Jamie Raskin, the House Democrat who led the accusation of Donald Trump, recalled his son Tommy on Sunday, saying: ‘I am not going to lose my son at the end of 2020 and lose my country and my republic in 2021. That’s not going to happen. “
Tommy Raskin, a law student at Harvard who struggled with depression, passed away on New Year’s Eve. He was 25.
His father, a professor of constitutional law and Maryland’s representative, was named general manager this week for Trump’s second Senate hearing. The president is charged for the second time with inciting an attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 in which five people died to advance his unfounded allegation that the election was stolen.
Trump’s trial could begin immediately after Joe Biden came to power on Wednesday. Raskin discussed the accusation over CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday. He was also asked about his son.
“Tommy was a remarkable person,” he said. “He has had an overwhelming love for humanity and for our country, in his heart and really for all the people of the world. We lost him on the last day of that God, terrible year, 2020, and he left us a note with the caption: ‘Forgive me, my disease has won today, look at each other, the animals and the global poor for me my dearest Tommy. ‘
“And that was the last act in a life that blinded.”
People ask, he said, why he agreed to take on such a senior role in the indictment at such a difficult time.
‘First of all,’ he said laughing, ‘I do not know if you have ever tried to say no to the speaker [Nancy] Pelosi about anything. She was actually very sensitive and considerate, but she wanted me to do it because she knows I have dedicated my life to the constitution and the republic. I’m a professor of constitutional law, but I really did it with my son in my heart and helping to lead the way. I feel him in my chest.
‘When we went to count the votes of the electoral college and [the Capitol] came under that ridiculous attack, I felt like my son was with me and I was most worried about our youngest daughter and my son-in-law, who was married to our other daughter, who was with me that day and who was in a room trapped from the house floor.
‘Between them and me was an armed crowd that could easily kill them and slammed the door with my chief of staff, Julie Tagen, where they hid under a desk.
‘These events are for me personally. There was an attack on our country, and there was an attack on our people. ‘
Asked how he could deal with such ‘trauma on top of trauma’, Raskin said: ‘I am not going to lose my son at the end of 2020 and lose my country and my republic in 2021. This is not going to happen.
‘And the vast majority of Americans, Democrats, Republicans and Independents, reject armed insurgency and violence as a new way of doing business in America. We’re not going to do that.
“It was the most horrific crime ever committed by a President of the United States against our country. And I want everyone to feel the seriousness and solemnity of these events at the same time, of course, that we are all deeply invested in Elected President Biden, and the Elected Vice President. [Kamala] Harris, the country is moving forward. ”
According to the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in four Americans under the age of 25 is considering suicide since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. Raskin was asked if he personally or family members have a message for people dealing with depression.
“We do not want to lose anyone else,” he said. “We’ve heard thousands and thousands of people all over the country, and if there is anyone, thank you for your kindness to our family.”
He added that the family “set up the Tommy Raskin Memorial Fund for Humans and Animals, which now contains more than $ 400,000, and his classmates at Harvard Law School raised $ 5,000 or $ 6,000 so that the causes in which he believed would continue.
“But we do not have to wait for people to die so that people can listen to it. We can listen to you now. ‘