Maryland Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin says he’s been diagnosed with lymphoma
in the next Congress, said he expects to be able to work through his outpatient treatment at a Washington-area hospital.
In a statement Wednesday, Raskin said he has diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and the “prognosis for most people in my situation is excellent after four months of treatment.” He said he has been advised his chemotherapy treatment will cause hair loss and weight gain.
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“I am still holding out hope for the kind that causes hair gain and weight loss,” he joked.
That panel issued its final report last week and is set to dissolve when the new Republican-led House is sworn in on Jan. 3.House Jan. 6 committee releases final report on Trump and the Capitol attack
This is the second time the Maryland Democrat has been diagnosed with cancer, as he previously battled colorectal cancer in 2010. The news comes almost exactly two years after his 25-year-old son, Tommy, committed suicide on Dec. 31, 2020.
Tommy’s death came just a week before the insurrection, and Raskin had brought his daughter and son-in-law to the Capitol that day. Through tears, Raskin spoke about their ordeal as he argued for Trump’s conviction in the Senate impeachment trial. The two hid under a desk as the violence unfolded, and his daughter later told him she didn’t want to return to the Capitol.
“Of all the terrible, brutal things I saw and I heard on that day and since then, that one hit me the hardest,” Raskin told the Senate jurors, who later acquitted Trump for a second time.
Raskin wrote a book, “Unthinkable,” about working through his trauma from both events.
Of his most recent trial, Raskin says, “I plan to get through this and, in the meantime, to keep making progress every day in Congress for American democracy.”