After watching the likes of Bill Stepien, Bill Barr, Jason Miller, Chris Stirewalt, Eric Herschmann, Richard Donoghue and Alex Cannon — Trump’s first-rate second-rate men — try to hose the former president’s stink off themselves, it was admittedly refreshing to see the testimony of Arizona House Speaker Russell “Rusty” Bowers, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and his deputy, Gabe Sterling, who faced down Trump in full tantrum.
We must also acknowledge, of course, that — no matter how important their testimony — these men are conservative Republicans who have done great damage. Bowers said he would again vote for Trump if he has the chance. Raffensperger has a history of destroying voting rights. Bowers also stated that he believes that the U.S. Constitution was created by God, a revelation that is often followed by the story about Jesus riding a triceratops to the signing.
However, for Bowers, on this day at least, his religious fervor seemed to be directed toward resisting Trump’s forces.
It was personal: “Bowers had voted for Trump, campaigned for Trump,” reports The New York Times, “but would not violate the law for him — and, as a result, his political future was jeopardized, his character was questioned and his family was harassed as his daughter was dying…. In the weeks that followed, Bowers’s neighborhood in Mesa, a suburb east of Phoenix, was practically occupied at times by caravans of Trump supporters. They shouted at Bowers with bullhorns, filmed Bowers’ home, and staged mocking parades that featured a civilian military truck. At one point, a man showed up with a gun and was threatening Bowers’s neighbor.”
Still, we must not let the testimony of a few conservative Republicans — who have done considerable harm in other realms — overshadow yesterday’s most impactful evidence, which was delivered by a mother-daughter duo. You’ll meet people like Wandrea “Shaye” Moss and her mother Ruby Freeman at any voting center in the country; they are the people who make elections work. Trump and Giuliani attacked them because one of them passed a penny to the other during the vote count. Trump decided it was an USB drive. Trump and Giuliani targeted the mother and her daughter nearly 20 times and their lives were totally destroyed.
“A lot of threats,” Moss told the committee, “wishing death upon me. Telling me that, you know, I’ll be in jail with my mother, and saying things like, ‘be glad it’s 2020 and not 1920.’” Freeman fleshed out the terror they endured even more fully:
In a taped deposition, Moss’s mother, Ruby Freeman, said that she, too, became the target of terrifying abuse, so much so that she’s now afraid to utter her name in public. “For my entire professional life, I was Lady Ruby,” Freeman told the select committee. “My community in Georgia, where I was born and lived my whole life, knew me as Lady Ruby….
Now, I won’t even introduce myself by my name anymore. I get nervous when someone I know says my name in the grocery store. I’m worried about who is listening. I get nervous when I have my name called for food orders. I’m always concerned of who is around me. I’ve lost my name, and I’ve lost my reputation. I’ve lost my sense of security all because a group of people, starting with number 45 and his ally Rudy Giuliani, decided to scapegoat me and my daughter, Shaye. To push their own lies about how the presidential election was stolen.”
Noting that the FBI had advised her to leave her home at least through the 2021 inauguration, Freeman said: “There is nowhere I feel safe. Nowhere. Do you feel the pain of having the president of the United States target yourself? The president of the United States is supposed represent all Americans. It is not possible to target any one. But he targeted me, Lady Ruby, a small-business owner, a mother, a proud American citizen, who stood up to help Fulton County run an election in the middle of the pandemic.”
The coins of Trump World’s realm, violence and racism, have prompted the need to increase security for members of this committee. “Over the weekend,” reports The Washington Post “Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) revealed a letter addressed to his wife that threatened to execute them and their 5-month-old baby.” Despite the increasing menace, more hearings are reportedlyTo be scheduled because there is always new information coming into the committee.
This is one amusing revelation, as reported in Rolling Stone: “The Jan. 6 committee has subpoenaed documentary filmmaker Alex Holder in regardTo footage and interviews Holder and his team shot while following former President Donald Trump and his inner circle throughout the 2020 presidential campaign.”
According to PoliticoHolder is fully cooperating in all matters with the committee. The problem is that Team Trump didn’t know Holder existed or what he was doing. They are now deeply scared by the subpoena. “In other words: many of the people actually Running Trump’s reelection operation are now saying they somehow had zero clue that an entire documentary was being filmed largely About Trump and his reelection campaign” reports Stone. “And now the fruits of that doc are being mined for evidence by the congressional committee investigating Trump and his multi-pronged efforts to shred the American democratic order.”
As a nation, we are lucky to have people like Moss or Freeman at the heart of our elections. The country might not exist if Trump and his people would tantrum as much as the people who testified against him.
