A Year Later, the Reckoning with Jan. 6 Continues

Attacked Inside the U.S. Capitol: ‘Unthinkable’ by Rep. Jamie Raskin

Tucker Lieberman

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U.S. Capitol with a darkening blue sky
U.S. Capitol from Pixabay

A touching, insightful, cogently argued book about the 2021 attack on the Capitol is Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy by U.S. Representative Jamie Raskin. It was released two days before the anniversary of the mob that stormed the building on January 6, 2021. In this book, Raskin presents a memoir of family grief and public service.

When Griefs Are Intertwined

Raskin’s 25-year-old son, Tommy — who he describes as a comedian, slam poet, second-year law student concerned about war, fascism, tyranny, and hunger, vegan who declined ever to get a driver’s license because he worried he might hurt someone in a motor vehicle accident— died by suicide just before New Year’s 2021 and was buried on January 5.

The next day, Raskin was inside the U.S. Capitol when it was attacked. The attack was apparently orchestrated (as Raskin would soon come to see) “with Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Rudy Giuliani, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Michael Flynn, Sen. Josh Hawley, Rep. Jim Jordan,” and other GOP extremists. Meanwhile, others like Roger Stone, Stephen Bannon, Michael Lindell, Linda McMahon, and Julie Jenkins Fancelli had been…

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