The 4th Hearing of the Select Committee to Investigate the Attack on the U.S. Capitol
There is more and more evidence for the DOJ to indict!
Issue #71: American Government June 21, 2022
(Average Reading Time: about 5 minutes)
The 4th publicly televised hearing of the Select Committee to Investigate the Attack on the U.S. Capitol was held, starting at 1 pm Eastern Time.
As usual, it was captivating (at least for us “political junkies”), and the witnesses, all of whom testified under oath, continued to 1) show how Donald Trump and his “Big Lie” about the 2020 elections became more and more outlandish and dangerous before, during, and after Jan. 6, 2021, and 2) how Trump’s most rabid supporters are literally threatening the lives of politicians and even regular citizens who in any way dispute his big lie.
IMHO (In My Humble Opinion): As we watch these Republicans testify under oath how terrible all of the events before, during, and after Jan 6 are, we MUST remember that these people all voted for Donald Trump for president, and in many instances helped set up very restrictive voter suppression efforts, voted on very conservative policies, and for the most part are against many of the rights we currently enjoy. This includes Mike Pence, Liz Cheney, and Adam Kinzenger. While we applaud them for helping to save our democracy, we also must realize that they would, in a New York minute, vote against the ERA, Roe v Wade, marriage equality, LBGT rights, other civil and social rights, etc. Please do not make “saints” of these people because they did the job they were sworn to do.
The first three witnesses were Republican government officials, all of whom stated they voted for Trump in 2020. The fourth witness was a long-time election department worker whose name, reputation, and security have been ruined by Trump and Giuliani, along with those of her mother and grandmother.
Before hearing from the witnesses present, the Committee played a deposition from Ronna McDaniel, the Republican National Committee (RNC) chairwoman. She is the niece of Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) and the granddaughter of former Michigan Republican governor George Romney, and she only recently dropped “Romney” from her professional name. McDaniel testified that Trump had personally called her (with John Eastman on the call) to help him to collect “alternate electors” for him. She tried to absolve the RNC of any real connection with the illegal “alternate” slates of electors.
The Committee also presented texts from an aide to Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) to an aide of former Vice President Mike Pence, stating that Johnson wanted to hand-deliver a slate of fake electors from Wisconsin directly to Pence. Pence’s aide said: “Do not give that to him.”
Witness Testimonies of Government Officials
The first witness, Rusty Bowers, who is the Republican Speaker of the House for Arizona, repeatedly said that he was under intense pressure from Trump and Trump’s allies to decertify Joe Biden’s win in Arizona. (Reminder: Fox “News” correctly announced on Election Night that Joe Biden had won Arizona.)
Bowers said that he told Trump over and over that he would refuse to call the State legislature back into session to remove Biden’s electors and replace them with Trump electors.
Bowers said that he could not legally do that and would not do that because it would violate his oath of office.
Bowers said that Trump and Giuliani kept saying they had “proof” of fraud, but never provided that proof.
Bowers also testified that he believed that the Constitution was “divinely inspired” and that as a tenet of his faith, he could not cheat. He also detailed the threats that he and his family have faced because he would not go along with the “Big Lie.”
The second witness was Brad Raffensperger, the current Secretary of State for Georgia, who recorded that now-infamous phone call from Trump where he was pressured to “find” just one more vote than Joe Biden received so that Trump could win Georgia.
Raffensperger testified that there was no fraud was found in the 2020 election in Georgia even after several recounts. He also revealed that many people in Georgia skipped voting for Trump but did vote for other people “down-ballot” on the Republican side, so the number of ballots counted could not have matched the number of votes Trump received.
Raffensperger also detailed the harassment and threats he and his family received, including many “sexualized” text threats to his wife of over 40 years. Raffensperger testified that Trump supporters even broke into the home of his widowed daughter-in-law and his two grandchildren. His son is deceased.
The third witness was Georgia state election official Gabriel Sterling, who at a press conference on December 1, 2020, warned Donald Trump that by continuing to dispute the election with his lies that “someone was going to get killed.” The Committee showed the video of Sterling’s speech more than once today. Sterling testified that in his position, he reviewed all of the counting sites in Georgia and conducted or oversaw many investigations, and there was no election fraud in Georgia.
Ruining the Very Lives of Regular Election Workers
The fourth witness was “Shay” Moss, a now-former employee of the Fulton County Election Department, where she had successfully worked for over ten years. She and many of her coworkers have now left their jobs in the Election Department. In 2020, because there was a severe shortage of vote counters for the November election due to COVID, she asked her mother “Lady” Ruby Freeman, to work with her and others that night to help count the votes. Just that one time.
The Committee showed a video from the security cameras in the counting area that Trump and Giuliani repeated said showed proof that Moss and Freeman were committing vote count fraud, calling them by name. Trump called Ruby Freeman a “professional vote scammer and hustler” and Giuliani said she was passing around USB ports “as if they were vials of heroin or cocaine.”
Of course, absolutely nothing nefarious was going on, but that didn’t stop Trump and Giuliani from repeatedly spreading those lies and ruining regular people’s lives, and spouting racist tropes about those Black women. What Ruby Freeman actually gave to her daughter in that security video was a ginger mint.
The Committee also showed a video deposition by Moss’ mother, Ruby Freeman, a small business owner who named herself and her business “Lady Ruby,” detailing how she no longer felt safe and no longer says her own name in public.
Moss also testified that the home of her grandmother, who was not involved in the election count at all, was broken into by a mob of Trump supporters who said they were at her house to make a “citizens’ arrest” of her daughter and granddaughter.
Moss held back tears as she repeatedly said it was her “fault” that her family was put in this position because of terrorism by the president and his allies against her family.
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), who was the primary questioner for today’s hearing, tried to assure Ms. Moss that none of this was her fault.
You can view the entire 2.5-hour hearing in this official video: