Jamie Raskin ended an interview with the Guardian and was on his way home. It was late on Saturday night in October 2018. But then he thought of a point he had not made and started the conversation again by telephone, even though he was fast.
“Straight white men are already a minority in the Democratic caucus, but if the big blue wave hits, we’re going to move much closer to parity in terms of women and men, at least on the House side,” he said. a month later in the midterm elections came true.
He first took office in January 2017, representing the Eighth Congress District of Maryland. Only four years later, the proud progressive finds himself as chief prosecutor in the second indictment over Donald Trump. Senators, experts and millions of TV viewers have heard his deceptively soothing colors bring out the former president.
They were dazed as he weaved the political and the personal together to share unfathomable sadness: 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 – a day before a violent mob followed a deadly uprising at the American Capitol.
Raskin, 58, also recounted how his daughter Tabitha and son-in-law Hank accompanied him to the Capitol that day – and had to hide under a desk.
“They thought they were going to die,” he said, cracking his voice as he recalled apologizing to Tabitha, 23, for endangering her. In a trial focused on the extravagance of a prospective strongman, Raskin’s very human vulnerability has the quality of redemption.
Jared Huffman, a co-founder of Raskin of the Freethought Caucus of Congress, said: “Who knew he would get this assignment almost immediately after that tragic day and could quickly start working full time on something of such a historic significance? Maybe it helped him cope with the loss, but I think the concern for those who are friends with Jamie is that when it’s all over, there could be a pretty hard relapse into sadness and that he will need a lot. have support. ”
Raskin has politics in his blood. His father, Marcus Raskin, was a young assistant in the White House of John F Kennedy, a fierce anti-war activist in Vietnam and co-founder of the progressive think tank, the Institute for Policy Studies. His mother, Barbara Bellman, was a journalist and novelist.
Raskin attended Georgetown Day School in 1979 and then studied at Harvard and his law school, where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review and among his teachers was Professor Laurence Tribe. Tribe remembers 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 is also an extremely impressive person,” he said.
‘The courage he displayed despite unimaginable personal tragedies was something to behold. As chief accusation manager, he could not possibly do a better job. I learned quite a few impressive people, such as President Obama and Chief Justice [John] Roberts and Justice [Elena] Kagan, and he is at the very top of the students that I feel very proud that I played at least a small role in education. ”
Tribe stays in touch with Raskin, who told him he feels his deceased son is “with him” during this attempt.
“He is well aware of the enormous historical significance of this trial and the weight he carries on his shoulders, and he carries it with grace,” Tribe said. “But because he is aware of it, I think he would spend more time with his family because they are still in mourning.”
‘The political route’
Raskin was for more than a quarter of a century a professor of constitutional law at the Washington College of Law of the American University. All the years of studying and teaching bear fruit at trial – if it is not in the minds of Republican senators, then it is at least in the writings of future historians.
Allan Lichtman, a friend and colleague at the university, said: ‘Twenty-five years ago, I just assumed he was going to continue his academic career. I did not necessarily expect him to follow the political path, but he was certainly incredibly successful in it. ”
Lichtman described Raskin’s performance as chief accusation manager as’ incredible ‘and admitted:’ I’m an old curmudgeon. I go all the way back to the Eisenhower administration and I do not cry much, but his last submission the first day when he made it so personal and so poignant made me cry. ”
Raskin ran in the Maryland Senate in 2006. He was advised that his proposal to legalize gay marriage was unrealistic and made him sound ‘extreme’. Less than a decade later, the right of married couples to marry is upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. Raskin served three terms and became a majority whip.
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 meet him is an acknowledgment of how smart he is, how he cares about institutions and the difference between right and wrong,” she said.
‘As a professor of constitutional law, his love of country, history and human value was something that everyone has always seen in him from the moment you met him. I know of no single person who has ever had a bad word to say about Jamie Raskin. ‘
This includes both 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 first-year members of Congress from both sides to the American Holocaust Museum to see what happens if the government goes wrong. ‘
Raskin won congressional elections in 2016 after a difficult nine-way election in his deep blue district. He and Sarah, a former deputy secretary of the treasury, live in Takoma Park with their dogs Potter and Toby. He quickly rose in the House and established a reputation as one of the nice guys of politics. His appointment as chief prosecutor of the article of indictment put him at the center of the national stage.
Huffman, his colleague in Congress, said: ‘It’s unusual for a member who’s only been here a little over four years to have such a prominent task, but it’s a moment that is unique to Jamie. to keep in mind.
‘It is described by a president as the worst constitutional violation in our history. Who better to state the matter, to remind us of what the constitution demands, than our leading constitutionalist? Jamie said on one of our caucus calls a few days ago that Donald Trump does not know much about our founders, but our founders knew a lot about Donald Trump. ”
Huffman noticed Raskin’s admiration for Thomas Paine. Raskin concluded the persecution case by quoting the political philosopher and revolutionary, but updated himself on the importance of gender quality: “These are the times when men and women test souls.”
Thomas Raskin was named after Paine. Tommy, as he was known, was studying at Harvard Law School when he took his own life. He left a note saying, ‘My illness has won today. Take care of me, the animals and the poor worldwide for me. ”
In a tantalizing 1700-word tribute, Raskin and his wife wrote about their son’s love of playing jazz piano, writing and performing one-act plays, and of “teaching our dogs foreign languages.” But they also noted that he ‘started being tortured later in his 20s by a blindingly painful and merciless depression.
“Despite many fine doctors and a loving family and friendship network of hundreds who loved him immensely and who he also adored, the pain became overwhelming and unbearable and unbearable,” the couple wrote.
Then, in a haunting CNN interview before the trial, Raskin simply said, “I’m not going to lose my son by the end of 2020 and lose my country and my republic in 2021. That’s not going to happen.”
‘The sky is the limit’
What’s next for Raskin? Following the victory of Joe Biden in the Democratic primary in 2020, the loyalty of the Maryland congressman to the left of the party can be seen as an obstacle to one day winning elections as a house speaker, or as a senator or even president.
Alan Dershowitz, a leading civil liberties lawyer who taught Raskin at Harvard Law School (and defended Trump in his first indictment), said: “It would be advisable for him to move to the center if he were a politician. want future. There is no future in national politics on the far left of the Democratic Party.
‘You can get a lot of attention by being on the left, but you’re nominated for the center. I think his goal is of course to become a senator and then maybe a higher office, but he will have to move to the center about it. ‘
Raskin, however, is determined to follow his own path. In his interview with the Guardian in 2018, he explained: ‘It is not my ambition to be in the political center that is blowing with the wind. It’s my ambition to be in the moral center and that’s why I call myself a progressive person, because I think our job is to find what’s right, the best we can, and then the political center to us. and that is what makes politics interesting and meaningful. . ”
The indictment 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 weather forecast in the long run. It depends a lot on factors that no one can control, but I would think Jamie would be all sorts of things in the mix, and honestly, our country is better for it. Making someone of his caliber available for any big occasion is a wonderful thing. ”