Raskin Shares Details Of Personal Tragedy That Unfolded Alongside Capitol Attack

WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 9: Led by lead manager Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), House impeachment managers walk to the Senate Chamber on the first day of former President Donald Trump's second impeachment trial at the U.S... WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 9: Led by lead manager Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), House impeachment managers walk to the Senate Chamber on the first day of former President Donald Trump's second impeachment trial at the U.S. Capitol on February 9, 2021 in Washington, DC. House impeachment managers will make the case that Trump was singularly responsible for the January 6th attack at the U.S. Capitol and he should be convicted and barred from ever holding public office again. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images) MORE LESS
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Rep. Jamie Raskin’s (D-MD) daughter and son-in-law barricaded themselves in an office as insurrectionists overtook the Capitol Building on Jan. 6.

It was just a day after the family buried Raskin’s middle child, the top House impeachment manager said Tuesday while speaking form the Senate floor, recalling his own experience of the violent day around which former President Trump’s impeachment revolves.

Raskin’s son, Tommy, took his own life a few days prior to the certification of Joe Biden’s electoral victory, the event targeted by Donald Trump for an angry speech that resulted in his supporters storming the Capitol. 

The Raskins buried Tommy on Jan. 5, the day before the Trump event, and on the day of the attack itself, Raskin’s youngest daughter Tabitha and son-in-law Hank accompanied him to work “because they wanted to be together with me in the middle of a devastating week for our family,” Raskin said. 

The congressman said his daughter and son-in-law (who’s married to his eldest daughter, Hannah) noted that they’d seen Trump calling on his followers to descend on Washington, and wondered whether it would be safe. 

“Of course it should be safe, this is the Capitol,” the congressman recalled responding. 

Of course, it wasn’t. Raskin recalled how, while he was ushered away from the House chamber with other lawmakers, his daughter and son-in-law were barricaded with Raskin’s chief of staff in House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer’s (D-MD) office. 

Raskin recalled what his daughter said to him after the danger had passed: “Dad I don’t want to come back to the Capitol.” 

“Senators, this cannot be our future,” Raskin said, after describing the mob violence that occurred that day.

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