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WEDNESDAY, JUNE 22, 2022


A reflection on yesterday's heartbreaking Jan. 6 committee hearings


Filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock was famously fearful of police officers, fixated on the possibility that he could be arrested for a crime he didn’t commit. His 1956 movie The Wrong Man tells the story of an innocent man — played by Henry Fonda — caught up in just such a nightmarish scenario.
 
I thought about that film as I watched the heartbreaking testimony of Fulton County election worker Wandrea "Shaye" Moss in front of the House Jan. 6 committee.
 
In the weeks after the 2020 presidential election, Rudolph Giuliani and Donald Trump repeatedly falsely accused — by name — Moss and her mother (and fellow election worker) Ruby Freeman of dumping a suitcase full of fake ballots into the computers at State Farm Arena. Those accusations drove them into hiding as they became targets of death threats and continued harassment by Trump supporters. 
 
As I watched Shaye Moss sitting at the witness table in the ornate Capitol committee room where the hearings are playing out, her demeanor suggested she was startled to find herself suddenly thrust into the national spotlight. She had always loved her job, she told the committee, loved knowing she was able to help people understand how to cast their ballots. But suddenly, craven lies told about how she performed her duties made her fear her life was in danger.
 
Freeman told the committee, “Do you know how it feels to have the president of the United States target you? ... He targeted me, Lady Ruby, a small business owner, a mother, a proud American citizen who stood up to help Fulton County run an election in the middle of a pandemic.”
 
In The Wrong Man, Fonda’s character is eventually exonerated when the real thief is found. In the end, he gets his life back. Shaye Moss and Ruby Freeman say their lives have been changed irrevocably. We can only hope that at some point their lives, too, will return to the normality they so richly deserve.

 
 – Bill Nigut
A rundown of the runoffs  

Georgia’s runoff elections are behind us. 

In contrast to the May 24 primary, which saw record early voting numbers, fewer than 165,000 people had voted in the runoffs ahead of yesterday's elections.

Below are the top stories of election night.

Abrams endorsements all win at the finish line ...

State Rep. Bee Nguyen celebrates with supporters and staff at her victory party in Atlanta after clinching the Democratic nomination for secretary of state during the primary runoff election on June 21. (Riley Bunch/GPB News)

Democratic candidate for governor Stacey Abrams threw her support behind three statewide runoff races. Her endorsements all won their contests. They include attorney Charlie Bailey for lieutenant governor, state Rep. William Boddie for labor commissioner, and state Rep. Bee Nguyen for secretary of state.

GPB News’ Riley Bunch reports further about the Democratic runoffs.

... But Trump’s endorsees in Republican runoffs fall short

Jake Evans participates in Georgia's 6th Congressional District Republican primary election runoff debates on June 6, 2022, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Trump-backed Jake Evans in the 6th District and Vernon Jones in the 10th both fell short in the runoff races. That brings Trump’s win tally to two out of eight in Georgia. The former president can only add the popular Heisman winner Herschel Walker and State Rep. Burt Jones to his win column. Walker and Jones are running for U.S. Senate and lieutenant governor, respectively. 

GPB News’ Stephen Fowler updates on the standing of Trump’s pull in Georgia.

From the 2nd District, one of the biggest upsets of the night

Chris West greets supporters. (@ChrisWestGA/Twitter)

Thomasville attorney Chris West beat out West Point graduate Jeremy Hunt. West spent about $200,000 dollars on the campaign while Hunt's campaign and two PACs dumped $2.5 million into the race. But with less than a tenth of the money, West edged out Hunt by about 800 votes. West will now try to unseat the longtime incumbent and Democrat Sanford Bishop.  

And over on the coast, another upset

Wade Herring. (Twitter)

In the coastal 1st District, Wade Herring kept Joyce Marie Griggs from again being the party’s nominee against incumbent Republican Buddy Carter.  

Wednesday’s Political Rewind panel talks about Stacey Abrams’ endorsement successes and Donald Trump’s two runoff losses. We also talk about Shaye Moss’ striking testimony. 

On the promise of 'liberty and justice for all' over Juneteenth weekend

A Juneteenth festival in Milwaukee. (Wikimedia)

For the first time, the country commemorated Juneteenth as a federal holiday, which acknowledges the final end of chattel slavery in America, after enslaved people in Texas learned they were free on June 19, 1865, two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. 

On Political Rewind, our Friday panel discussed the promise and disappointments that the day symbolizes for Black Americans.

You can hear more on our special Juneteenth programming here.

Tiffany Williams Roberts of the Southern Center for Human Rights reflects on the work we still must do in Georgia to move toward racial equality.
Some headlines from around the nation:

This term is almost over for the Supreme Court, which has added an extra opinion day on Friday. They have 13 opinions left, including a ruling on a Mississippi abortion case that could overturn Roe v. Wade — and trigger Georgia’s six-week abortion ban passed in 2019, which has been held up in lower courts.

In Congress, a bipartisan agreement has been reached on gun control legislation. The Senate bill, which has yet to reach a vote, would expand background checks for prospective gun buyers between the ages of 18 and 21, among other things.

President Joe Biden is backing suspending the federal gas tax. The move comes as the busy Fourth of July travel holiday approaches. Sen. Raphael Warnock has also supported lifting the tax. 

The GA Today Politics newsletter is written by Bill Nigut 
and Natalie Mendenhall and edited and written
by Khari Sampson, Sarah Rose, and Kristi York Wooten.
Thank you for sharing your time with us. Feel free to send us feedback at GAtoday@gpb.org.

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