Family, then politics: A Republican and a Democrat keep the peace in a nation divided
The Current19:59Sitting down with a Jan. 6 protester
The CBC’s Katie Nicholson was reporting live from the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot when she was swarmed by Trump supporters and forced off air. In her new documentary she tracks down one of the people who harassed her — a woman who still firmly believes the 2020 U.S. election was stolen, and is married to a lifelong Democrat who does not.
It’s clear whose political camp Tracey Danka is in as you pull up to her tree-lined property in Calabash, N.C. Various flags promoting Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump flap in the breeze.
But there’s also a giant banner for Democratic candidate Kamala Harris and running mate Tim Walz prominently lashed between two trees.
“Well, let me tell you the only reason there is Harris is because I ordered it for my husband,” Danka said.
Danka, who still believes the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Trump by U.S. President Joe Biden, is married to a lifelong Democrat who does not. Raised in Pennsylvania by parents who were Democrats, Danka is a mother of two recent college graduates, an organ donation advocate — and she once voted for Barack Obama.
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But that was before Trump took a ride down that golden escalator in Trump Tower to announce his 2016 candidacy for U.S. president.
“I remember thinking that as sad as it is, our country is a business and we needed a businessman running our country rather than a politician, because these politicians would say and do whatever they needed to talk to the person in front of them,” she said.
Trump, hot off his television show The Apprentice, was known for firing people who fell short of expectations, and Danka liked that. But, she said, “Do I agree with everything Donald Trump says? No.”
For one, she doesn’t believe in tax breaks for the wealthy, she believes in exceptions for abortion in cases of rape and incest — and the kidney recipient acknowledges that the Affordable Care Act, brought in under Obama, may have saved her family from financial ruin.
“If it wasn’t for Obamacare, we would have lost everything and we would probably be renting some rat hole,” she said.
But Danka is aligned with Trumpism on many other fronts.
“I want the illegal immigrants gone. I want our veterans taken care of. I want our children to be able to be children. I want the schools to not be able to take away the parents’ rights. I want a [border] wall. I don’t care who pays for it,” she said.
Jan. 6 protester mistrusts journalists
Danka also continues to believe the myriad disproven claims of election fraud in the 2020 election, which is what brought her to the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021.
“Our voices didn’t matter. It didn’t matter how we voted,” she said.
Danka said she went to support Trump, but while she marched to the Capitol — where a vote was being held to certify the 2020 election results and a huge throng of protesters had gathered — she didn’t go inside the building.
“Why? Because it wasn’t right. You know … God gave us free will. How we choose to use it is really up to us,” she said.
Like many in Trump’s Make America Great Again movement, she has a deep mistrust of journalists.
“Turn on the TV. Are you kidding me? You know, I mean, look at the news. It’s always ‘and Trump has done this and Trump has done that. The Republicans have done this.'”
On Jan. 6, Danka was part of a crowd that mobbed me a few blocks from the U.S. Capitol. To Danka, on that day, I was a symbol of Donald Trump’s “fake news.”
I show her the video from Jan. 6. It’s an uncomfortable moment. She shifts her weight and shakes her head and grimaces as it plays out on an iPad.
“It was just rude and uncalled for,” Danka said. “Nobody should attack anyone for doing their job for, you know, speaking their mind for reporting the news. So yeah, I would say I was wrong.
“As a person who is a proud Republican and a Christian, how dare I?” she said. “I’m so sorry.”
A Trump supporter who was hostile toward a CBC reporter apologizes for her behaviour on Jan. 6, 2021.
Seven months after that day in Washington, Danka sat down with a local news reporter to talk about the importance of kidney donations.
And, of course, she recently invited a CBC News reporter into her home, which is an act of trust. I wanted to know what changed.
“I guess it’s who the journalist is,” Danka said. “I guess it’s what their goal was and what they’ve said in the past and how they’ve portrayed people. So do I agree with all of them? Nope. Do I trust them all? Nope.”
‘I foresee martial law’
Once a week, Danka cooks food for seniors. She drives to neighbouring South Carolina, where it’s clear Donald Trump’s big lie has an unshakable hold on many in these parts.
Her first stop is to drop off the spinach ravioli to Joe Naudus Sr., a retired Vietnam War veteran, and his Yorkie. Naudus’s mistrust of the 2020 election results has spilled over to the election on Nov. 5, and he fears there will be violence.
“I don’t like to think about it. But if this election goes bad on the far left, there’s going to be a civil war,” he said.
Naudus is so suspicious of the election process, he thinks that even if Donald Trump wins, he won’t be allowed into the Oval Office.
“I have my doubts whether they’re going to let President Trump into the White House if he does get elected. I foresee martial law,” he said.
Down the road, Danka drops a care package off to Francine Lazard-Ailing, who originally hailed from Canada and used to vote Liberal but is now a U.S. citizen and a Trump supporter.
“In my opinion, it was a stolen election,” she said, adding she’s worried about the integrity of this election. “I hope that they will have enough people standing up and watching on both sides.”
North Carolina residents Ed Danka, a lifelong Democrat, and his wife, Tracey, who supports Donald Trump in the upcoming U.S. presidential election, disagree about the results of the 2020 election and the events at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Many in Danka’s circle still share the same set of beliefs that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump, but her husband of 26 years, Ed Danka is not one of them. There is a factual gulf between the Democrat and his MAGA-minded wife, including around what happened on Jan. 6.
“We seem to have two very different versions. I was watching that on TV from the get-go. And what I saw when I talk with Tracey is not what she relates that she saw,” he said. “I know what I saw. I saw people breaking into the Capitol building attacking officers.”
Seated next to her husband on their back patio, Tracey Danka paints a different picture.
“For me, it was a show of support. Patriotism. Love,” she said.
Deep fears about November election
The two spar over Trump’s assertions that the last election was stolen, the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan and Kamala Harris. Even so, they hold hands.
“The last thing on Earth we would ever allow is four people that we do not know personally to affect our marriage. We were married in a church under the eyes of God. And that’s where our marriage is focused” Tracey said.
“Family comes first and then politics,” Ed agreed. “All we can do is vote for who we think needs to be in that job and hope for the best, and may the better man or woman win.”
Still the two live in different information ecosystems.
Ed watches a lot of different news channels and researches current events online. Tracey doesn’t watch live TV and is mistrustful of most American news outlets, but she spends a lot of time sharing information on Facebook.
“It’s frustrating,” Ed said, especially when it comes to the allegations of election fraud.
“They went to 60 different lawsuits in different states claiming, you know, that the election was rigged, and every one of them, they lost,” he said.
“So what do you need to do with these people for them to get it?” he said. “It’s almost like a cult. I mean, when you have a cult, no matter what that cult leader says, the members go along with it. They’re mesmerized.”
One thing the Dankas both agree on is that the violence at the Capitol was wrong, and they harbour deep fears about what could happen in November.
“I feel if Trump does not get elected, it’s going to be worse than it was the previous Jan. 6,” Ed said. “He’s had four years to plan it.”
Asked whether she plans to heed Trump’s call if there’s another protest akin to Jan. 6 after this election, Tracey said, “I’m going to say no only because, you know, my husband will back me 110 per cent in anything I do,” she trailed off.
“But not when there’s danger out there, honey,” Ed finished the thought. “Because now you know it’s there. You didn’t know it before four years ago. But now you know what they’re capable of.”
Published at Wed, 31 Jul 2024 21:58:04 +0000
Israeli military strikes were reported to have killed at least 40 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip as Israeli forces tightened their squeeze around Jabalia in the north of the enclave on Tuesday, amid fierce battles with Hamas-led fighters.
Palestinian health officials said at least 11 people were killed by Israeli fire near Al-Falouja in Jabalia, the largest of Gaza’s eight historic refugee camps, while 10 others were killed in Bani Suhaila in eastern Khan Younis in the south when an Israeli missile struck a house.
Earlier on Tuesday, an Israeli airstrike destroyed three houses in the Sabra suburb of Gaza City, and the local civil emergency service said they recovered two bodies from the site, while the search continued for 12 other people who were believed to have been in the houses at the time of the strike.
Five others were killed when a house was struck in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza.
Jabalia has been the focus of an Israeli offensive for more than 10 days, with troops returning to areas of the north that came under heavy bombardment in the early months of the year-long war.
Israeli troops appear to be ‘cutting off’ north Gaza: UN
The operation has raised concerns among Palestinians and UN agencies that Israel wants to clear residents from the north of the crowded enclave, a charge it has denied.
The United Nations human rights office said on Tuesday the Israeli military appeared to be “cutting off north Gaza completely from the rest of the Gaza Strip.”
“Amid intense ongoing hostilities and evacuation orders in northern Gaza, families are facing unimaginable fear, loss of loved ones, confusion, and exhaustion. People must be able to flee safely, without facing further danger,” Adrian Zimmerman, ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross) Gaza head of sub-delegation, said in a statement.
“Many, including the sick and disabled, cannot leave, and they remain protected under international humanitarian law — all possible precautions must be taken to ensure they remain unharmed. Every person displaced has the right to return home in safety,” he said.
Israel is facing renewed criticism after airstrikes in Gaza killed multiple civilians, including people at a UN-run school distributing polio vaccines. Meanwhile, there is anger in Lebanon after a deadly air attack in the north. Israel vowed to continue striking at Hezbollah throughout the country.
The Israeli military has now encircled the Jabalia camp and sent tanks into nearby Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun towns, with the declared aim of stamping out Hamas fighters who are trying to regroup there.
The Israeli military has told residents to leave their homes and head to safety in southern Gaza. Palestinian and UN officials say there was no place safe in Gaza.
Around 400,000 people remain in north, UN estimates
Israeli officials said evacuation orders were aimed at separating Hamas fighters from civilians and denied that there was any systematic plan to clear civilians out of Jabalia or other northern areas.
Hamas’s armed wing said fighters were engaged in fierce battles with Israeli forces in and around Jabalia.
Zimmerman also urged for health facilities in the north to be protected, saying hospitals there were struggling to provide medical services.
Gaza’s health ministry said the army ordered the three hospitals operating there to evacuate, but medical staffers said they were determined to continue their services even though they are overwhelmed by the growing number of casualties.
On Monday, UN Secretary General António Guterres condemned the level of civilian casualties in northern Gaza.
The northern part of Gaza is home to well over half the territory’s 2.3 million people and hundreds of thousands of residents were forced to flee their homes amidst heavy bombing in the first phase of Israel’s assault on the territory.
Around 400,000 people remained, according to United Nations estimates.
Israel launched the offensive against Hamas after its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, in which 1,200 people were killed and around 250 taken hostage to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies. More than 42,000 Palestinians have been reported killed in the offensive so far, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced and much of the enclave has been laid to waste.
Polio vaccination campaign underway
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday it had been able to start its polio campaign in central Gaza and vaccinate tens of thousands of children despite Israeli strikes in the designated protected zone hours before.
As part of an agreement between the Israeli military and Palestinian militant group Hamas, humanitarian pauses in the year-long Gaza war had been due to begin early on Monday to reach hundreds of thousands of children.
However, hours before then, the UN humanitarian office said Israeli forces struck tents near Al-Aqsa Hospital, where it said four people were burned to death.
Hundreds of Palestinian children in central Gaza were immunized with a second dose of the polio vaccine at the UNRWA Deir al-Balah health centre.
The UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA said one of its schools in the central Gazan city of Nuseirat, intended as a vaccination site, was hit overnight between Sunday and Monday, killing up to 22 people.
WHO spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic told a Geneva news briefing that over 92,000 children, or around half of the children targeted for polio vaccines in the central area, had been inoculated on Monday.
“What we have received from colleagues is that the vaccination went without a major issue yesterday, and we hope It will continue the same way,” he said.
Other humanitarian agencies have previously voiced concerns about the viability of the polio campaign in northern Gaza, where an Israeli offensive is under way.
Aid groups carried out an initial round of vaccinations last month, after a baby was partially paralyzed by the Type 2 polio virus in August, in the first such case in the territory in 25 years.
Published at Tue, 15 Oct 2024 11:54:00 +0000
