“We cannot have presidents inciting and mobilizing mob violence against our government and our institutions because they refused to accept the will of the people under the Constitution of the United States. “This cannot be the future of America,” Raskin said through more tears. The congressman said that exchange, as well as “watching someone use an American flagpole, with the flag still on it, to spear and pummel” a Capitol Police officer “ruthlessly,” were his worst memories of the insurrection. When it was over and the family reunited, Raskin said he promised his daughter that “it would not be like this again the next time she went to the Capitol” only to have her say she had no interest in coming back. “They thought they were going to die,” he said. Raskin said his daughter and son-in-law were locked in a nearby office, hiding under a desk “placing what they thought were their final texts and whispered phone calls.” The most haunting sound I ever heard, and I will never forget it,” he said. “And then there was a sound I will never forget, the sound of pounding on the door like a battering ram. The mob eventually breached the building, and Raskin described lawmakers on the House floor being instructed to put on gas masks. 6, Trump exhorted his followers to march to the Capitol and “fight like hell.” Trump’s claims of fraud were repeatedly dismissed, including by Republican judges who have ruled the lawsuits lacked evidence. Of course they’d be safe, Raskin remembered responding, because “this is the Capitol.” Raskin recalled how the pair wondered if going with him would be safe given Trump had exhorted his supporters to come to Washington for a rally championing the then-president’s baseless claims that he lost November’s presidential election because of fraud. 6 - when rioters unleashed their rampage. The bipartisan Sarah Debbink Langenkamp Active Transportation Safety Act. Congressman Jamie Raskin (MD-08), introduced and named a new safety bill in Sarah Langenkamp’s honor. Raskin’s grown daughter, Tabitha, and his son-in-law, Hank, accompanied him to the Capitol the next day - Jan. Recognizing that the tragedy of his wife’s death was far more common than we should ever accept as normal. Raskin’s 25-year-old son, Tommy, a law student at Harvard, his father’s alma mater, killed himself on New Year’s Eve after years of struggles with depression, and was buried the following Tuesday. On Tuesday, he punctuated harrowing accounts of rioters laying siege to one the leading symbols of American democracy by drawing on tragedy in his own life. Though acquittal is likely thanks to Senate Republicans who have remained loyal to the ex-president, the proceedings have greatly raised the national profile of Raskin, who is serving as the Democrats’ impeachment manager. Trump is the first president to face an impeachment trial after leaving office and the first to be twice impeached. Five people died as a result of the insurrection. "And by asking me to be the lead impeachment manager, was telling me that I was still needed.Raskin, 58, a former constitutional law professor, is leading the impeachment prosecution in the Senate of former President Donald Trump, who is charged with inciting last month’s siege of the Capitol to overturn the election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden. And I wasn't sure if I would ever really be able to do anything again," he told the New York Times at the beginning of 2022. Raskin, a former constitutional law professor who was elected to Congress in 2016, is perhaps best known for his work investigating the Capitol riot and as an impeachment manager during former President Donald Trump's second impeachment.Īnd he's no stranger to tragedy - two years ago, he lost his son to suicide just days before the January 6 assault on the Capitol. "My love and solidarity go out to other families managing cancer or any other health condition in this holiday season-and all the doctors, nurses and medical personnel who provide us comfort and hope." "I plan to get through this and, in the meantime, to keep making progress every day in Congress for American democracy," he added.
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