‘There’s nowhere I believe safe’: Georgia elections workers describe how Trump upended their lives - The Guardian US

In potent and emotional testimony concerning the sinister outcomes of Donald Trump's try to overturn the 2020 election, a mother and daughter who have been Georgia elections laborers described how Trump and his allies upended their lives, fueling harassment and racist threats via claiming they had been involved in voter fraud.

Testifying to the January 6 committee in Washington, Shaye Moss pointed out she got "a lot of threats. Wishing dying upon me. Telling me that I'll be in prison with my mother and announcing issues like, 'Be comfortable it's 2020 and never 1920.'"

That changed into a reference to lynching, the violent additional-judicial fate of thousands of Black men in the American south.

Moss also observed her grandmother's domestic had been threatened by Trump supporters in the hunt for to make "citizen's arrests" of the two poll laborers.

No Democratic presidential candidate had won Georgia for the reason that 1992 but Joe Biden beat Trump by way of just under 12,000 votes, a effect demonstrated with the aid of recounts.

Tuesday's hearing distinctive Trump's makes an attempt to overturn that result by way of pressure on Republican state officials and vilification of Moss and her mom over video supposedly displaying them engaged in voter fraud, a declare impulsively debunked.

Moss's mom attended the listening to. In taped testimony, she talked about: "My identify is Ruby Freeman. I've always believed it when God says that he'll make your name splendid. however this is now not the way it turned into imagined to be."

"For my whole knowledgeable lifestyles, i used to be woman Ruby. My community in Georgia, the place i was born and lived my entire existence, knew me as girl Ruby. I developed my own business around that name: Ruby's interesting Treasures. A pop-up shop catering to ladies with interesting fashions."

"I wore a shirt that proudly proclaimed that i used to be and i am lady Ruby. I had that shirt in every colour. I wore that shirt on election day 2020. I haven't worn it when you consider that and i'll by no means put on it once more.

"I gained't even introduce myself by way of my identify anymore. I get worried once I bump into somebody i do know within the grocery store who says my identify. I'm worried about people listening. I get worried after I must give my identify for food orders. I'm always worried of who's around me.

"I've misplaced my name and i've lost my acceptance. I've lost my experience of security, all as a result of a gaggle of individuals beginning with [Trump] and his ally Rudy Giuliani determined to scapegoat me and my daughter Shaye, to push their personal lies about how the presidential election turned into stolen."

Freeman also talked about: "there is nowhere I feel secure. Nowhere. do you know how it feels to have the president of the united states goal you?

"The president of the united states is meant to characterize each American. no longer to goal one. And he focused me, woman Ruby, a small company proprietor, a mother, a proud American citizen who stood as much as aid Fulton county run an election in the core of the pandemic."

Freeman mentioned she had been compelled to leave domestic for 2 months.

Moss described threats also made to her grandmother.

"That woman is my every little thing," she referred to. "I've certainly not even heard or viewed her cry, ever in my lifestyles. and he or she called me screaming at the suitable of her lungs, like 'Shaye, Shaye, oh my gosh, Shaye', freaking me out, announcing that people had been at her domestic."

"and that they knocked on the door and naturally she opened it, seeing who become there, who it changed into, and they simply began pushing their approach through, claiming they had been coming in to make a citizen's arrest. They essential to discover me and my mom, they knew we were there.

"And [my grandmother] was just screaming and didn't be aware of what to do. I wasn't there so I just felt so helpless and so horrible for her. and she or he simply screamed and that i called her to close the door. Don't open the door for anyone."

Moss changed into requested how her personal lifestyles had been affected.

She talked about: "My existence changed into turned the other way up. I not supply out my business card. Don't want any one knowing my name. Don't wish to go anyplace with my mother as a result of she could yell my identify out over the grocery aisle or something. I don't go to the food market anymore.

"I haven't been anyplace. I've gained about 60lb. I don't need to go anyplace, I 2d-guess everything that I do. It's affected my existence in a big manner, every manner.

"All on account of lies."

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