Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., went through two inconceivable catastrophes in the course of a single week last year.
His son Tommy, 25, committed suicide on New Year’s Eve 2020 after years of struggling with mental illness. Then, on Jan. 6, 2021,
just one day after Tommy’s funeral, Raskin was at work in the United States Capitol with his daughter and son-in-law when a violent
crowd stormed the building in an attempt to reverse the presidential election results.
He recalls a moment when “I wasn’t sure whether I was ever going to be able to do anything again.”
Then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., invited him to serve as the primary manager in President Donald Trump’s second
impeachment trial. Looking back, Raskin sees Pelosi’s request as a lifeline.
“I was forced to galvanize all of my love for Tommy and my daughters, Hannah and Tabitha, and my wife, Sarah, and our family and
our country, and to throw myself into the trial to make the case that Donald Trump had incited this violent insurrection in an effort to
overthrow the 2020 presidential election,” Raskin said.
I felt no dread because the worst thing that might have happened to me had already occurred.
Representative Jamie Raskin
Raskin recognized that leading the impeachment trial would undoubtedly result in death threats, but he persisted.
“I personally felt no fear, because the very worst thing that ever could have happened to me had already happened to me,” he said. ”
And so my feeling to the people who want to take down our democracy is that they’re not going to scare me out of doing my job.”
