00:01:50.400We're on day four of hearings around the deadly January 6th insurrection, where Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, believing Trump's repeated lies at the 2022 presidential election had been stolen from him and that he was the actual winner.0.99
00:02:03.120I obviously don't feel like I need to tell you that that was complete bullshit.0.93
00:02:07.240And it really goes to show the power and danger that can happen when lies and disinformation are weaponized.0.99
00:02:14.560Now, in that hearing, we heard the testimony of Ruby and Shea Freeman, and it really broke me.
00:02:21.260And I think it's important for everyone to hear, in their own words, how their livelihoods and safety were jeopardized by racist, sexist lies.
00:02:29.060So if you don't know, 62-year-old Ruby and her daughter, Shea Freeman, were both election workers in Fulton County, Georgia, a state where Trump legitimately lost, and where he would go on to pressure Georgia's Secretary of State to, quote, find votes for him.
00:02:42.860In an attempt to cast doubt on the election, Trump and his henchmen Rudy Giuliani repeatedly named Ruby and Shea, both of whom are Black women, as specific election workers who were rigging the election in favor of Biden.
00:02:56.300Now, this was an outright lie based on nothing, and it basically destroyed their lives.
00:03:01.920Trump and his allies obtained video of the women and baselessly lied about those videos, saying they showed evidence of the women vote hampering.
00:03:10.200In one video, Trump and Giuliani claimed the women carried suitcases with as many as 18,000 ballots, all for Joe Biden.0.99
00:03:16.760Complete bullshit. There aren't even suitcases in the video.0.98
00:03:19.420They were just the normal boxes that ballots are kept and moved in.
00:03:22.640Trump also said that video of the women counting votes at the State Farm Arena showed the fraudulent processing of ballots.0.99
00:03:28.660Also bullshit. State officials repeatedly cleared the women and all election workers of any mishandling of votes.0.96
00:03:36.140But none of this stopped Trump and his croonies from putting these women in real danger by repeatedly lying about it.
00:03:42.900And we need to be really open about the ways that they specifically used racism and misogyny to fuel this attack.0.61
00:03:49.020I don't think these lies would have worked in the same way had Ruby and her daughter not been Black women,
00:03:53.920who we know are disproportionately harmed by disinformation and online harassment.
00:03:58.600Just listen to what Giuliani said about the women and tell me it is not a racist line of attack.
00:04:02.900Tape earlier in the day of Ruby Freeman and Shea Freeman Morris and one other gentleman, quite obviously surreptitiously passing around USB ports as if they're vials of heroin or cocaine.
00:04:17.640I mean, it's obvious to anyone who's a criminal investigator or prosecutor, they are engaged in surreptitiously illegal activity.
00:04:25.120Again, that day. And that's a week ago. And they're still walking around Georgia lying.
00:05:01.160Trump also accused the women of vote tampering, baselessly attacking them by first and last name.0.99
00:05:07.580We had at least 18,000 that's on tape. We had them counted very painstakingly. 18,000 voters having to do with Ruby Freeman. She's a vote scammer, a professional vote scammer and hustler.
00:05:28.180Okay, so here's what I think people are not saying clear enough.0.97
00:05:31.860I think that Trump and Giuliani just saw a video of two Black women in Georgia
00:05:35.740and knew that they could say that those Black women were the culprits,1.00
00:05:39.240that those Black women were liars,1.00
00:05:40.980and those Black women were the reason that Trump lost the election.1.00
00:05:43.920The same way that Trump has repeatedly attacked Black women,0.97
00:05:46.980like White House correspondent April Ryan,
00:05:49.460I think that he knew that his base would be poised and ready to believe it0.99
00:05:53.160because they have a visceral hate and distrust and disdain for Black women.0.97
00:05:56.980and that they would be ready to believe that the visual of Black women working at a Georgia polling place0.99
00:06:02.180would be proof to convince them that something shady was going on.0.89
00:06:06.880They basically just said to their racist supporters,
00:06:41.520And he said, it's another icon on your phone that says Messenger.
00:06:46.500And I went to that icon, and it was just a lot of horrible things there.
00:06:53.200And those horrible things, did they include threats?
00:06:55.500Yes, a lot of threats, wishing death upon me, telling me that, you know, I'll be in jail with my mother and saying things like, be glad it's 2020 and not 1920.0.92
00:07:15.540So obviously saying you'll be glad it's 2020 and not 1920 is a reference to her being lynched and killed, which is just disgusting.
00:07:23.840And Shay's testimony about how she felt is really heartbreaking.
00:08:16.600And I just felt like it was my fault for putting my family in this situation.
00:08:22.760Shay's mom, Ruby, describes how she was always so proud of her nickname, Lady Ruby,
00:08:27.280and how as a business owner and community staple in Georgia, everybody knew her as Lady Ruby.
00:08:32.020She even had a staple shirt with Lady Ruby bedazzled on it that she wore all the time.
00:08:36.360But because of Trump and his camp's lies, she no longer even uses her name because it doesn't feel safe.
00:08:42.300She says she hasn't worn that shirt since 2020.
00:08:44.360Now I won't even introduce myself by my name anymore. I get nervous when I bump into someone
00:08:53.300I know in the grocery store who says my name. I'm worried about who's listening.
00:09:01.160I get nervous when I have to give my name for food orders. I'm always concerned of who's around me.
00:09:07.820I've lost my name and I've lost my reputation.
00:09:12.460I've lost my sense of security, all because a group of people starting with number 45 and his ally, Rudy Giuliani, decided to scapegoat me and my daughter, Shea, to push their own lies about how the presidential election was stolen.
00:09:35.860Shay and Ruby, once pillars of their community, have basically been resigned to a life of hiding for their own safety.
00:09:43.160Ms. Moss, how has this experience of being targeted by the former president and his allies affected your life?
00:13:35.340Now, this detail didn't come up in the hearing at all, but I wanted to talk about it because I think it adds some important, if not totally what-the-fuck context.0.97
00:13:44.220In addition to the mixed bag of Trump croonies who you've probably heard about,0.90
00:13:47.900Ruby and Shea were also being harassed and threatened by a woman named Trevani Cootie.
00:13:52.940Trevani was formerly a publicist for the R&B singer-slash-convicted sex criminal R. Kelly.
00:13:58.480So yeah, it sure seems like she really knows how to pick men to associate herself with.
00:14:02.840Trevani claims to have had some kind of association with rapper Kanye West,
00:14:07.100who you may recall ran for president himself alongside Trump in 2020 before becoming a vocal Trump supporter.
00:14:12.500According to NBC News, a biography of Trevani posted on the website of the Women's Global Initiative, a business networking conference, identified her as a member of the, quote, Young Black Leadership Council under President Donald Trump.
00:14:25.580And that same biography noted that in September of 2018, she, quote, was secured as a publicist to Kanye West and now serves as West's director of operations.
00:14:35.940Now, I should also say that Kanye West's camp says that Trevani was not associated with him.
00:19:39.800A small business owner, a mother, a proud American citizen who's standing up to help Fulton County run an election in the middle of the pandemic.
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