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Judy: For the fourth time this
month, the congressional
committee investigating the
January 6 attack on the U.S.
Capitol presented evidence of
the relentless efforts by former
president trump and his allies
to throw out the results of the
2020 election.
The focus of today's hearing was
the pressure trump exerted on
state legislators and state and
local election officials.
Because of the former
president's repeated lies,
congressman Adam Schiff said
election workers faced threats
for simply doing their jobs.
>> President's lie was, and is,
a dangerous cancer on the body
politic.
If you can convince Americans
that they cannot trust their own
elections, that anytime they
lose, it is somehow
illegitimate, then what is left
but violence to determine who
should govern?
Judy: Those threats were made
repeatedly over the phone, in
person, and even at the homes of
the election workers.
The witnesses shared story after
story about how the sustained
intimidation has completely
up-ended their lives.
>> At home up until recently, it
is the new pattern or a pattern
in our lives to worry about what
will happen on Saturdays because
we have various groups come by
and they have had video panel
trucks with videos of me
proclaiming me a pedophile and a
pervert and a corrupt
politician.
And blaring loudspeakers in my
neighborhood.
>> Some people broke into my
daughter-in-law's home.
My son has passed and she's a
widow and has two kids and so
we're very concerned about her
safety, also.
>> I just don't do nothing
anymore.
I don't want to go anywhere. I
second guess everything that I
do.
It's affected my life in a major
way.
Every way, all because of lies
and me doing my job, the same
thing I've been doing forever.
Judy: Newshour congressional
correspondent Lisa Desjardins
and white house correspondent
Laura barron-lopez have been
watching the hearing today. And
they join me now.
So much of today's testimony was
moving.
Laura, I want to begin with you.
The witness we just heard from
is the speaker of the house in
Arizona, rusty bowers.
This is a state that Joe Biden
won by 10,000 votes and yet
speaker bowers spoke about the
relentless pressure he was
under.
>> That's right.
He faced pressure from trump and
trump's lawyers.
Bowers recounted a conversation
he had with John Eastman.
In that conversation, he asked
to call a vote to decertify
state electoral's -- state
collectors.
Here's what he said in response.
>> I said, what would you have
me do?
And he said, just do it and let
the court sorted out.
And I said you're asking me to
, do something that's never been
done in history, the history of
the United States, and I'm going
to put my state through that
without sufficient proof? And
that's going to be good enough
with me?
That I would put us through that
- my state - that I swore to
uphold both in constitution and
in law?
No, sir.
>> Bowers said he also faced
pressure from trump and he told
trump that he would not do
anything illegal to overturn the
relet -- the elections.
Even now, Bauer feels a target
on his back from trump.
Ahead of today's hearing, trump
put out a statement that bowers
is a Republican in name only,
and that he told bowers he won
the election and the election
was rigged.
He was asked about that in his
testimony today, and he said
that was all false and did not
say that to his president.
He repeated again and again that
he would never do anything
illegal to overturn Arizona's
election results.
Judy: And bowers has described
himself as a conservative
Republican.
Lisa, we learned the sum of this
pressure campaign was coming
from members of congress
themselves who were pushing
election officials to accept
what they called alternate
slates of electors.
Lisa: This is a charge from the
committee.
In addition to the idea Laura
was talking about that the
president and those around him
were pushing states to overturn
the result and say that he had
one, we heard testimony that the
trump campaign was trying to
push another idea, that no
matter what the results were,
that alternate electors, the
ones who cast the final votes in
our system, and that the
electors, there is a question
about who was behind the idea.
We heard testimony today that
trump got together with the
chairwoman of the top Republican
committee in the country.
And here is how Mcdaniel
recounts this.
>> What did the president say
when he called you?
Ronna Mcdaniel: Essentially he
turned call to Mr. Eastman, who
then proceeded to talk about the
importance of the RNC helping
the campaign gather contingent
electors in case any of the
legal challenges that were on
-- ongoing changed the result of
any of the states.
I think more just helping them
reach out and assemble them. My
understanding is that the
campaign did take the lead and
we were just helping them in
that role.
Lisa: That is the key portion,
that the campaign took the lead.
Timing matters and we are asking
if it was after the court cases
had ended and it was clear the
president had lost?
Because that raises questions
about criminal election fraud.
Or was it before?
Let's talk about the members of
congress that came up today.
Andy from Arizona asked, we
heard testimony today, as to the
state speaker to try to overturn
the result, create electors, and
senator Ron Johnson of
Wisconsin.
On January 6, the testimony is
that one of his aides reached
out to Mike pence's staff and
said the senator wanted to hand
him a slate of alternate
electors, on January 6.
Ron Johnson's office said he did
not know about that ahead of the
time but there is a question if
on January 6 Ron Johnson was
still trying to bring in a state
of electors that his estate had
not decided.
Judy: Lisa, the focus today was
on state and local election
officials.
Tell us more about what we heard
from the committee in terms of
white house officials themselves
pressuring local election
people.
Lisa: Two women from Fulton
county moving absentee ballots
late at night, the trump
campaign for months said they
were secret suitcases of
ballots.
That was not true.
Shane moss earlier, her mother
ruby Freeman testified about the
threats that came from her name
being used from the, people
knocking on her door and the FBI
saying she had to move because
her -- because the threats to
her life were so serious.
This is what she told the
committee.
>> There is nowhere I feel safe.
Nowhere.
Do you know how it feels to have
the president of the united
States target you?
The president of the united
States is supposed to represent
every American.
Not to target one.
But he targeted me, lady ruby, a
small business owner, a mother,
a proud American citizen who
stood up to help Fulton county
run election in the middle of
the pandemic.
Lisa: She represents thousands
of election workers across the
country and look at what has
happened.
They experience threats, one in
six.
Election officials plan to quit
by 2024.
This is not just one person with
one extreme version.
Many election officials are
feeling personal and
professional harm from the last
election.
Judy: Those numbers are
absolutely stunning.
Laura, we heard from the top to
election officials from Georgia,
Brad raffensperger and the
official who worked with him,
Gabriel sterling.
We already knew about the phone
call trump placed and spent over
one hour pressuring
raffensperger.
What else did we learn today
about the pressure he put on
them?
Laura: Sterling and his
testimony said the onslaught of
conspiracy theories pushed by
trump as he and his team tried
to fight it, it was like
shoveling out the ocean.
The second was the specificity
of raffensperger's testimony.
He went into detail about
everything he investigated,
saying he investigated every
element of the allegations trump
team brought to him.
>> They said there was over
66,000 underage voters, we found
that there's actually zero.
There were zero nonregistered
voters.
They said there were 2,056
felons.
We identified 74 or less that
were actually still on felony
sentence.
Every single allegation we
checked, we ran down the rabbit
trail to make sure that our
numbers were accurate.
Laura: Raffensperger detailed
all the stuff about the
allegations trump brought to him
and how they were all false.
He also talked about the phone
call trump made to him,
pressuring him to find more than
11,000 votes.
A lot of law experts think that
is enough to bring criminal
charges against trump and his
allies.
The committee today brought up
the legality of what we
witnessed on January 6 in the
lead up to it and they said over
and over that the justice
department needs to be paying
attention to what they present.
But it is not just the justice
department that could bring
criminal charges.
The Fulton county D.A. Could.
There is a grand jury
investigation going on that she
is overseeing.
They also heard testimony from
raffensperger earlier this
month.
So it speaks to the fact that it
is not just the justice
department, but that in Georgia
they can also bring charges
against trump as we look towards
what potential ramifications
could be.
Judy: Thank you both, in a very