A Sterling Speech
There was so much major news yesterday to write about, and it was hard to choose.
One possibility was Attorney General William Barr saying that there was no fraud in the election this year. Like most people I suspect, I’m shocked that Barr said it. I don’t know if he’s trying (much too late and far too little) damage control with the exit so close or just had a “screw you” moment for Trump or what. (As much as it seems like revenge, I can’t quite wrap my head around that since all the things he’s done have been willingly, nothing that he’s been pushed to do against his will.) But whatever the reason, it surely does take a massive amount of wind from the sociopath in the Oval Office. And it also raises the question – will he now be fired?
Then there was the late-breaking story about a Department of Justice investigation that began this past August about a possible bribery for a presidential pardon. SO much of the official documents have been redacted that they might as well have just used black paper. And it's unknown if any of the story has gotten up to Trump directly or not.
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But in the end, I decided on something else entirely. It was when a low-level public official in Georgia, the state's voting systems manager Gabriel Sterling came to give his press conference update on the status of the recount. And instead, as he put it, he had sort of two press conferences to hold, because he had another issue he wanted to discuss and in a barely-restrained outrage unloaded on his fellow-Republicans who have been reacting not just irresponsibly, but dangerously, and he couldn't not speak out about it.
The shaking fury in his voice, as well as demeanor is palpable. And as much attention as has rightly been given to the sick threat by one-time Trump attorney Joe DiGenova against former Trump cybersecurity official Chris Krebs, it turns out that Mr. Sterling's main point of his anger isn’t even about Krebs! As ghastly as that is, it's almost just a side issue.
In his speech, Mr. Sterling directly addresses Trump and mentions two others he holds responsible, but doesn't name them. Later, he's asked by a reporter who he's referring to, and at that time he then does specifically name the two senators who are currently in the the upcoming Georgia run-off -- David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, .
Of course, given that this is who Trump has been for four years in his own words and encouragement of others to act with violence, it shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. But such outspoken fury is none-the-less welcome at any time, most-specially from another Republican, finally outraged enough to speak out and so forcefully..
One other thing stood out for me. This by Mr. Sterling is an “At long last, have you left no sense of decency?” speech that in many ways mirrors the one that a barely-restrained, irate Joseph Welch gave to Sen. Joe McCarthy in 1954 -- even to the degree of both speeches being about an innocent young man being unfairly smeared. With the further overlap being that McCarthy's committee lawyer was Roy Cohn, who was later a mentor to -- Donald Trump.
And so, I turn these pages over to Gabriel Sterling from the moment he walked out to face the media --
As a bonus, and by way of comparison, I tracked down the famous four-minute sequence between Joseph Welch and Joe McCarthy -- with a mortified Roy Cohn watching his boss go down in flames.
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