money Impeachment manager Jamie Raskin says he won’t lose ‘his republic’ after losing his son just weeks ago
Rep. Jamie Raskin, a leader of the House impeachment effort against Donald Trump in the wake of the US Capitol insurrection, said he would not "lose my country and republic" weeks after losing his son to suicide.
Mr Raskin made the comments during an appearance on CNN while speaking with Jake Tapper on State of the Union.
"I'm not going to lose my son at the end of 2020 and lose my country and my republic in 2021," Mr Raskin said.
The congressman is one of nine impeachment managers leading the charge to have Mr Trump punished.
Mr Raskin announced the loss of his 25-year-old son on New Years Eve.
The Congressman said his son, Tommy, began battling with depression in his early 20s, and said it became "a kind of relentless torture in the brain for him".
Mr Raskin's comments come in the wake of the deadly US Capitol insurrection that left five people dead and resulted in the historic second impeachment of Mr Trump.
He told Mr Tapper that the president could not be allowed to avoid consequences for his role in encouraging the attack on the Capitol.
"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 said.
He said the House would deliver the articles of impeachment to the Senate "soon" and that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also viewed the president's continued presence in the White House as a threat.
"I know that she also considers the president a clear and present danger to the republic," Mr Raskin said.
Many Republican lawmakers have opposed the impeachment efforts for various reasons. Several have claimed the move would foster further division in the country.
However, Mr Raskin does not believe those criticisms to be valid reasons for abandoning impeachment, even if it would not take effect until after Mr Trump is out of office.
"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 organise 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.
Democrats hoped to immediately convene the Senate and try Mr Trump in an effort to remove him from office, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has made it clear he has no intention of bringing the Senate into session until after Joe Biden's inauguration, despite saying he was pleased that the trial was happening.
"Given the rules, procedures, and Senate precedents that govern presidential impeachment trials, there is simply no chance that a fair or serious trial could conclude before President-elect Biden is sworn in next week," Mr McConnell said.
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