State Republicans Resisted Trump's Subversion in 2020. We Got Lucky.

[babylonsister]

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2022/06/jan-6-committee-hearings-bowers-raffensperger-moss-freeman-trump/

51 mins ago
State Republicans Resisted Trump’s Subversion in 2020. We Got Lucky.
“You are asking me to do something against my oath.”
Dan Friedman


Donald Trump badgered and bullied Republican state officials, threatened them, lied to them, and lied to others about them. He had his chief of staff, Mark Meadows, and personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, blow up their phones trying to coerce those officials into nullifying Joe Biden’s wins in their states. When they refused, he demonized them and sic’ed his supporters on them, which led to death threats, protests at people’s homes, instances of physical intimidation and vile verbal and written attacks on them and their families. That’s according to witness testimony and other evidence presented on Tuesday by the Select Committee investigating attempts by Trump and his cronies to subvert a legitimate election.

To their credit, none of those officials—Arizona’s House Speaker Rusty Bowers, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and his deputy, Gabriel Sterling, and other officials from closely contested states, including Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Nevada—ceded to the president’s demands.

“You are asking me to do something against my oath, and I will not break my oath,” Bowers said he told Trump, during one portion of the day’s gripping testimony.

“Our institutions held,” said committee chair Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), crediting the witnesses. But as several lawmakers pointed out, we might not get so lucky next time.

snip//

Trump is still actively trying to demonize and ruin officials who dared to defy him. On Tuesday, he issued a statement calling Arizona Speaker Bowers a “RINO” and claiming Bowers had agreed with his election-fraud claims in 2020. This was a lie, Bowers insisted. And though Trump failed badly in his efforts to oust Kemp and Raffensperger in this month’s elections, he may fare better against Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), the committee’s outspoken vice chair. Cheney trails in polls to a primary challenger. Because she challenged Trump’s lies, she looks likely to lose her seat.

The groundwork Trump and his minions have laid in various states since 2020 raises the likelihood that the next coup attempt, by him or someone else, could succeed. “The system held, but barely,” Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said on Tuesday. “And the questions remains, will it hold again?”

[Eliot Rosewater]

1. Schiff has it right. Better start preparing.