Arizona GOP election official develops PTSD after attacks fueled by Trump's Big Lie
If you think the only toxic fallout from Donald Trump’s barmy Big Lie was the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection and the septic snickerdoodle detritus pouring off Pillow Man Mike Lindell’s hyperkinetic pornstache, think again. Trump’s premeditated attempt to shiv American democracy in the kidneys has ruined—and occasionally ended—the lives of even his erstwhile supporters.
One of these is Bill Gates, a lifelong Republican, 2016 Trump voter and a member of the board of supervisors for Arizona’s Maricopa County, which has frequently been ground zero for MAGA election denialists trying to “prove” the election was stolen from Trump.
In a new interview with The Washington Post, Gates reveals that Trump’s and his supporters’ actions following the 2020 election have been such a mental strain on him he was eventually diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. It’s a heartbreaking story reminiscent of the testimony of Shaye Moss and her mother, Ruby Freeman, two Georgia election workers who were brutally harassed following the election and testified about their experiences to the House Jan. 6 committee. The biggest difference? Gates is a Republican, and the harassers were supposed to be his pals. But that didn’t stop him from going into hiding to avoid them.
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