‘Nigel Farage wouldn’t let me speak – at a free speech conference’

Read time: 5 mins

In brief…

• Jamie Raskin tells Jon Sopel about his clash with Nigel Farage during an event to discuss the UK’s Online Safety Act, and how he doesn’t believe the Reform UK leader, or any other “ultra-right” politician really believes in free speech.
• Raskin describes free speech as a “hobby horse” for people such as Farage and Trump, and something they will try to “extinguish” as soon as they come to power.
• He also speaks of his concerns over Ghislaine Maxwell’s collaboration with the US Department of Justice, saying he believes she has no credibility as a witness against Jeffrey Epstein, but still believes Trump will pardon her.

What’s the story?

Nigel Farage believes in free speech, except for any speech he doesn’t agree with, says Jamie Raskin, the US democrat yelled at by the Reform UK leader at a free speech event in London this week.

Raskin, US House representative from Maryland’s 8th district and the man who led the prosecution of Donald Trump after the January 6 riots, clashed with Farage this week during a meeting between US and UK representatives to discuss the impact of Britain’s new, and controversial, Online Safety Act.

“He wouldn't let me finish my speech, he wouldn't let me talk,” Raskin tells Jon Sopel on The News Agents.

“We just listened to an hour-long presentation by right-wing politicians and think tank people about how the European Union is essentially crushing civil freedom, and how your new Online Safety Act is actually going to destroy the right of conservatives to speak.”

Raskin says he addressed Donald Trump’s attacks on free speech in the US and pulling funding from universities, and says Farage “couldn’t handle it”.

“Two or three minutes into my talk, he began screaming that this wasn't about Donald Trump, and he wasn't going to allow this,” Raskin adds.

“He said: 'You're a guest here. You're a guest in our country. You're not being a good guest'. And I said” ‘You know what, you're a host, you should act like a host’.

“He started saying I was the most pig-headed person he had ever seen.”

He says the conversation ended after he responded by saying the US had a “revolution” against people like Farage, referring to the American Revolution, which resulted in the formation of the United States, after it broke from British rule.

‘Farage identifies with the ‘ultra-right’

Raskin describes Farage as someone who identifies with the “ultra-right” political parties that have risen in Europe in recent years, such as the French National Rally or Alternative For Deutschland.

“These people are in league with Donald Trump,” he says.

“They believe in free speech, except for any speech that they don't agree with, then they're not interested in free speech.

“They're interested in free speech right up until the point that your speech criticises them, then they want to shut you down.”

To people like Farage, and Trump, Raskin adds, free speech is nothing but a “political hobby horse” which is only used to campaign for power, and then extinguished once that is achieved.

Can Zohran Mamdani save the Democrats?

Since Trump came to power, there has been widespread criticism of the Democrats for a lack of opposition to his attempts to extinguish free speech, among many other actions since his January inauguration.

“They said the Republicans would never recover after losing an election to Obama, back to back. They said there was a permanent democratic transformation in the country, and they wouldn't come back,” he says.

“When you've lost an election you always look like you're down and out. We don't control the House or the Senate.

"Our job in the minority is to fight our way back into the majority so we can move forward on a progressive agenda in the country."

He praises leading progressive names in the Democratic Party, such as Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and Zohran Mamdani for their work to bring the Democratic Party back to its home on the left of US politics.

"Progressive movements fought for the minimum wage, progressive movements fought for child labour laws," he says.

"Progressive movements have fought for the great advances of our history. You don't always look to elected politicians to be the ones who are germinating all of those ideas."

Raskin remains optimistic about the future of the Democratic Party – in part due to Trump's "sagging" popularity due to tariffs, and more recently his actions around the Epstein files.

Will Trump pardon Ghislaine Maxwell?

There are now concerns that Trump’s next move could be to pardon Ghislaine Maxwell, the only person to be behind bars in association with the crimes of pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.

She is working with the Department of Justice to agree to testify before Congress about Epstein's activities – potentially in exchange for her freedom.

"If she testifies, and there's a strong demand to see her come and testify, her credibility is quite near zero, because she's seeking a pardon and clemency from President Trump," Raskin says.

"That's her only practical way of getting out of prison, and Donald Trump will presumably get her to say whatever he wants.

"The idea that the Department of Justice would lend itself to this scheme just demonstrates how much they are operating under Donald Trump's thumb."

He adds that if Trump was willing to pardon the 1,600 January 6 rioters – some who disabled and “disfigured” police officers, then he would have no issue offering the same to Maxwell.

"The Department of Justice should release the files, and then we can take her testimony into account with everything else we're able to get," he says.

"There are lots of Republicans who are honest people, who think that Donald Trump really meant it when he said he was going to release the files.

"They believed there was this extraordinary conspiracy of silence to suppress the truth about the full dimensions of this child sex abuse ring."

Listen to the latest episode of The News Agents.