February 9, 2021

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

“Here is a sound I will never forget: the sound of pounding on the door like a battering ram.”

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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:

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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