#Jamie raskin son dies trial#

And I want to tell you what I told you before the interview, which is that your book really made me wish I knew him. Our interview was recorded yesterday morning.Ĭongressman Raskin, welcome to FRESH AIR. Prior to serving in the House of Representatives, Raskin served three terms in the Maryland state Senate. Getting back to my question, how did he manage to get through this work after his son's death? He tries to explain how and why in his new memoir 'Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth And The Trials Of American Democracy.' The book is about what he describes as the two impossible traumas that he will probably spend the rest of his life trying to disentangle and understand, the death of his son and the insurrection. Now he's a member of the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 attack, the events leading up to it and the people behind it. He had been a professor of constitutional law at the American University Washington College of Law before entering politics.

#Jamie raskin son dies trial#

Tabitha and Hank hid in the office of House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer under Hoyer's desk, afraid they were going to die.Īfter the insurrection, at the request of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Congressman Raskin served as the lead manager in the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump. They were not expecting a violent mob to storm the Capitol, trying to overturn the election results. They didn't want him to be alone that day. His daughter, Tabitha, and his other daughter's husband, Hank, went along with him.

Despite Raskin's grief, he showed up at the Capitol the next day to do his constitutional duty and certify the election. When I watched my guest, Congressman Jamie Raskin, give his closing remarks at Donald Trump's second impeachment trial in the Senate, I wondered, how is he managing to get through this? His 25-year-old son, Tommy, who had been suffering with mental illness, had died by suicide December 31, 2020. Now Raskin serves on the House select committee charged with investigating the Jan. Raskin's son died just days before the Capitol insurrection.