- Congressman Jamie Raskin of Maryland said on Sunday that “he will not lose my son in late 2020 and lose my country and my republic in 2021” while he reflected on the recent death of his 25-year-old son Tommy and his own role as the House’s chief manager in President Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial.
- On CNN’s “State of the Union” with host Jake Tapper, Raskin said that his son’s memory led him to accept the request of mayor Nancy Pelosi to become an impeachment manager.
- “I really did it with my son in my heart and helping to show the way,” said Raskin. “I feel it in my chest.”
- Raskin called the January 6 Capitol riots “the most dangerous crime ever committed by a president against the United States”.
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Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland said on Sunday that “I will not lose my son in late 2020 and lose my country and my republic in 2021” while reflecting on the recent death of his 25-year-old son Tommy and his own role as the House’s chief administrator in President Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial.
During an apparition on CNN’s “State of the Union” with presenter Jake Tapper, Raskin expressed how the memory of Tommy, a graduate of Amherst College and a Harvard Law School student who died on December 31, led him to accept the request of the president of the Nancy Pelosi, to become an impeachment manager during a personal tragedy.
“I really did it with my son in my heart and helping to show the way,” said Raskin. “I feel it in my chest.”
On January 14, Trump was impeached by the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives for “inciting the insurrection” of the January 6 Capitol riots, making him the only president in U.S. history to face two charges.
Read More: Mitch McConnell is telling Republican senators that his decision on Trump’s impeachment conviction is a ‘vote of conscience’
Raskin, who was present at the Capitol during the attacks along with his youngest daughter and son-in-law, had to navigate what was the most significant breach of the building since 1814. Even during that harrowing attack, which resulted in five deaths, the spirit of his son guided him.
“When we went to count the votes of the Electoral College, and he suffered that ridiculous attack, I felt my son with me,” he said.
A moving post on Medium written by Raskin and his wife, Sarah Bloom Raskin, highlights his son’s very short but highly accomplished life trajectory. They spoke with love of their innate spirit.
“Tommy Raskin had a perfect heart, a perfect soul, an excessively outrageous and unforgiving sense of humor and a radiant and dazzling mind,” they wrote. “He started being tortured at age 20 for a ‘blindly painful and ruthless illness called depression’, a kind of relentless torture in the brain for him.”
The congressman, who for years taught constitutional law at American University, mentioned the dangers of the January 6 riots and their effects on democracy.
“I will not lose my son in late 2020 and I will lose my country and my republic in 2021,” he said. “This will not happen.”
He emphasized, “This was the most serious presidential crime in the history of the United States of America – the most dangerous crime for a president ever committed against the United States. There are Republicans who are recognizing it, as well as Democrats.”
The House vote for Trump’s second impeachment included the support of ten Republican lawmakers, including Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, No. 3 Republican at the conference.
Raskin promised that House Democrats will send impeachment articles to the Senate in a timely manner, which will result in Trump facing a Senate trial.
“We don’t have a minute to lose,” he said. “He is a clear and present danger to people.”
He added: “We are drafting a test plan, which aims to spread the truth about all of these events. We will be able to tell the story of this attack on America and all the events that led to it.”