Rep. Jamie Raskin, the House’s lead manager of impeachment proceedings against former President Donald Trump, cited the terror experienced by members of his family during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot during a tearful argument in favor of conviction on the Senate floor on Tuesday afternoon.
Raskin, 58, detailed his personal experiences on the day of the riot, which took place just days after his son Tommy’s funeral. The Maryland Democrat noted that his daughter, Tabitha, and son-in-law, Hank, accompanied him to the Capitol on Jan. 6 to provide emotional support as lawmakers met to confirm President Biden’s election victory.
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Raskin’s family members were later trapped inside House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer’s office as pro-Trump rioters stormed the Capitol complex. The congressman noted that it was "too late" for him to reach his family.
"All around me, people were calling their wives and their husbands, their loved ones, to say goodbye," Raskin said. "Then there was a sound I’ll never forget – the sound of pounding on the door like a battering ram, the most haunting sound I’ve ever heard and I will never forget it.
"My chief of staff Julius Hagen was with Tabitha and Hank, locked and barricaded in that office, the kids hiding under the desk, placing what they thought were their final texts and whispered phone calls to say their goodbyes," Raskin added. "They thought they were going to die."
Raskin stopped several times to compose himself during the speech. At one point, he said that he apologized to his daughter about what happened at the Capitol.
"I told her how sorry I was and I told her it would not be like this again the next time she came back to the Capitol with me. You know what she said? She said, ‘Dad, I don’t want to come back to the Capitol.’ Of all the terrible, brutal things I saw and I heard on that day and since then, that one hit me the hardest," he said.
Raskin is one of nine House impeachment managers tapped to prosecute the case against Trump, who is standing trial on a single count of incitement of insurrection. The trial is the first of its kind involving a former president.
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The congressman concluded his address by warning lawmakers not to allow a "January exception" excluding misconduct by lame-duck presidents.
"Senators, this cannot be our future. This cannot be the future of America," Raskin said. "We cannot have presidents inciting and mobilizing mob violence against our government and our institutions because they refuse to accept the will of the power under the constitution of the United States, much less can we create a new January exception in our precious, beloved Constitution that prior generations have died for and fought for so that corrupt presidents have several weeks to get away with whatever it is they want to do."
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