WASHINGTON (AP) — Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin said Wednesday he has a type of lymphoma that is a “serious but curable form of cancer” and is beginning several months of treatment.
Raskin, who will be the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Reform Committee in the next Congress, said he expects to be able to receive 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 following four months of treatment.” He said he was told his chemotherapy treatment would cause hair loss and weight gain.
“I still hold out hope for the guy that causes hair gain and weight loss,” he joked.
Raskin has played a prominent role in recent years as House Democrats twice impeached then-President Donald Trump and investigated Trump’s role in the Jan. 6, 2021, uprising. He was the lead impeacher when the House impeached Trump a week following the attack, and he currently sits on the House committee investigating the siege. That panel released its final report last week and is expected to disband when the new Republican-led House is sworn in on Jan. 3.
This is the second time the Maryland Democrat has been diagnosed with cancer, having previously battled colorectal cancer in 2010. The news comes almost exactly two years following his 25-year-old son, Tommy, took his own life on December 31, 2020.
Tommy’s death occurred just a week before the uprising, and Raskin had brought his daughter and son-in-law to the Capitol that day. Through tears, Raskin spoke of 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 that she did not want to return to the Capitol.
“Of all the terrible and brutal things I saw and heard that day and since then, this one struck me the most,” Raskin told Senate jurors, who later acquitted Trump for the second time. time.
Raskin has written a book, “Unthinkable,” regarding working through her trauma from both events.
Of his most recent trial, Raskin said, “I intend to get through this and, in the meantime, continue to make progress every day in Congress for American Democracy.
Mary Clare Jalonick, Associated Press
