The House Select Committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack held its fourth live public hearing on Tuesday. Riveting and emotional testimony by witnesses revealed how relentless former president Donald Trump and his team, including lawyers Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman, and others were in pressuring state officials to help him decertify the Electoral College results.
Among the interviewed were three Republican state officials – Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, his deputy Gabe Sterling and Arizona House of Representatives Speaker Rusty Bowers.
The three told the committee that they experienced Trump directly involved and pressuring them to create fake Electoral College electors in battleground states, in order for the ex-president to maintain power and prevent the certification of Joe Biden.
The state officials expressed, often emotionally, their aversion and refusal to participate in schemes that were clearly illegal and against their pledge to uphold the US Constitution. At one point, Speaker Bowers paused, seeming to be on the brink of tears, when he emphasized his oath to the Constitution and said that he considered the Constitution to be “divinely inspired.”
Gabriel Sterling, a Republican, was the voting system implementation manager in Georgia during the 2020 election. In two press conferences in 2021, he harshly criticized Trump in response to what he said were lies about voter fraud and threats to the state’s election workers. In his testimony with Brad Raffensperger on Tuesday, he refuted the lies that Trump was pushing about voter fraud and talked about his anger at the threats in response to the “big lie,” causing people to have their lives turned upside down.
Raffensperger’s staff investigated claims of 66,000 underage voters and 2,423 unregistered voters and found zero. Regarding claims of 2,056 felons voting, they identified less than 74.
Pre-recorded video testimony was shown of Ronna McDaniel, chairwoman of the Republican National Committee. She said that Trump and his lawyer, John Eastman, called her after the election and asked for her help to assemble the alternate electors. When asked what the ex-president said, McDaniel answered, “Essentially, he turned the call over to Mr. Eastman, who then proceeded to talk about the importance of the RNC helping the campaign gather these contingent electors in case any of the legal challenges that were ongoing change the result of any dates.” Trump and his team were trying to set up slates of fake electors. All of the legal challenges were unsuccessful.
Speaker Bowers also testified that Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani called him on November 22 and pressured him to create fake electors for his state of Arizona, to present at the counting of electors by Mike Pence on January 6.
“I told them I did not want to be used as a pawn,” Bowers said in sworn testimony.
In live testimony, Bowers responded to a question from Representative Adam Schiff, about a press release made by Trump that same morning, Tuesday, describing a conversation Trump claimed to have had previously with Bowers. Under oath, Bowers said that Trump lied about their conversation. In the press release, Trump attacked Bowers and described a phone call they had after the election, claiming, “during the conversation, he told me that the election was rigged and that I won Arizona.”
Bowers confirmed that he “did have a conversation with the president, but that certainly isn’t it.”
“There are parts of it that are true, but there are parts of it that are not,”
Bowers said,”…Anywhere, anyone anytime who has said that I said the election was rigged — that would not be true.”
Bowers acknowledged that Republican Representative Andy Biggs of Arizona called him on January 6 and asked him to help with the decertification of Arizona’s electors.
“I said I would not,” Bowers testified on Tuesday.
Biggs has been subpoenaed but has refused to comply.
While Vice President Mike Pence was getting ready to address the joint session of Congress to certify the votes, an aide to GOP Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin asked a Pence aide how Senator Johnson could deliver a fake slate of electors to Pence. The Pence aide refused to cooperate.
State officials not only had to deal with continuous, harassing phone calls from Trump and his lawyers, but with public threats to themselves and their families.
Bowers described protests outside his home and the impact on his wife and his daughter, who was seriously ill at the time. He described how Trump and his team continued to harass him, even up until the morning of January 6.
Brad Raffensperger talked about the famous phone call he had with Trump where the ex-president asked him to “find” the 11,780 votes that would put him over the top in Georgia. He described the threats and attacks he and his family faced.
“No matter how many times senior Department of Justice officials, including his own attorney general, told the President that these allegations were not true, President Trump kept promoting these lies and put pressure on state officials to accept them,” the main questioning committee member, Representative Adam Schiff, Democrat from California, said during the hearing.
Trump was trying to push Raffensperger out, and supported his challenger, Jody Hice, in the 2022 May primary, but Georgia Republican voters chose Raffensperger.
Other witnesses testifying on Tuesday were election workers who described how their lives were ruined due to threats and insults. Trump specifically targeted an election worker in Atlanta in 2020, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, who admitted to the emotional trauma she and her family experienced due to the harassment.
While many, including Trump and his team, seem to believe that the accusations are mainly from Democrats, and call it a “witch-hunt,” most of the damaging testimony in the hearings has come from Republican officials like Bowers and Raffensperger, and members of Trump’s inner circle, including his daughter and former Attorney General Bill Barr.
The hearings will continue. If you missed Tuesday’s session, you can watch it on YouTube.
