reply. The post shows no edits. We did not save an archive copy of the post.
Why we used this label
Raskin's own words call closing the center 'an affront to President Kennedy's memory' and demand that it 'remain open and free from the President's graffiti, vandalism and desecration', which rejects the closure and condemns the President's conduct toward the building without mentioning recognition by name. The closest competing label is “Challenged the characterization”, because part of the post recasts the President's conduct in its own labels. That loses because the passage goes on to express a clearer substantive condemnation of the closure, which the label guide places under condemns.