Jamie Raskin’s Tearful Testimony of Surviving the Insurrection With His Family Is Just Gutting

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Let our journalists help you make sense of the noise: Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily newsletter and get a recap of news that matters.In a heartbreaking moment in Trump’s second impeachment trial, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the lead House impeachment manager, detailed his family’s harrowing experience at the Capitol on January 6, one day after he’d buried his 25-year-old son.
Raskin’s youngest daughter and his son-in-law accompanied him to the Capitol for the tallying of electoral votes: “They wanted to be together with me in the middle of a devastating week for our family,” he said. “I invited them instead to come with me to witness this historic event, the peaceful transfer of power in America.”
But instead of witnessing a routine and peaceful democratic process, the family encountered sheer terror.
“Here is a sound I will never forget,” Raskin said, “the sound of pounding on the door like a battering ram.”
As insurrectionists stormed the Capitol, Raskin’s daughter and son-in-law barricaded themselves in an office. Raskin described “the kids hiding under the desk, placing what they thought were their final texts and whispered phone calls to say their goodbyes.” He added, “They thought they were gonna die.”
But the most devastating moment for Raskin was when he told his daughter that her next visit to the Capitol would be better. Recounting her response, Raskin broke down. “She said, ‘Dad, I don’t want to come back to the Capitol again,’” he recalled. “Of all the terrible, brutal things I heard and I saw on that day and since then, that one hit me the hardest.”
Watch Raskin’s gutting testimony:

Rep. Jamie Raskin buried his son on January 5. The next day, he brought his family to the Capitol and during the insurrection they thought they were going to die. Heart-wrenching. pic.twitter.com/jEUmNX3OQ6
— Mother Jones (@MotherJones) February 9, 2021