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American democracy has not suffered such a test since the Civil War. The sixty days between the presidential election of November 3, marked by the victory of Joe Biden over Donald Trump, and the attack on the Capitol of January 6, 2021 will remain in people’s minds as a moment of heartbreak for the American nation coupled with a vast media spectacle fueled by the craziest conspiracy theories.
The documentary Stopping the Steal produced by HBO takes an inside look at Donald Trump and his team’s efforts to overturn the election results, from the days of uncertainty following the election to the calamitous rally that led hundreds of protesters to anger to invade the American Congress.
They experienced it from the inside
To do this, director Dan Reed, to whom we owe the shocking work on Michael Jackson Leaving Neverlandfavors a sober and chronological approach, mainly made up of “talking heads” and television archives from major American networks. The main feat of arms of the documentary is to have had access to those who experienced from the inside the multiple attempts of the Trump government to invalidate the results of the election: for the most part convinced Republicans and, in many cases, proven Trumpists.
This is the case of former United States Attorney General Bill Barr, his Arizona counterpart, Mark Brnovich, former White House communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin, former White House press secretary then chief of staff to Melania Trump, Stephanie Grisham, and even Vice-President Mike Pencem’s chief of staff, Marc Short. So many disenchanted high-ranking officials recount on camera the bogus legal attempts and the baseless accusations launched by the tenant of the White House.
“He’s a narcissist and his ego doesn’t accept defeat,” summarizes Stephanie Grisham about her former boss.
But the most striking testimonies of Stopping the Steal remain those of local officials who were directly pressured by Trump and the Republican Party. Like Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, whom Donald Trump contacted directly “to find 11,000 votes” before later calling him an “enemy of the people”, or Rusty Bowers, former Speaker of the House of Representatives of Arizona, who saw conspiracy demonstrators return to his home after refusing to open an investigation into possible manipulation of the vote in his state in the absence of tangible evidence.
The brief on-screen presence of “QAnon Shaman” Jacob Chansley and other conspiracy characters unfortunately provides only limited access to Trumpist thinking. For a better understanding of the events of January 6, we will also refer to Four Hours at the Capitolanother Reed achievement.
Fanatics of American politics will, however, delight in the unflattering portrait of the “strike team” assembled by Donald Trump to lead his legal guerrilla war, led by the infernal (and downright wacky) trio of Jenna Ellis, Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani.
So many lawyers, and the documentary unfortunately does not specify this, who were ultimately found guilty of embezzlement to invalidate the results of the election at different levels.
The former mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani also comes out covered in ridicule from the film, which does not spare us his famous (and uncomfortable) press conference, during which, the dye of his hair dripping down his temples, he accused Venezuela, Cuba and the democrats of having hatched a vast conspiracy.
Towards a second round?
Despite everything, by having elected officials who were able to say no to Trump testify, Stopping the Steal suggests that there is still some common sense within the Republican Party and the American judiciary.
A good thing, since, as several speakers suggest, another defeat for Trump next November would lead to a new campaign of disinformation and demonstrations whose outcome is very difficult to predict.
“January 6, 2021 is just the trailer for what could happen in the event of another Trump defeat,” says Stephanie Grisham at the end of the documentary.
Will the dam hold up a second time? Answer in November.