Trump Did This
The lies, pressure, bullying, and threats.
Jun
22
The toplines:
· We were reminded of the surpassing importance
of honor and decency; and that sometimes just doing your job is heroic.
The
Republican Accountability Project @AccountableGOP
· There are smoking guns all around. Even before the Insurrection, there are
tapes (actual f**king tapes!) of Trump’s role in a massive
conspiracy to overthrow the election.
· As Georgia Secy of State Brad Raffensperger’s
testimony reminded us, Trump’s falsehoods about the election were not merely lies, but
easily and repeatedly refuted lies.
· Trump did this. All of it: the pressure, the bullying, the
threats, and yesterday we got a glimpse of the human toll. This deeply
malevolent and reckless man brought the full weight of the American presidency
to bear on low-level officials to violate their oaths, and to smear innocent
private citizens who were trying to do their duty.
· Trump was directly involved in the fraudulent
elector plot. Via the Wapo:
At one point in Tuesday’s hearing, the
committee shared evidence that Trump was pretty directly involved in the fake-elector plan. Republican National
Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said Trump, on a conference call,
introduced his lawyer John Eastman to talk about having the fake electors in
place as a contingency.
Sarah
Longwell: The Human Cost
Yesterday’s hearings were a stark and
infuriating reminder that Donald Trump’s lies have had a meaningful human
cost—and not just on those who were at the capitol when it was attacked by his
supporters.
Grandmothers, widows, election workers and
their families, have been abused and harassed because of conspiracy theories
perpetrated in service of Trump’s election lies. In a particularly enraging
moment, election worker Shaye Moss talked about Rudy Giuliani’s insane claim that
she and her mother were changing votes and exchanging USB drives. And explained
that the video feverishly circulating in right-wing circles as evidence of
vote-tampering was actually footage of her mother passing her a “ginger
mint.”
Obviously Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, Jenna
Ellis, and the rest of the Kracken lunatics are incapable of shame. As are some
of the 147 Republicans who refused to certify the 2020 election. But I’ve got
to believe that there are many Republicans who—despite claiming they’re not
paying attention to the hearings—are watching the testimony of people like
Moss, Brad Raffensperger, and Rusty Bowers with a gnawing sense of dread.
Aware, perhaps with renewed clarity, that by carrying water for Trump’s lies,
they had a meaningful hand in unleashing devastation on many people’s lives.
Including Rusty Bowers daughter, who, we learned yesterday, was dying of a
terminal illness while her family was attacked because Bowers refused to betray
his oath.
I hope those realizations keep them up at
night.
Mona
Charen: Glimmers of Hope
The June 21 hearing was both a gut punch and a
bit of a silver lining. One feels a profound sense of shame on behalf of this
country for what the Raffenspergers, Bowers, Sterlings, and especially Shaye
Moss and Ruby Freeman were put through.
Did you notice the detail that Raffensperger’s
widowed daughter–in-law suffered a home invasion by the barbarians Trump
inspired? Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss were forced from their homes and had
their lives threatened and upended by the malicious lies Trump and his allies
told. The racist filth directed their way reflects the moral regress of the
Trump era.
Where is the silver lining? Every single
person on that panel, and many, many more did the right thing because they have
their heads screwed on straight and because they have working moral compasses.
Rusty Bowers, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, grew
emotional about his oath and his duty. It’s clear that even if he voted for
Trump (a mistake, in my judgment) at least he has his priorities right. He
worships God, not Trump.
Can’t say that for about a third of this
country.
Tim
Miller: We Need More Shayes
There have been a lot of powerful moments during
these hearings but the only person who has brought me to tears in my living
room is Shaye Moss.
Shaye is exactly the type of citizen that the
"national conservatives" claim they are fighting for. She's not part
of the woke elite. She doesn't dislike America. Before she was unfairly
cancelled from her job she was a public servant who believed in the promise of
America and worked a normal job in service to this country with dignity.
She did so in part because her grandmother had instilled in her American
values and a belief that "voting matters."
If she were white and blonde and if it was
some liberal professor unfairly targeting her, you could imagine Shaye as a
hero of the Tucker Carlson program, given a platform by the Daily Wire.
But as we all know Shaye Moss was not
valorized for her work-ethic or service to our country in these quarters.
Instead it was conservative media that vilified her. Based on a lie. A lie
perpetrated by the most powerful man in America who targeted her and demonized
her. He called her a "hustler" evoking the vile racist stereotypes
he so often traffics in. She was singled out for smears by the
president's drunk lawyer, a man who used to claim the mantle of America's
mayor. Not Shaye Moss's America.
As a result of this deliberate attack from the
Oval Office, Moss received the most despicable racist smears and threats. She
feared for her safety. People went to her grandmother's house to try to
complete a "citizen's arrest."
All of this harassment, her life upended,
simply because she was caught doing her job by one "important" man
who needed a scapegoat to soothe his wounded ego. A man happy to prey on an
unimportant, regular person to maintain power for himself.
Just thinking about what he put her through is
enough to make you wish someone could wipe that shit eating grin off his face
to be honest. But alas we have to be better than that.
We will have to settle for honoring Shaye
Moss, a great American who in front of the whole world put her own safety
at risk, testifying to the truth, without malice towards the powerful people
who did her wrong.
If only we had 300 million Shaye Mosses.
Amanda
Carpenter: Ron Johnson and the Mysterious Package
Senator Ron Johnson doesn’t know a few things.
Like how a package of fake slates of electors
for Michigan and Wisconsin showed up at his office on January 6th. Or why, at
12:37 p.m. that day, his Chief of Staff, who happens to be a former aide to Trump, texted
a staffer to then-Vice President Mike Pence asking for advice on how Johnson
should “hand” it to Pence.
Johnson says he never knew anything about any
of that. Not until the House January 6th Committee, which he opposes,
revealed the messages on Tuesday. All news to him! But he also
says it’s all a mystery that absolutely no one needs to bother themselves
solving. Huh.
CNN’s Manu Raju caught up with Johnson after
the hearings, and Johnson told him it was a “staff-to-staff exchange and I was,
basically unaware of it…we didn’t deliver it, and that’s the end of the story.”
When pressed, Johnson said, “I have no idea
who delivered it,” that he “had no knowledge of this,” and he was only “aware
we got something delivered that wanted to be delivered to the Vice President.”
(Apparently, the package had a mind of its own?)
He thinks these are all good reasons that
explain why there is “nothing to this.”
Except, well.
That seems a big problem, if not a
considerable national security risk, no?
Remember, the creation of fake slates of
electors from the seven swing states Trump lost was critical to Trump
lawyer John Eastman’s plan to overthrow the
election. His thinking was that if the seven states could transmit an alternate
slate of electors, it could serve as a pretense to create “uncertainty” to put
Pence in the position of declaring the presidency.
Johnson’s chief of staff told the Pence aide
that Johnson needed to give Pence the fake slates of electors because the
“archivist didn’t receive them.” At that point, Pence’s aide wrote back, “Do
not give that to him.”
Even if Johnson didn’t know what was going on,
Pence’s folks seemed to know they were about to be squeezed. How could that
be?
Were any other members of Congress and staff
members aware of mysterious packages of fake slates of electors floating around
Capitol Hill?
The timing is especially curious.
The message from Johnson’s Chief of Staff to
Pence’s aide was sent minutes before House Speaker Nancy Pelosi gaveled in the
joint session of Congress to certify Joe Biden’s win. That also happened right
before Pence issued a public “Dear Colleague” letter stating he intended
to certify the election. The pressure on Pence, at that moment, was mounting.
And Pence’s staffer responded with urgency. The texts took place within a
minute.
The Jan. 6th Committee has not decided whether
it will ask to interview Johnson, but the relevant questions ask
themselves.
Why did Johnson’s Chief of Staff believe
Johnson would “hand” Pence fake electors? What did he think would happen if
Johnson did so?
Who delivered the package to Johnson’s
office?
What happened to the papers?
And, even if Johnson was this clueless,
doesn’t he have some obligation to work with the Committee to clear up these
questions? Despite Johnson’s efforts to shut them down, there’s definitely a
story here that needs to be told. Johnson’s resistance answering them is going
to be part of it.