Hours before Arizona House Speaker Russell “Rusty” Bowers (R) testified about how he refused to help Donald Trump overturn the 2020 election results, he sat alone in his Capitol Hill hotel room, reading from courage by John F. Kennedy and watching a video of the church elder being a peacemaker. Bowers, 69, dressed in a new white shirt and suit he bought years ago, one he stores for special occasions, such as a visit to a church of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Although formal, it makes him feel comfortable. The lifelong Republican had put on a red tie, but felt too bold, so he put on a blue one. He then walked alone to the US Capitol and slowly found his way to the auditorium which would set the stage for the most important moment of his political decade. Bowers was summoned by the House committee that investigated the January 6, 2021 uprising to testify about the events that followed Trump’s 10,457 vote loss in Arizona. Bowers had voted for Trump, campaigned for Trump, but did not break the law for him – and, as a result, his political future was in jeopardy, his character questioned and his family harassed as his daughter died. . He woke up early on Tuesday to read some of the notes he was keeping at the time, written in letters in personal notebooks. “Am I being overly prepared?” Bowers said in an interview. “I have no idea. We will find out when I walk into this room.” As he entered, his goal was to bring a measure of reconciliation, not conflict, to the moment. “I would like, for whatever small part I had, to reduce conflicts and work for a more continuous reconciliation of people,” he said. “I do not need to win anything.” WATCH: January 6 Committee Holds Fourth Public Hearing in Series (Full Live Streaming) Shortly before the hearing began, he received a call from an Arizona House attorney who reported that Trump had made a statement claiming that Bowers “told me that the election was rigged and that I won Arizona.” Bowers laughed at the absurdity. In the courtroom, Bowers sat next to Georgia election officials Brad Rafensperger and Gabe Sterling, who faced similar pressure from Trump and his allies to reverse his defeat there. The same day, the commission heard the testimony of former Georgia election worker Wandrea ArShaye “Shaye” Moss, whose life was threatened after Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani claimed to have been involved in a fake ballot paper. Bowers and Moss both received the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award for Courage for their efforts to protect democracy. Bowers went first and began his deposition by refuting Trump’s statement. “I had a conversation with the president,” he said carefully and deliberately, his glasses perched on the tip of his nose. “It’s definitely not that. “Everywhere you look today, the tide of protectionist sentiment is flowing. Trump pressure sparks violence, threatens local officials, commission says Bowers – a professional artist known for his narrative – then narrated his first conversation with Trump and Giuliani, which took place after a church service in the weeks following Bowers reminded them of calling on the legislature to investigate their baseless allegations of voter fraud and launched a strategy to replace select voters with another group more pro-Trump. Bowers repeatedly asked them for information beyond rumors and hints that the election had been stolen. Giuliani said he would provide such information, but it never came. Bowers said he told them that their legal theory was foreign to him and that he should consult his lawyers. “I said, ‘Look, you’re asking me to do something that goes against my oath,’” Bowers said. He told the men that he would not violate his oath and would abide by the Constitution. For several weeks, Giuliani and other Trump allies failed to produce the promised documents, and Bowers refused to authorize a formal legislative hearing to look into allegations of widespread fraud. A “circus” had been set up around the allegations, and Bowers said he did not want to enter the Arizona home. THE ATTACK: The siege of the US Capitol on January 6 was neither a spontaneous act nor an isolated incident. In contrast, another Republican and vocal anti-election member held a meeting with allegations of misconduct at a hotel in downtown Phoenix. The same day, Gov. Doug Ducey (R) validated the Arizona election results. The next day, December 1, 2020, Bowers attended a personal meeting with Giuliani, attorney Jenna Ellis, Arizona Democratic lawmakers, and others, where he was again pressured to help overturn the election results. He recalled something Giuliani said: “He said, ‘We have a lot of theories – we just don’t have the data.’ ” At the time, Bowers wrote in a magazine page that he had told Giuliani and the team: “The United States. “It does not say that I can reverse the laws I am working on to uphold what color this is.” In the absence of evidence from Giuliani et al., The Arizona speaker felt he had been asked to violate his oath in the Constitution. “I will not do that, and” Bowers testified, pausing to control his emotions. “In more than one case – in more than one case this whole issue has been reported. And it is a dogma of my belief that the Constitution is divinely inspired – one of my most fundamental beliefs. And so doing this because someone just asked me to is foreign to my own existence. On Jan. 3, 2021, an Arizona House attorney spoke with pro-Trump attorney John Eastman, who was considering a legal theory to validate Arizona voters. The next day, Eastman set out his theory during a call with Bowers, who asked him if his strategy had ever been tested. Eastman encouraged him to try it and let the courts decide. Bowers refused. A final attempt to persuade Bowers took place on the morning of January 6, shortly before the Capitol Uprising. It came from his own lawmaker, MP Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), A staunch ally of Trump, a former Arizona Senate speaker and former chairman of the Parliamentary Freedom Group, who raised strong doubts about the election. 2020 results. He asked Bowers to support voter ratification. “I said I would not do it,” Bowers recalls. This firm stance made him the target of protests and ugly accusations. In early December, supporters of “Stop the Steal” gathered in the lobby of the state parliament. Bowers was out of town at the time, but some in the crowd shouted his name. On Tuesday, the commission released videos of the protesters, including Jake Angeli, the “Shaman QAnon” wearing a fur hat, horns and face paint as he entered the Capitol on January 6th. It was an ominous sign of the violence to come. In the weeks that followed, the Bowers neighborhood in Mesa, a suburb east of Phoenix, was practically occupied from time to time by caravans of Trump supporters. They screamed at Bowers through bullfights, filmed his house and paraded to ridicule him in a civilian-military truck. At one point, a man with a gun appeared and threatened Bowers’s neighbor. “When I saw the gun, I knew I had to approach,” he testified. Outraged Trump voters tried unsuccessfully to recall Bowers, and Bowers said they handed out leaflets accusing him of corruption and pedophilia. As the drama unfolded outside his home, his daughter, Kacey, died inside. She was “upset by what was happening outside and my wife is a brave person. Very, very strong. Quiet. “A very strong woman,” Bowers said, his chin trembling. “It simply came to our notice then. It was worrying. “ Casey Bowers died on January 28, 2021, as the efforts of some Republicans to deepen their doubts about Trump’s loss accelerated and plunged her father deeper into the debate over the 2020 election. , but with a little luck. He faces challengers in the August 2 Arizona Republican primary. It is a place he is willing to live with. He believes that the voters’ judgment is insignificant compared to the final judgment by its creator. At the end of his deposition, Bowers read a diary entry from December 2020. “In the eyes of men, I may not have the right views or act according to their vision or beliefs, but I do not face this current situation in a light, terrible or vindictive way,” he said. “I do not want to be a winner by cheating. I will not play by laws to which I have sworn allegiance. With any imaginary desire to divert my deep, fundamental desire to follow God’s will, as I believe it led my conscience to embrace it. How else will I ever approach him in the desert of life, knowing that I am asking for this guidance only to show cowardice in defending the path; he led me to follow “. After testifying, Bowers headed to the airport, headed home to complete the basic duties of the state legislature: To approve a budget before the end of the fiscal year. A heavier task awaits him this weekend: Getting his daughter’s gravestone. As he ate a salad on his own, he realized that he had forgotten to tell the committee that he would not be forced to leave the public service. “They can beat me,” he said of the upcoming elections, “but they are not going to intimidate me.”

The uprising of January 6

The Parliamentary Select Committee investigating the uprising on January 6, 2021 is holding its third high-profile hearing this month. Find the latest here. Hearings in Congress: The House committee investigating the US Capitol attack has conducted more than 1,000 interviews in the past year. He will share his findings in a series of hearings from June 9. See what we know about the hearings and how to follow them. The riot: On January 6, 2021, a mob in favor of Trump invaded the US Capitol in an attempt to stop the certification …