In just over a week, Democratic Congressman Jamie B. Raskin (Washington DC, 1962) experienced the suicide of his son and was a key witness to the capture of the Capitol on January 6, 2021. The last blow of this “dark age ” that inaugurated the arrival of Trump to power and the pandemic to the entire world, has come in the form of severe lymphoma. Halfway through his chemotherapy treatment, Raskin attends THE REASON on Zoom wearing a bandana gift from Steve Van Zandt. He sounds fine in the analysis but still very touched by the death of his son, whom he misses “every day”. He tells it all in “The Unthinkable” (Berg Institute publishing house), an exciting book that parallels the two traumas, the personal and the political, with an optimistic tone despite everything.
-In the book, he reviews the seizure of Congress and the death of his son down to the smallest detail. Were there signs that he didn’t know how to see?
-I spent a lot of time examining myself, going over everything in my head. There were things that Tommy said, that Tommy did. He was supposed to teach a class for a semester at the University that he suddenly cancelled. He wrote letters to all of his students and made donations in his name. Gestures that later turned out to be more than that. It is as if he had been preparing it for a long time. I feel the same guilty feelings about what happened in the attack on Congress.
-In what sense?
-With the perspective that time gives, it is clear that there was going to be a violent assault on the Capitol and not just a demonstration. I had been preparing myself for a long time from a parliamentary point of view, but that was going to be something else.
What do you remember most from that day?
I have many images in my head of that day. I remember driving to the Capitol on January 6th and seeing the Trump supporters around me showing a super aggressive attitude. On a sticker he said: “If guns are banned, how am I going to shoot liberals?” Once in the Chamber, while I was preparing my speech in response to the Republican objection, representatives of both parties gave me a warm welcome because of what had just happened in my family and, for a second, I thought that there was a possibility of reconciliation. A surreal thought, of course. Trump did not accept the result despite the fact that Biden had won by seven million votes.
Did you fear for your life at any point?
-No. I had just buried my son the day before after he took his own life a week before, on December 31, 2020. He felt that he had already lost everything. My concern was with my daughter Tabitha and her boyfriend who were hiding under a table in a nearby office. Nobody knew what could happen. In the United States we are fed up with seeing shootings in schools, in shopping centers, and there were a few hundred of the most fanatical extremists in my country and they were armed. Many thought it was the end.
Could it happen again or is there something that has changed?
-The violence continues. Just look at the assassination attempt on Nancy Pelosi and her husband. The propaganda is still active, like the “The Great Replacement” conspiracy theory. In future presidential elections we will be more prepared for attacks of this type, but the attack will be different. Perhaps the fight will be in the Supreme Court or in the state courts.
– Do you still consider yourself a constitutional optimist?
-Yeah. I believe that freedom and democracy are part of the survival instinct of civilization. That will allow us to overcome authoritarianism, fascism. Last night I heard an Iranian woman living in the US, Masih Alinejad, whom the regime wants to kill, say that “either the oppressors make us miserable or we do it ourselves.” It is a good leitmotif for the movements that fight for freedoms all over the world.
-What was the role of Twitter that January 6?
-All social networks were used as a means of propaganda against the elections, they dedicated themselves to spreading Trump’s message that he had won. More than 60 state and federal courts have thrown out all of their claims and there was no question. But Twitter, among others, served as a platform for pro-Trump movements to organize.
-How then to maintain freedom of expression if the networks are intervened?
-I am a big defender of that freedom, but our first amendment has never protected the fact that that speech incites violence against the people or the government. It is what we call the Brandenburg principle and that was a resolution of the Supreme Court. My fellow Republicans are whining over the fact that Trump was banned from Twitter after the attack. But the important thing is what we do when the message incites insurrection.
-Now that Biden seems to be announcing his candidacy for 2024, aren’t you worried about his gaps and his apparent lack of form?
-Well, the republicans do not stop talking about it half jokingly. What they never talk about is Trump’s mental lapses, his megalomania, his extreme narcissism, his dangerous paranoia… I have tried to talk to them about this and to appeal to the 25th amendment of the Constitution that temporarily allows a president be removed from office if he is not able to continue but they showed no interest. They say that Biden is too old when the truth is that he has shown great lucidity beyond the fact that he grew up with a certain stutter.
-The fact of attributing the death of your son to the Iraq war instead of a brain tumor seems much more serious than a speech difficulty, doesn’t it?
-The problem is that these things become a thrown weapon in the partisan fight. That is why I believe that we must find a solution in our Constitution to set up a commission that is always on the lookout to determine whether or not someone is capable. Everyone can have a bad day.
– Is there no bench on the Democratic side?
-The truth is that in my party everyone is happy with Biden. He has managed to pass massive Infrastructure and Health legislation and has made great strides in the battle against climate change. If you measure him by results, he’s doing great. I don’t think there is anyone who wants to compete against him.
-Why is the vice president, Kamala Harris, so unpopular?
-That’s a fascinating question. I have not studied the subject very thoroughly and I would like to read a good analysis about it, although it is true that the position of vice president is very difficult. Biden had a hard time shedding that secondary label. And others never win, like Al Gore.
-What is the greatest threat to democracies today?
-All the monsters and ghosts of the 20th century have come back to catch us. Imperialism, fascism, racism, genocide… Few are spared from them in the entire world. And the problem is that they have communication possibilities that they would not have dreamed of 100 years ago. In the middle of it all we have Vladimir Putin. That is why we are putting so much hope in the Ukrainians, they are at the center of all this effort and stand up for human rights, for democracy and the sovereignty of the peoples.
-You led the second impeachment process against Trump, do you think you could win in 2024?
-Biden won him by seven million voters and Trump continues to lose support among Republicans and independents. But he is still a master of propaganda and is willing to do whatever it takes to win; lying, cheating, stealing…he has collected billions of dollars from the tyrants of the world, from Saudi Arabia to Turkey to Russia. Any autocracy will do whatever it takes to win.
-Is De Santos a softened version?
-In essence, it is the same. It has the political message traced. What happens is that Trump took his career as a way to make money and quickly devolved into authoritarianism. In that sense, I don’t know if they are the same. What is clear is that he will cut taxes for the rich if he gets the chance, which is what Republicans always do.