On January 6, 2021, President Trump’s efforts to overturn the election results culminated in the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. HBO’s Stopping the Steal traces these attempts to subvert democracy, leading up to that fateful day.
Convincing people to watch a documentary about the Big Lie is a tough sell — few are eager to revisit such a dark chapter in America’s political history, especially while we’re navigating a new one that may feel slightly less grim.
However, Stopping the Steal is about more than just the 2020 election that put Joe Biden in office and set Trump on a collision course with the truth. The 90-minute documentary, premiering at 9 p.m. Tuesday on HBO, delves into Trump’s plot to overturn the results through firsthand accounts from those who witnessed it unfold.
The stories shared by former Trump appointees, staffers, and Republican officials who were in the trenches before and after the election reveal the extent of Trump’s brazen attempt to steal the presidency — and what it took to prevent him and his allies from succeeding.
Directed by Dan Reed (The Truth vs. Alex Jones), Stopping the Steal takes viewers back to July 2020, a time when President Trump’s popularity was fading and the election was on the horizon. “By late summer, President Trump began laying the groundwork for excuses in case he lost,” recalls Alyssa Farah Griffin, who served as White House director of strategic communications in 2020. The film then cuts to a press conference from that summer, where Trump asserts, “These elections will be fraudulent. They’ll be fixed or rigged.”
Covering the period up to the January 6, 2021, insurrection, the film presents a chronological account of how Trump relentlessly tried to hold onto the presidency, regardless of the consequences. Familiar moments — such as Trump’s call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, demanding he “find” enough votes to overturn the results, and Trump’s private acknowledgment that he had lost to Biden — are given new context through the perspectives of those who resisted his plans.
“Before the election, you could appeal to his self-interest — ‘Mr. President, this is a bad idea for you. This will hurt you,’” says former Attorney General William Barr, who served under Trump. “That approach worked, keeping things within the guardrails.”
But after Biden was projected as the winner, Barr says Trump embarked on a “destructive” path that crossed new lines. Barr recalls Trump holding a press conference at 2 a.m., falsely claiming that fraud was already underway. “For him to make that claim was very dangerous. That’s when I really started to worry,” Barr admits.
Former Trump campaign and White House official Stephanie Grisham says that when the president doubled down on the false claim that the election was rigged, many of his staff likely knew better. However, they went along with it, not wanting to become targets of his wrath. “I guarantee anyone around him at that time, regardless of their personal thoughts, was saying, ‘Oh, it was stolen, sir,’” Grisham recalls.
The film contrasts testimonies like Grisham’s with footage of Trump and his “Big Lie” team — including Rudy Giuliani, Jenna Ellis, and Sidney Powell — pushing baseless claims of ballot tampering, voting by “illegal aliens” and deceased individuals, and allegations that Dominion Voting Systems machines had been hacked.
None of these claims were true, but that didn’t stop them from pressuring local officials in key swing states like Arizona and Georgia. Former Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers, who had supported Trump, recalls the moment the claims began. “I was for Trump the whole time … and then it started. The steal,” Bowers says. He faced intense pressure from Trump and Giuliani to support an illegal scheme to replace Arizona’s electors with a pro-Trump slate. In a meeting with Giuliani, Bowers asked for proof of election fraud. Giuliani responded, “Yeah, yeah,” but Jenna Ellis then added, “Oh, I left it back at the hotel.”
Like many others who refused to support the false allegations, Bowers was doxxed and threatened by Trump supporters. The film highlights that Bowers is one of several Republican officials who stood by their principles, often at great personal cost.
Former Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, another strong Trump supporter before the 2020 election, also appears in the film. “President Trump did a great job,” Brnovich says. “I was right there with him.” But after the election, Trump called him and said, “You’ll be the most popular guy in America. You could run for president. All you have to do is say there’s fraud or find some.” While Brnovich resisted Trump’s pressure, he also failed to investigate the fake electors scheme.
Other participants in the film took bold actions to protect democracy, including Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, Maricopa County Supervisors Clint Hickman and Bill Gates, and Georgia Election Operations Manager Gabriel Sterling. Marc Short, Vice President Mike Pence’s former chief of staff, provides gripping insights into Pence’s dangerous and precarious position.
The film also features those who still cling to the Big Lie, such as Trump attorney and insurrection advocate John Eastman, and Jacob Chansley, the self-proclaimed “QAnon Shaman.” Chansley is remembered for his striking appearance on January 6th, shirtless and clad in a furry, horned helmet, with red, white, and blue face paint.
We’ve already experienced this firsthand, so “Stopping the Steal” isn’t a warning for the future. Instead, it serves as a strong reminder of what we need to be ready for.
“I think Jan. 6 is like the trailer to a movie, that’s the one thing with Donald Trump that I’ve learned. You think he’ll just go this far and there’s not more. There’s always more. He takes it as far as it will go.” — Stephanie Grisham.
Watch the Documentary here: https://www.hbo.com/movies/stopping-the-steal
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