The plot had one weakness: it required accomplices. Accomplices as indifferent to the law, the Constitution and American history as Donald Trump was. During the transition period, at the end of 2020, the incumbent president and his team tried to reverse the result of the presidential election, won by Joe Biden. For this, they wanted to promote through intimidation and manipulation alternative and fraudulent lists of electors in certain key states, to impose them on local assemblies, before transmission to Congress for certification. It was up to a few firm and courageous leaders to resist this enterprise and preserve the integrity of the ballot.
This campaign in several states – Arizona, Michigan, Georgia, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, etc. – was the central topic of the fourth public session of the commission of inquiry into the assault on the Capitol, Tuesday, June 21.
The general picture of the coup attempt is completed. Ronna McDaniel, the chair of the Republican National Committee, testified on video about the direct involvement of Donald Trump. He had called her to ask for the party’s help in drawing up alternative lists of electors.
Threats and intimidation
Once again, Republicans were invaluable witnesses for the commission, like Russell “Rusty” Bowers. The Arizona Assembly Speaker supported the candidacy of Donald Trump, but he is also an ardent Christian, driven by a strong sense of right, wrong and the Constitution, “inspired by God”. He detailed how the ex-president himself, on two occasions, as well as lawyer Rudolph Giuliani and legal adviser John Eastman, tried to win him over to their project.
“I didn’t want to be used as a pawn”, he summed up, very dignified. He paid dearly for it. Publication of personal details on social networks, threats, physical pressure in front of his home: the same method as elsewhere. Rusty Bowers said his office received 20,000 emails and tens of thousands of messages from the president’s supporters. Over loudspeakers in his neighborhood they accused him of being corrupt and a pedophile.
On the phone, Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani questioned the elected official about the thousands of votes attributed to the dead, hundreds of thousands of voters not registered on the lists. Rusty Bowers called for evidence. They never came. “Aren’t we all RepublicansRudy Giuliani told him. I thought we would be better received. »
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