Framing Ruby Freeman was a key strategy of Trump's coup attempt, and thankfully, it failed

For Americans trying to make sense of the cacophony of multiple indictments now pending against Donald Trump and his numerous alleged collaborators and supporters resulting from their efforts to overturn the 2020 election, some basics should be kept in mind. First and foremost is that from its very inception, Trump’s coup attempt could not hope to succeed absent the cooperation of the formidable arsenal of right-wing media in this country to provide “cover” for the plot. Trump and his alleged co-conspirators knew that the coup not only had to be accomplished as a fact: It also had to be simultaneously managed and presented as plausible to the American people.

To that end it became necessary to create a focal point, a bright light to draw the attention of the entire media apparatus, both left and right, that lent some kind of actual credibility to the false allegations of election fraud. It didn’t matter that this focal point was a complete fabrication, and it wouldn’t matter that the “traditional” media would eventually investigate and dispute it. All that was necessary was that the dispute itself be manufactured, a palatable bone for the right (and most importantly, Fox News) to chew on. The media would do the rest, effectively blurring the lines between fact and fiction, creating an insoluble “he said, she said” maelstrom of accusations and counteraccusations. Under this scenario, Trump’s people would bravely step in to assume the role not as the abusers, not as the destroyers, but rather as the saviors for our democracy.

That focal point was a 62-year-old Black woman named Ruby Freeman. And, according to the 98-page indictment now on file in the Fulton County Superior Court, the astonishing lengths Trump and his associates went to frame her show just how critical to the attempted coup she actually was. Along the way, Trump and his enablers’ tactics, carried out under the color of governmental action, provide a terrifying taste of what a second Trump administration would do to ordinary Americans if it were ever allowed to occupy a position of power in this country again.

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