Jamie Raskin Says It's Been a 'Tough Year' Since Son's Death

Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin said it has been "a tough year" as he discussed his new memoir reflecting on the loss of his son to suicide and the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol days later.

Raskin's 25-year-old son Tommy took his own life on December 31, 2020, after struggling with his mental health.

The Democratic congressman buried his son on January 5, 2021. The following day, he went to work and received a standing ovation from his colleagues in the House after thanking them for their support. Moments later, a violent mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol.

Raskin later helped draft articles of impeachment against Donald Trump and served as the lead manager in the former president's second impeachment trial in the Senate. That trial ended in an acquittal for Trump and Raskin is now on the House panel investigating the deadly riot.

Raskin reflects on the two traumatic events he experienced in the span of a week in his new memoir, Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy, which was published on Monday.

On Tuesday, a day before the one-year anniversary of his son's funeral, Raskin appeared on Rachel Maddow's show and opened up about why he had written the book.

"Now that you are putting it out to the world and able to talk about it, does it still feel like the right thing to do? Does it still feel like you had to do it?" Maddow asked him during the interview.

"I think it feels right because of who he was and what he wanted for the world," Raskin said, noting that his son was a young man "filled with extraordinary moral and political passions."

He added: "Tommy was in a second year at Harvard Law School, when we lost him and he was deeply engaged in movements for human rights, against war, for animal rights and welfare, and to defend and expand democracy. He was asking a lot more of democracy, not less. And so I did feel him very much in my heart and in my chest through that entire period."

Raskin said it had been a "tough year" and he was having difficulty sleeping "for a long time."

"I decided that I could either spend the rest of my life obsessed with this 50-day period in my life or I could try to record it for my daughters, for my family, for my constituents, for my friends, for my fellow countrymen and women," he added. "I would do that and try to make some sense of what had happened."

Asked how he thought his late son would view the events of the past year, Raskin said: "When Tommy was not under the darkness of his depression, he was the life of the party and he was radically optimistic and buoyant about our prospects for changing things in America and all over the world.

"And I think he'd be looking on the bright side of how many people are cooperating with our investigation, how many people are coming forward to tell the truth about what happened and how many people really want to solidify the institutions of American democracy... I think that truth will prevail, and I think that Tommy had confidence that in democracy, you're not going to be able to fool all of the people, all of the time. The truth is gonna resurface."

Raskin also spoke about how he faulted himself both for not seeing the warning signs of what was going on with his son and for not predicting what ultimately took place on January 6, 2021.

"We had tried to predict every possible parliamentary maneuver, but of course, being Democrats and being liberal-minded people, we were thinking completely within the context of the constitutional and legal system," he said.

"On January 6, we moved out of the rule of law and into this twilight land of the exception where they were talking about invoking the Insurrection Act, they were making things up about the electoral count, making things up about the Constitution and that we had not prepared for and that I indeed fault myself for.

"Just like I say, I fault myself for not talking about suicide to Tommy, and I liken not talking to a depressed person about suicide to not talking to a teenager about sex.

"You think somehow you're being clever and you're suppressing a reality that you don't want to materialize. But in fact, you're making it worse because when you don't speak these words, it endows them with more power. And I likened not talking about suicide to not talking about fascism.

"I think we have to talk about fascism, which [former Secretary of State] Madeleine Albright has reminded us is not a specific ideological system with particular content. It's just a strategy for taking power and maintaining power against the rule of law and against the majority in a democracy."

Raskin's office has been contacted for further comment.

If you have thoughts of suicide, confidential help is available for free at the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Call 1-800-273-8255. The line is available 24 hours every day.