The Man Who Would be Dictator Part 4: When All Else Fails Call in the Muscle

After the testimony yesterday by six victims of Donald Trump's thuggery, many of the talking heads who analyze these sordid affairs compared the former president to a mafia boss. Rudy Giuliani was his capo, they said, John Eastman, his consigliere, and groups like the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys were the hit men. Some, however went another way. Rather than seeing Don Corleone and his gang, they saw Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.

Maybe it was a combination of both. Two toxic entities swirling together to make one uniquely evil brew known as Trumpism. 

Ah, theories, everyone has one, or more. Just ask Rudy Giuliani. In a moment of rare candor he told Arizona Speaker of the House, Rusty Bowers, "We have plenty of theories, but no evidence." This came after Giuliani had repeatedly promised Bowers the campaign would provide the speaker with tons of proof that massive voter fraud happened in his state. 

Bowers, a life long republican who swore he supported Trump during the election and voted for him, had actually seemed open to an investigation when Giuliani first broached the subject. In Bower's words, "Give me a list of names of everyone who voted illegally and we will investigate." Giuliani's promises began then. They continued right up until January 6th. In the end he couldn't provide a single name, but insisted the Speaker act on his promise to do so.

When it became apparent Bowers wouldn't cooperate without proof someone let the dogs loose. Protestors showed up at his home accosting not just him and his family, but their neighbors as well. A panel truck with loud speakers circled his block, loudly accusing him of things like pedophilia. At the time, his daughter lay inside the place dying of cancer.

When it came to Georgia, Trump, perhaps losing confidence in Giuliani and the legal mumbo jumbo of Eastman took a more hands on approach. He initially talked to the lead supervisor of the state's recount. His message was brief. She had the most important job in the nation. If she proved the Georgia count was false she would be, "praised and praised." He ended with telling her he would appreciate anything she could do for him. A plan to send her and her staff personally autographed MAGA swag was nixed by someone in the White House.

Shortly after came the infamous hour plus phone call to Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger. On the tape Trump cajoles, reasons, pleads, threatens, and bursts into momentary fits of rage. He tells Raffensperger he knows he won Georgia by 100,000 votes--by Jan 6th that margin of victory in his mind had grown to 400,000--and he is adamant he has video proof of voter fraud. The criminal who they caught on security cameras is Ruby Freeman. Donald Trump, President of the United States of America describes Ms. Freeman as, "a professional vote scammer."

She is, in fact, the owner of a small specialty clothing store. She had volunteered to count votes on election night with her daughter, Shaye Moss who worked for the Georgia election board. Earlier, Giuliani, had told a group of Georgia state senators the film showed Freeman and Moss pulling suitcases of ballots from under tables then running them through counting machines three and four times. Giuliani rambled on about some heroin and then claimed the tape showed that Freeman, ominously, gave Moss a USB drive.

When questioned about the, "USB drive," Ms. Moss explained her mother had given her a ginger mint. And, as anyone who has played power ball knows, sometimes the scanner doesn't pick up the number the first, or second time the form is run through the machine. 

According to Raffensperger, if anyone had been counting Biden votes multiple times the total of votes would have outnumbered the number of paper ballots. That wasn't the case. 

For Shaye Moss and her mom life became a living hell. Vile and racist texts and phone messages followed them everywhere. One text cruelly told her, "You're lucky this is 2020, not 1920." At one point a crowd of Trump supporters showed up at Ms. Moss' grandmother's house. They demanded to search the place so they could execute a, "citizen's arrest."  

Welcome to Kristallnacht territory. 

Shaye Moss and Ruby Freeman have lived in abject fear ever since Donald Trump and his cohorts blamed them for his poor performance in Georgia. According to both they avoid going out, even to church and grocery store. Just before January 6th FBI agents warned Ms. Freeman to move out of her house for her own safety until after the inauguration on the 20th. She was so terrified she stayed gone for two months.

Interwoven in all this testimony of violence, intimidation, and depravity, was the plot to name alternate sets of electors for battleground states. They would be hand picked Trump zealots who would take the place of the real electors selected by the voters. 

When told of the plan, Rusty Bowers testified his mind immediately flashed to the title of Jimmy Breslin's novel, "The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight." His reaction to it was so incredulous--You're asking me to do something that has no precedent in the history of the United States--the Trump team by passed him completely. 

The chosen electors were so jittery some of them actually sent the Trump campaign a letter demanding it pay for their legal expenses if they were charged with crimes, or sued. In the end though, they, "certified," Donald Trump as the President. 

Copies of their fake certifications were sent to the national archives. The originals came into the possession of an aide to Wisconsin republican Senator Ron Johnson. The aide called a Pence aide either on the 6th, or right before. He asked if Sen. Johnson could personally deliver the paperwork to the Vice President. He was told no.

Johnson is currently doing the Oshkosh two step feaster than it has ever been danced before. He denies knowing anything about the fake certificates and claims he had no idea his aide had them, or had made the offer. 

Yes, those were terrible days and nights. Tragically and some might say amazingly the man behind it all is still running around free. He has and is still conning huge numbers of desperately frightened and hateful Americans with The Great Conspiracy. That he is doing so at the expense of American democracy is not only unfathomable, but to many of us intolerable. Hell, even the Germans had the good sense to chuck Herr Hitler into the slammer for a while after he tried to pull off the Beer Hall Putsch. Their big mistake was they let the son of a bitch out.  

The truth is Donald Trump and his trailer park fascist followers are a clear and present danger to the United States of America. We all saw it clearer than ever yesterday. 

6-22-22