KELLY: Congressman, I got to say, I don't flinch at asking anybody difficult questions, but there is a part of me that feels awful asking you to relive any of this. I mean, it was my best understanding of what Tommy would have had me do. And I think Tommy would have been horrified and crushed had he been here a week after we lost him to see what happened on January 6. I mean, Tommy hated probably one thing in his life, and that was fascism, that was people exercising violent power and control over other people to inflict pain and suffering on them. I felt him with me, and this was something I needed to do for him, for our family, for my constituents, for our country. I was really thinking Tommy was in my heart.
But I have to say that was not my self-consciousness at the time. RASKIN: So, you know, a lot of my colleagues were saying, well, Jamie is throwing himself in this as a way to avoid the grief and so on. But she said I was basically catatonic, and I was seated in a chair and I was just rocking back and forth saying, I've lost my son, I've lost my beautiful son, my life is over. And Julie reported to me because I have only glimmerings of memory of it. I mean, on December 31, 2020, the day that we lost Tommy, the police were here, and my chief of staff, Julie Tagen, was here. But I wasn't sure that I would ever be able to do anything ever again. I didn't get much sleep last year, and that's one of the things that made it possible for me to write this book because I basically wrote it in the midnight hours. RASKIN: Well, I was drowning in grief and in agony. You wrote that when it was offered to you, when Speaker Nancy Pelosi offered it to you, it felt like a lifeline. KELLY: But let me press you on this decision, though, because what you're saying is a beautiful sentiment, but I gather your own family and your friends questioned whether this was a great idea, to take on this job in the middle of everything that your family had going on. RASKIN: Well, look after each other means we have to take care of the people in our immediate, intimate circles, but it means we have to take care of everybody, and we have to take care of the democracy that makes it possible for us to be in a society that looks out for the mutual benefit and good of everyone. And I guess I'm thinking specifically about your decision to take on the job of impeachment manager, this grueling high-profile job, so soon after you lost him, when you were and your family were still in such raw grief. KELLY: And connect for me how it was in your head this year. But that note is just pregnant with meaning, and it is indeed the roadmap for the rest of my life. And Tommy left us a huge number of beautiful essays and poems and plays and speeches.
And every day, I find new things in that note. RASKIN: It's the last thing we see when we go to bed. And it's the first thing that Sarah and I read every morning when we wake up. Look after each other, the animals and the global poor for me. RASKIN: Tommy said to us, please forgive me. He wrote it in his final hours, which you say gave you the roadmap for the rest of your life.
KELLY: Tommy left you a note, left it behind. JAMIE RASKIN: Thank you for that, Mary Louise, and thank you for having me on your show. And then when that effort was behind him, he sat down and wrote about it all in a new book titled "Unthinkable," which includes the line, quote, "if a person can grow through unthinkable trauma and loss, perhaps a nation may too." Congressman Raskin, welcome, and may I say, I am sorry for your loss. Well, instead if retreating into his grief, he decided to channel it, to lead the impeachment effort against President Trump for inciting the violence. Capitol as it was attacked and ransacked by a mob of Trump supporters. The very next day, January 6, Jamie Raskin was at the U.S. And to understand how those two facts thread together, you need to know this - that one year ago today, Raskin buried his only son, Tommy Raskin, who had just died by suicide. Raskin is a Democratic congressman from Maryland. It is hard to wrap your head around just how difficult a year Jamie Raskin has just lived through.
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