Rep. Jamie Raskin, who will be leading the second impeachment of Donald Trump, discussed his decision to take on that task while still suffering from the trauma of losing his son who died from suicide on New Year's Eve at the age of 25.
Raskin told CNN's Jake Tapper that he's "not going to lose my son at the end of 2020 and lose my country and my republic in 2021."
The Raskins said Tommy Raskin began experiencing depression in his 20s, something that became "a kind of relentless torture in the brain for him."
The comments on Sunday from Raskin come just days after the House moved to impeach Trump for a second time, this time charging the President with inciting a violent mob that stormed the US Capitol, an offense Raskin described as uniquely dangerous.
"This was the most serious presidential crime in the history of the United States of America. The most dangerous crime by a president ever committed against the United States," he told Tapper.
The congressman also said that House Democrats will transmit the article of impeachment to the Senate "soon," an action that will eventually result in the start of Trump's impeachment trial.
Raskin, who is one of nine House impeachment managers, also addressed his party's decision to pursue a Senate conviction of an outgoing president, arguing Trump must be held accountable for his role inciting the violent mob on January 6.
"I don't think anybody would seriously argue that we should establish a precedent where every president on the way out the door has two weeks or three weeks or four weeks to try to incite an armed insurrection against the union or organize a coup against the union, and if it succeeds, he becomes a dictator, and if it fails, he's not subject to impeachment or conviction because we just want to let bygones be bygones," he said. "I know that (House Speaker Nancy Pelosi) also considers the President a clear and present danger to the republic," Raskin said.
Trump needs to be held accountable along with his enablers, and their cries for "unity" need to be called out for what they are -- a push to wash all of this under the rug, and as Raskin said, let "bygones be bygones."
