Congressman Jamie Raskin: ‘I’ll never forget the terrible sound of them trying to barrel into the chamber’

The congressman was in the Capitol the day it was stormed by Trump supporters, and led the impeachment prosecution. The fight, he says, is far from over

• Chris Bryant: Nearly everyone I meet says: I wouldn't want your job"'
• See more of the Observer's faces behind the 2021 headlines

He spent 5 January at a graveside service for his son, Tommy, who had taken his own life after years shadowed by depression. He spent 6 January under siege at the US Capitol as a mob of Donald Trump supporters staged a deadly insurrection. Nearly a year on, Jamie Raskin wonders whether he could have prevented either tragedy.

Just as I have blamed myself for missing cues that I might have picked up with Tommy, I blame myself for cues I missed relating to the violence as well," says Raskin, carefully measuring each word. I spent many, many sleepless nights in self-blame and self-prosecution over everything that had happened with Tommy and with the insurrection."