Jacquelyn Martin/AP
President Joe Biden on Friday, the two-year anniversary of the January 6th attack on the US Capitol, will award Presidential Citizens Medals to twelve individuals, including law enforcement officials who suffered injuries from the violence and election officials who faced pressure to overturn the election.
Among the recipients will also be Fulton County, Georgia election workers, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss and her mother, Ruby Freeman. The two women, both of whom are Black, were targeted by a hateful harassment campaign that included death threats after Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani promoted a misleading video that falsely claimed the two women were carrying “suitcases” of fake ballots. In June, Moss testified before the January 6 committee to detail the trauma she has endured since:
“It’s turned my life upside down. I no longer give out my business card. I don’t transfer calls. I don’t want anyone knowing my name…I don’t go to the grocery store at all. I haven’t been anywhere at all. I’ve gained about 60 pounds…I second-guess everything that I do. It’s affected my life in a major way, in every way. All because of lies, for me doing my job, the same thing I’ve been doing forever.”
But two years after the attack, the vicious conspiracy theories haven’t stopped. Just this week, Trump used his dwindling social media platform, TruthSocial, to spread more baseless conspiracy theories about Freeman. He wrote in one post: “Wow! Has anyone seen the Ruby Freeman ‘contradictions’ of her sworn testimony? Now this is ‘BIG STUFF.’ Look what was captured by Cobb County police body cameras on January 4, 2021. … Now it gets really bad.”
