Representative Jamie Raskin, who led President Donald Trump’s second impeachment for inciting the insurrection at the US Capitol, disclosed Wednesday he has a “serious but curable” form of cancer and will undergo chemotherapy.
(Bloomberg) — Representative Jamie Raskin, who led President Donald Trump’s second impeachment for inciting the insurrection at the US Capitol, disclosed Wednesday he has a “serious but curable” form of cancer and will undergo chemotherapy.
The Maryland Democrat, who has also been a prominent member of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol assault, said in an emailed statement that he had been diagnosed with Diffuse Large B Cell Lymphoma.
“I am about to embark on a course of chemo-immunotherapy on an outpatient basis at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital and Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center,” Raskin said. “Prognosis for most people in my situation is excellent after four months of treatment.”
Raskin, 60, was first elected in 2016. He said in the statement that while he expects to continue working, he has been cautioned to avoid unnecessary exposure to the coronavirus, flu and other viruses because chemotherapy impairs natural antibodies and undermines the immune system.
He said it causes hair loss and weight gain, but joked that “I am still holding out hope for the kind that causes hair gain and weight loss.”
“With the benefit of early detection and fine doctors, the help of my extraordinary staff, the love of Sarah and our daughters and sons-in-law (actual and to-be) and family and friends, and the support of my beloved constituents and my colleagues in the House, I plan to get through this and, in the meantime, to keep making progress every day in Congress for American democracy,” he said.
His wife, Sarah Bloom Raskin, was a deputy Treasury secretary in the Obama administration and is now a visiting law professor at Duke University. Their son Tommy died by suicide shortly before the Capitol insurrection.
During Trump’s 2021 impeachment trial in the Senate, he said that on Jan. 6 he had brought his daughter Tabitha and his son-in-law Hank to the Capitol as they grieved together, only to have them caught up in the riot.
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