Friends, family, and fellow antifascists,
It’s not just you: fear makes sense this Sunday morning. Trump’s odds of winning remain close to even—an outcome that would be, frankly, doubleplusungood.
But we have a silver lining: only in fear can we show courage, and courage is enough to win. With less than two weeks to go, civil society is getting pretty loud that the orange emperor has no clothes. Trump’s base exists in a fact-free information environment where criticism is not permitted, so surprising truth-tellers can genuinely reach marginal voters. Just enough people might hear and believe the truth to ward off disaster.
Veteran John Kelly
This week, for the first time, General John Kelly authorized an audio-recorded interview of his criticisms of Trump. Listen to the audio if you haven’t. Kelly served as Trump’s longest-serving Chief of Staff, and is known for arch-conservative policy views. A decorated Marine and Gold Star father, Kelly was at his son’s grave in Arlington Cemetery’s Section 60 when Trump demeaned Robert Kelly’s ultimate sacrifice. Even then, Kelly refused to be recorded criticizing his former boss. Only this week, in light of Trump’s now-explicit threat to deploy military force against U.S. citizens, did Kelly feel he had no choice but to warn America.
Survivor Stacey Williams
Meanwhile, Survivors for Kamala—a group with a personal stake in preferring the prosecutor to the rapist—held a call Monday with three women who personally survived Trump’s assaults across three decades: Alva Johnson, Natasha Stoynoff, and Stacey Williams. Their stories confirm the pattern we all know: an elderly predator becoming angrier and scarier as he becomes more decrepit.
This was the first time Stacey had spoken publicly about this incident. Like John Kelly, Stacey did not want this moment but rather found it thrust upon her: her story became public due to the Friday, October 18th premiere showing of the documentary Beyond the Gaze just a few days before the Survivors call.
Fascism and sexual violence
All of the survivors spoke to why and how fascism is intertwined with sexual violence (see, e.g., Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present). We heard from Anita Hill, who survived Justice Clarence Thomas. We heard from Hadley Duvall, whose stepdad got her pregnant when she was 12; Hadley reminds voters that without Roe’s protections, Trump 2024 means more young daughters forced by the State to carry their rapists’ pregnancies to term.
As my wife and I watched the Zoom, rapt for the full 90 minutes, we were most chilled by the testimonial of Alisa Sieber-Johnson, an entrepreneur and former Marine combat pilot who also served as a Sexual Assault Response Coordinator (SARC). In a Friday LinkedIn post promoting the Survivors for Kamala call, Seiber-Johnson wrote:
- Leadership shapes the culture of every workplace, and that is especially true when it comes to creating an environment where victims feel safe to come forward. When I served in the Marine Corps during the Trump presidency, I witnessed firsthand how dangerous leadership can silence survivors and embolden perpetrators. … It was palpable. …
- Leadership like that sends a message that your pain doesn’t matter, that speaking up isn’t worth the risk, and that justice isn’t something you can expect. That’s why leadership matters. It’s not just about policy—it’s about the culture it creates and how it makes people feel, especially those most in need of protection and empathy.
On Monday’s call, Seiber-Johnson added:
- As a SARC, I was the first responder for survivors, the person that they called when they needed immediate help. … Under Trump’s Presidency, his words and behavior undermined the Department of Defense’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response program, shifting the culture dramatically. … These effects were immediate and palpable.
Why I believe the Veterans and Survivors rather than Trump and his lackeys
Given Trump’s history of lying, bragging about assault, and denigrating veterans, John and Stacey’s credibility bar is, unfortunately, low. Yet their testimonials would clear even much higher bars, thanks to the reputations for integrity they’ve earned over lifetimes of principled behavior.
Both friends and enemies of John Kelly agree that he is unbreakably honest.
As for Stacey, her claims were vetted by my friend and Oakland Corps colleague Lucy Caldwell, a former Republican Party operative who helped organize Monday’s Survivors for Kamala call in which Lucy also bravely told her own survivor story. Lucy and the media relied upon multiple top-tier polygraph tests, as well as extensive and expensive analysis of a written note sent from Trump to Stacey decades ago, before publishing Stacey’s story. Also, FWIW, I trust Stacey personally: I’ve known her for decades as part of a high-trust professional network of close friends. She told her story to various of us over time. We believe her.
Why John and Stacey matter
John Kelly’s testimonial that Trump repeatedly referred to dead and injured American soldiers as “suckers and losers” makes it hard for Trump to play the Arlington Cemetery card he’d been planning with his illegal desecration of Section 60. You can tell how much Kelly matters by how frantically MAGA minions have shamed themselves by attempting to smear him. Harris personally mentioned Kelly’s comments, and her campaign moved fast to turn his words into an outstanding ad. Furthermore, Kelly’s courage will bolster others who know Trump personally, helping yet other important influencers speak to their networks and spread the truth to more voters.
Stacey Williams also matters, perhaps even more. Watch her CNN interview. You will see a poised, normal mom, born and raised in exurban Pennsylvania, talking about the girl she was then. After Trump assaulted her while Jeffrey Epstein watched, Stacey managed the shame as she was younger than her own daughter is now. You can tell how much Stacey scares MAGA by the absurdity of their attacks on her. Erick Erickson, for instance, wrote in response to Stacey that “Trump [] has a type – blonde. The lady who waited until now does not fit Trump’s type. No I do not believe it.” The lies are reaching Baghdad Bob levels here: Erick wants us to believe that the early-20s actual supermodel in Trump’s office was safe from Trump because she was a brunette, or that this would somehow make it OK to elect him.
Stacey will be credible to suburban voters from whom Harris needs historic margins, and she will be credible to marginal GOP turnout targets in religious America. Stacey’s testimonials get press, which means at least a few of the GOP turnout audiences will be reminded that Trump is a rapist with decades of history bragging about assault.
In a race this close, these testimonials matter. In a race this close, everything matters. For 9 days, we have to run through the tape.
This is not about predictions, this is about decisions
Will the courage of Stacey Williams and John Kelly offset the cowardice and mendacity of Jeff Bezos and David Sacks? As Sarah Longwell says, we have to make it matter. As Ben Wikler says, in a race this close, what matters is not margin of error but “margin of effort.” I agree; now is the time for action, not prediction. The result is not determined; we are still making up our national mind. To extend the metaphor: the title game is tied, we’re at midfield near the end of the game, and either team could win. But we have the ball. Donald Trump cannot choose to win this election, but we can choose to defeat him.
Trump 2024 means more sexual violence
For their part, Trump 2024 continues to weirdly celebrate violence of all types. At a rally for Trump on Wednesday, for instance, Tucker Carlson introduced Trump by describing America as “a hormone-addled 15-year-old” who Trump would punish with “a vigorous spanking because you’ve been a bad little girl.” Disturbingly, the crowd cheered; even worse, sober research GALvanize USA conducted during the 2018 Kavanaugh hearings showed widespread acceptance in rural communities for sexual violence committed by men. (Without this widespread acceptance, Thomas and Kavanaugh would not have been permitted to join the Supreme Court and deliver the decisive 2-judge voting block that would overturn the half-century-old legal regime of Roe.) Trump 2024 leans into this gender dynamic, aligning with the pro-violence rhetoric of figures like Andrew Tate and Tucker Carlson, and working closely with America’s most anti-woman theocrats. If Trump wins, what will we be telling our sons and daughters about how men and women are expected to treat each other?
Freedom Awakens and Jabba the Trump
With so much focus on the destructive potential of Trump 2024, our Oakland Corps team worried we might unintentionally make him sound glamorous. For a more accurate and lighter take, Freedom Awakens tells the story of Kamala Skywalker battling Jabba the Trump, with a surprise cameo by Darth Rogan: check out our 3-minute short.
9 days. Every minute, every dollar, every person could be decisive.
Onward,
Dmitri
