The Truth Speakers

In a terrible week for our country, three stars shone brightly through the gloom.

Photo by Chip Somodevilla / Getty

There’s been no shortage of rich men kissing Trump’s ass lately, even showing up to his inauguration to cozy up to him and his fascist new bestie, Elon Musk. I’m looking at you Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Sam Altman, Sundar Pichai and Tim Cook. Each of those men had their companies donate one million dollars to Trump’s inauguration, and all of them are hoping Trump will return the favor and tell regulators to go easy on them.

In stark contrast to that shameless, transactional groveling, I want to highlight three women who have courageously stood up to Trumpism and acted with moral clarity and unflinching resolve.

D.C. Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde spoke before Trump at the inaugural prayer service and issued a direct plea for mercy toward the people who will be most affected by his edicts. Her words ricocheted across the nation, drawing praise from the left and especially from Christians who feel their religion has been distorted by Christian Nationalists.

Judge Tanya Chutkan, who presided over the January 6 case against Trump in D.C., refused to quietly dismiss defendants who had been pardoned by Trump on his first day, instead leaning into the perversion of justice and history that the pardons represent.

And longtime Washington Post reporter Jennifer Rubin refused to continue working under a legacy paper that had capitulated to its billionaire owner’s business interests with the Trump administration. So she resigned and co-launched an independent news channel.

Let’s spend a moment today delving further into these profiles in courage.

Checked by the Bishop

Donald Trump hates it when others in positions of authority—even moral authority—have any kind of say over his presidency. But that’s the position he found himself in earlier this week, when Bishop Mariann Budde realized that no one was speaking out for the people most terrified of what is coming under Trump.

“I had a feeling that there were people watching what was happening and wondering, Was anyone going to say anything?” she softly explained in a New York Times interview later that night. “Was anyone going to say anything about the turn the country’s taking?”

Her plea to Trump and Vance, who were sitting by each other at the service, was delivered near the end of her sermon. Trump made eye contact with her as she addressed him directly.

“I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now,” Bishop Budde said. “There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and independent families, some who fear for their lives.”

She also reminded Trump that the “vast majority of immigrants are not criminals.” She then added, “I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away, and that you help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here.”

The moment was extraordinary and unprecedented, given that the inauguration service is typically apolitical in nature. But Trump had already begun issuing horrific executive orders that were designed to sow maximum terror and to marginalize the most vulnerable within our communities.

As Elizabeth Dias of the Times put it so eloquently,

For everyone watching, the vastness of Washington National Cathedral compressed, in one stunning moment, into a sudden intimacy. And with it, all the existential fights not simply of politics, but of morality itself. In a flash, the war over spiritual authority in America burst into a rare public showdown.

The Canterbury Pulpit confronted the bully pulpit on the greatest possible stage.

This is a clip (hosted on the mirror site Xcancel) of that incredible and historic moment with the Bishop’s powerful message to Trump.

Unsurprisingly, Trump and the MAGA right did not take well to Bishop Budde’s words, even though they were offered in the most humble and Christian of ways: a direct plea to Trump for mercy toward others. I won’t repeat the hate and the vitriol, but if you want to read about it, you can do so here.

In an interview with Time magazine, Bishop Budde was asked whether she hoped to inspire others to push back against Trump’s policies. “I would love to have people present another alternative, yes,” she responded, “and to bring compassion and breadth into our public discourse.”

The judgment of history

It’s often overlooked that in order to convict 1,500+ January 6 defendants, you needed an incredible amount of work by prosecutors, juries and of course the judiciary. Few know the facts, details and parties involved with the attack on the Capitol better than the trial judges of the D.C. Circuit who oversaw and shepherded through so many cases.

The blanket pardons issued by Trump not only were a slap in the face to the victims of that day but also to the monumental work of the judicial officers who worked tirelessly to uphold the rule of law and hold the attackers accountable.

Judge Tanya Chutkan, who oversaw Trump’s D.C. case, wasn’t content to simply issue orders granting defense lawyers’ motions to dismiss the January 6 cases still pending before her. Instead, she took the opportunity to speak up, knowing that this would once again put a target upon her among MAGA extremists, some of the worst and most violent of which were now released and roaming about the nation’s capital.

“The dismissal of this case cannot undo the ‘rampage that left multiple people dead, injured more than 140 people, and inflicted millions of dollars in damage,’” Judge Chutkan wrote in a decision ending the case against defendant John Banuelos, charged with firing a pistol into the air on the Capitol grounds—a stark reminder that if you thought the rioters were wholly unarmed, you were badly mistaken.

“It cannot diminish the heroism of law enforcement officers who ‘struggled, facing serious injury and even death, to control the mob that overwhelmed them,’” Judge Chutkan continued. “It cannot whitewash the blood, feces, and terror that the mob left in its wake. And it cannot repair the jagged breach in America’s sacred tradition of peacefully transitioning power.”

The Contrarian view

Longtime Washington Post reporter Jennifer Rubin resigned from that spineless outfit, co-launching an independent media channel, The Contrarian. The new publication is solely online on Substack, and it promises to be “unflinching, unapologetic, and unwavering in its commitment to truth-telling” with “unequivocal determination to defend our fundamental freedoms and the values essential to a pluralistic democracy.”

It its mission statement, The Contrarian offers both a warning and a solution:

Democracy faces an unprecedented threat from an authoritarian movement built on lies and contempt for the rule of law. The first and most critical defense of democracy—a robust, independent free press—has been missing in action. Corporate and billionaire media owners have shied away from confrontation, engaged in false equivalence, and sought to curry favor with Donald Trump. It is hardly surprising that readers and viewers are fleeing from these outlets. Americans need an alternative.

Launching a new publication is challenging (I speak from experience here with both this Substack and The Big Picture), and all of us know that with each word we write, and with each new reader we reach, there is a risk that a spiteful and censorious administration will target us next.

I, for one, am very grateful to see the ranks of the online, independent voices grow, for in numbers and solidarity there is strength. Welcome, Jennifer Rubin! I wish you success and salute your strong and principled stand.

It is said that fear is contagious. But so, too, is courage. May we all find hope and inspiration in these three women—and there are many more like them—to stand up for what we know is right and just, as we work to lead our country back from the brink. So long as there are clear and stalwart voices like Bishop Mariann Budde, Judge Tanya Chutkan and Jennifer Rubin, we will not lack for strong profiles in courage.

It is up to the rest of us to follow their example.