Getting folks to look at a documentary in regards to the Big Lie is a Big Ask. Who needs to relive that horrible chapter in American political historical past, particularly as we write a brand new, maybe much less horrible, chapter?
Despite the title, HBO’s “Stop the Steal” is as a lot about what lies forward as it’s about that different election that put Joe Biden in workplace and then-President Trump on the warpath. The 90-minute movie, which debuts Tuesday at 9 p.m. on HBO, explores the depth and veracity of Trump’s plan to overturn the election outcomes by firsthand accounts from individuals who had been there.
The collective tales of Trump’s former nominees, aides, and Republican elected officers who labored and served behind the scenes within the months earlier than and after the election paint an image of Trump’s brazen plan to attempt to steal the election and what it took to cease him and his allies from succeeding.
Directed by Dan Reed (“The Truth Against Alex Jones”), “Stopping the Steal” takes viewers again to July 2020, when the president’s recognition was waning and the election was approaching. “As the summer time involves an in depth, President Trump begins greasing the wheels to make excuses if he loses,” says Alyssa Farah Griffin, who served as White House strategic communications director and assistant to the president in 2020. And the movie cuts to a summer time press convention during which the previous president proclaims, “This election goes to be fraudulent. It’s going to be rigged or rigged.”
Alyssa Farah Griffin, White House director of strategic communications in 2020, in a scene from HBO’s “Stopping the Steal.”
(TV collection)
Leading as much as the revolt of January 6, 2021, the movie chronologically explores how Trump tried to cling to the presidency, irrespective of the associated fee. News and occasions we already know—Trump’s vaguely threatening telephone name to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger asking him to “discover” the president the votes he wanted and Trump’s personal admissions that he knew he had misplaced to Biden—tackle a brand new gentle by the accounts of those that stood between Trump and his nefarious plans.
“Until the election, you could possibly at all times enchantment to his self-interest: ‘Mr. President, this can be a dangerous thought. for youThis goes to harm You‘,” says former Attorney General William Barr, who served underneath Trump. “It would work if you happen to appealed to his self-interest. That’s what’s helped preserve issues inside bounds.”
Barr says Trump launched into a “damaging” marketing campaign that reached new ranges of depravity instantly after Biden was projected to win the election. “At 2 a.m. (Trump held a press convention), and for him to come back out and say there was fraud, that was very harmful. I began to get very involved from that time on,” Barr says.
The documentary additionally options former U.S. Attorney General William Barr.
(TV collection)
Former Trump marketing campaign and White House official Stephanie Grisham says that when the president doubled down on the election-rigged lie, his workers possible knew higher. They performed alongside, although, as a result of nobody needed to be on the receiving finish of his ire. “I assure anybody who was with him on the time, it doesn’t matter what they had been considering of their minds, was like, ‘Oh, it’s been stolen, sir,’” Grisham says.
The movie juxtaposes accounts like Grisham’s with footage of Trump and his Big Lie crew (which included Rudy Giuliani, Jenna Ellis, and Sidney Powell) making allegations of poll tampering by ballot staff, “unlawful immigrants” and deceased folks voting, and claims that Dominion Voting Systems’ digital voting machines had been hacked.
None of this was true, in fact, however that didn’t cease them from leaning on native officers in key states like Arizona and Georgia. “I used to be with Trump the entire time … after which it began. The theft,” says former Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers.
Bowers confronted intense strain from the president and Giuliani to associate with their unlawful plan to interchange the state’s electoral slate with those that would elect Trump. The Arizonan recollects an in-person assembly with Giuliani, during which Bowers requested for proof of voter fraud. “Rudy, do you could have proof?” Yes, sure! (Then Jenna stated) “Oh, I left it on the lodge.”
Like many others who refused to again the false accusations, Bowers was doxxed and threatened by legions of Trump supporters. The movie makes clear that Bowers is among the many Republican officers who stood up for his or her ideas, however typically at nice private value.
Former Arizona Assembly Speaker Rusty Bowers testifies at a listening to on January 6 and former President Trump’s post-election actions.
(FedNet)
Former Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich was one other avid Trump supporter forward of the 2020 election. “President Trump did a terrific job,” he says within the movie. “I used to be proper there with him. (Then) he referred to as me and stated, ‘Hey, you’re going to be the most well-liked man in America. You can run for president. All it’s a must to do is say there’s fraud or discover fraud.’” Brnovich didn’t give in to Trump’s calls for, however he additionally didn’t examine the faux voter scheme.
Others within the movie, nevertheless, risked every thing to guard democracy, together with Raffensperger; Maricopa County Board of Supervisors appointees Clint Hickman and Bill Gates; and Georgia election operations supervisor Gabriel Sterling. Marc Short, then Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of workers, additionally affords compelling perception into his former boss’s perilous and precarious place.
Among these nonetheless insisting within the movie that the Big Lie is the Truth are Trump lawyer and revolt architect John Eastman. Self-proclaimed “QAnon shaman” Jacob Chansley additionally makes an look. You might recall seeing footage of Chansley on January 6, shirtless, sporting a furry, horned helmet, and along with his face painted crimson, white, and blue. No must quote him right here.
We’ve lived this historical past, so “Stopping the Steal” isn’t a cautionary story. But it’s a robust reminder of what we must be making ready for. “I believe January sixth is sort of a film trailer,” Grisham says. “That’s the one factor I’ve realized with Donald Trump. You suppose he’s solely going to get to date and that’s all there may be to it. There’s at all times extra. He takes all of it the way in which.”
