Jamie Raskin had finished a face-to-face interview with the Guardian and was coming home. It was a Saturday night in October 2018. But then he thought of a point he hadn’t made and, always meticulous, resumed the phone conversation.
“Heterosexual white men are already a minority in the Democratic caucus, but when the big blue wave hits, we will be getting very close to parity in terms of women and men, at least on the side of the Chamber,” he said, a forecast that has come true one month then in the mid-term elections.
He himself took office only in January 2017, representing Maryland’s eighth congressional district. Just four years later, the proud progressive sees himself as the main prosecutor in Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial. Senators, experts and millions of viewers heard his deceptively calming tones eviscerate the former president.
They were doubly amazed when he joined the politician and the staff to share an unfathomable pain: his 25-year-old son, Tommy, killed himself on New Year’s Eve after years of struggling with depression. Tommy was buried on January 5 – the day before a violent mob mounted a deadly uprising on the United States Capitol.
Raskin, 58, also told how his daughter Tabitha and son-in-law Hank accompanied him to the Capitol that day – and had to hide under a table.
“They thought they were going to die,” he said, his voice breaking as he remembered apologizing to Tabitha, 23, for putting her in danger. In a trial focused on the excesses of an aspiring strong man, Raskin’s very human displays of vulnerability have the quality of redemption.
Jared Huffman, cofounder with Raskin of the Congressional Freethought Caucus, said: “Who knew that almost immediately after that tragic day he would be given this task and would soon start working full time on something of such historical importance? Maybe it helped him deal with the loss, but I think the concern for those of us who are friends with Jamie is that when this is all over, there may be a very difficult fall back to grief and he will need a lot of Support. “
Raskin has politics in his blood. His father, Marcus Raskin, was a young White House adviser to John F. Kennedy, a fierce anti-Vietnam war activist and co-founder of the institute for progressive political studies. His mother, Barbara Bellman, was a journalist and novelist.
Raskin graduated from Georgetown Day School in 1979, then studied at Harvard and law school, where he was an editor at Harvard Law Review and his professors included Professor Laurence Tribe. Tribe recalls that Raskin and his wife, Sarah, met in his class on the constitution.
“He is one of the most impressive students I have ever met and also an extremely impressive human being,” he said.
“The courage he showed in the face of an unthinkable personal tragedy was something to see. As the chief impeachment manager, he couldn’t have done a better job. I taught some impressive people, like President Obama and the President of the Court [John] Roberts and Justice [Elena] Kagan, and he is at the very top of the students, I feel very proud to have played at least a small role in education. “
Tribe remains in contact with Raskin, who told him that he feels that his son is “with him” during his effort.
“He is fully aware of the enormous historical importance of this trial and the weight he carries on his shoulders and carries with grace,” said Tribe. “But, being aware of that, I think he would spend more time with his family because they are still in mourning.”
‘The political route’
Raskin has been a professor of constitutional law at Washington University of Law at American University for more than a quarter of a century. All these years of studying and lecturing are paying off in the trial – if not in the minds of Republican senators, at least in the writings of future historians.
Allan Lichtman, a friend and colleague at the university, said: “Twenty-five years ago, I assumed he would continue his academic career. I didn’t necessarily expect him to take the political path, but he has certainly been incredibly successful at it. ”
Lichtman described Raskin’s role as chief impeachment manager as “incredible”, admitting: “I am a petty old man. I go back to the Eisenhower government and I don’t cry much, but his final presentation that first day, when he made it so personal and so moving, brought me to tears ”.
Raskin ran for the Maryland state senate in 2006. He was informed that his proposal to legalize gay marriage was unrealistic and made him appear “extremist”. Less than a decade later, the right of same-sex couples to marry has been confirmed by the United States Supreme Court. Raskin served three terms and became the majority leader.
Susan Turnbull, who was a local Democratic official, described him as a “wonderful legislator” who also plays the piano and writes lyrics.
“One of the things about Jamie, from the moment you met him, is the recognition of how smart he is, how he cares about institutions and understands the difference between right and wrong,” she said.
“As a professor of constitutional law, his love for his country, for history, for human values was something that everyone had always seen in him, from the moment he met him. I don’t know a single person who has ever said anything bad about Jamie Raskin. “
This includes Democratic and Republican members of Congress. Turnbull, former chairman of the Maryland Democratic Party and vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee, added: “Jamie is known for bringing freshmen from both sides of the corridor to the U.S. Holocaust Museum to see what happens when the government gives wrong”.
Raskin won the Congressional election in 2016 after a difficult nine-person primary in his deep blue district. He and Sarah, a former deputy treasury secretary, live in Takoma Park with their dogs Potter and Toby. He rose quickly in the House and established a reputation as one of the cool guys in politics. His appointment as the main promoter of the impeachment article placed him at the center of the national scene.
Huffman, his colleague in Congress, said: “It is unusual for a member who has been here for just over four years to have such an important assignment, but this is a time that is especially suited to having Jamie in the lead.
“It was described as the worst constitutional violation in our history by a president. Who better to defend this case, to remind us what the constitution requires, than our main constitutional academic? Jamie said on one of our calls a few days ago that Donald Trump doesn’t know much about our founders, but our founders knew a lot about Donald Trump. “
Huffman noted Raskin’s admiration for Thomas Paine. Raskin closed the case of the prosecution by citing the political and revolutionary philosopher, but updating him in the interest of gender quality: “These are the times that test the souls of men and women”.
Thomas Raskin was named after Paine. Tommy, as he was known, was studying at Harvard Law School when he committed suicide. He left a note that said, “My illness won out today. Please take care of each other, animals and the global poor for me. “
In a painful tribute of 1,700 words, Raskin and his wife wrote about their son’s love for playing jazz, piano, writing and performing acts and “teaching our dogs foreign languages”. But they also noted that he “began to be tortured at age 20 by an extremely painful and unforgiving depression”.
“Despite the excellent doctors and a loving family and network of friends of hundreds who adored him beyond words and whom he also adored, the pain became overwhelming, relentless and unbearable,” wrote the couple.
Then, in a stunning interview with CNN before the trial, Raskin simply said, “I will not lose my son in late 2020 and I will lose my country and my republic in 2021. It will not happen.”
‘The sky is the limit’
What’s next for Raskin? After Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 Democratic primaries, the Maryland congressman’s allegiance to the party’s left can be seen as an impediment to one day winning the elections as mayor, senator or even president.
Alan Dershowitz, a prominent civil liberties lawyer who taught Raskin at Harvard Law School (and defended Trump in his first impeachment trial), said: “He would do well to move to the center if he wants to have a political future. There is no future in the Democratic Party’s extreme left national politics.
“You can draw a lot of attention for being on the left, but it is indicated for being in the center. I think his goal is obviously to become a senator and perhaps a higher position, but he will have to move to the center of it. “
Raskin, however, is determined to go his own way. In his 2018 interview with the Guardian, he explained: “It is not my ambition to be in the political center, which blows in the wind. It is my ambition to be at the moral center and that is why I consider myself a progressive, because I think that our job is to find what is right, the best that we can, and then bring the political center to us and that is what makes politics interesting and significant. “
The impeachment trial gave him stature in many eyes as a defender of the constitution, democracy and moral integrity – in short, an anti-Trump.
Huffman added: “I think the sky is the limit. Politics is a difficult long-term weather forecast. It depends a lot on factors that nobody can control, but I think Jamie would be in the mix for all kinds of things and, frankly, our country is the best for that. Having someone of your caliber available for any great opportunities that open up is a big thing. “