#Congressman jamie raskin son tommy trial

Meanwhile, Tabitha, Hank, and Raskin’s chief of staff, Julie Tagen, were barricaded in Hoyer’s office: “The kids hiding under the desk, placing what they thought were their final texts, and whispered phone calls to say their goodbyes - they thought they were going to die.” “I heard a sound I will never forget, the sound of pounding on the door like a battering ram, the most haunting sound I ever heard and I will never forget it,” he went on. Members of Congress were removing their congressional pins so they wouldn’t be recognized by the mob as they tried to escape the violence.” He described what he saw: “All around me, people were calling their wives and their husbands to say goodbye. Instead, Raskin was stuck on the house floor. They didn’t yet know about the breach of the Capitol, and when Raskin finally found out about it, it was too late for him to reunite with Hank and Tabitha. When it was over, according to Raskin, they went back to Hoyer’s office while Raskin remained on the floor. Tabitha and Hank watched the speech from the gallery. I quoted Abraham Lincoln’s famous 1838 Lyceum speech when he said that ‘if division and destruction ever come to America, it won’t come from abroad, it will come from within,'” he explained.īut that 19th-century speech would also turn out to have additional prescient significance in light of the events that were about to unfold: “In that same speech Lincoln passionately deplored mob violence… and he deplored mob rule, and he said it would lead to tyranny and despotism in America,” Raskin said. In that office, through tears, Raskin worked on the speech he was about to make on the floor that day: “I wanted to focus on unity as we met in the House. “Lots of Republicans, lots of Democrats came to see me and I felt a sense of being lifted up from the agony, and I won’t forget their tenderness,” Raskin said, audibly still moved by those gestures.

“Tabitha and Hank were with me in Steny’s office as colleagues dropped by to console us about the loss of our middle child, Tommy, our beloved Tommy.” Steny Hoyer, the House majority leader, offered the family use of his office. “They asked me directly ‘would it be safe’ and I told them ‘of course it should be safe, this is the Capitol,'” Raskin recalled.

Tabitha and Hank had heard about the scheduled protests by Trump supporters and they were worried. “I invited them instead to come with me to witness this historic event - the peaceful transfer of power in America,” Raskin recounted. He said that Hank and Tabitha were with him that day because “they wanted to be together with me in the middle of a devastating week for our family.” “There was also my son-in-law Hank who is married to our oldest, Hannah, and I consider him a son too, even though he eloped with my daughter and didn’t tell us.” Raskin then explained that the couple had an excuse for their elopement - the pandemic.

“Distinguished members of the senate, my youngest daughter, Tabitha, was there with me it was the day after we buried her brother, my son Tommy, the saddest day of our lives,” he opened his speech. But eloquently and emotionally, Raskin’s speech reminds us of the personal and national costs incurred in that violent coup. The speech was harrowing and heart-wrenching - at certain moments throughout it, you can see the congressman barely holding back his tears.įor many of us, it is still hard to wrap our heads around what happened at the Capitol that day.

#Congressman jamie raskin son tommy trial

He spoke about how the day personally affected him and his family: “I hope this trial reminds America how personal democracy is,” he told the crowd. In an opening statement this Tuesday, on the first day of the trial, Raskin recounted the happenings of January 6, a day in which he should have been home, sitting shiva, in more detail than he ever had before. Raskin had just buried his son, Thomas “Tommy” Bloom Raskin, who died by suicide, a day earlier. The Jewish politician, lawyer, and law scholar was at the Capitol during the mob violence on January 6, along with his daughter and son-in-law. Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland is leading the senate trial against former President Donald Trump as impeachment manager.