WOW: Key Brave Fani Willis Quotes from the Stand
This is how you do it.
Fani Willis DISMANTLED defense lawyers in court today and made it crystal clear who is on trial. Read until the end to make sure you don’t miss a single key quote. 👇
Imagine standing up to a bully. Now imagine trying to stand up to a bully attempting to destroy democracy of the country you love… a bully who was also president of the United States…
Now imagine the reward you get for standing up to this bully is having your entire personal life torn to shreds.
Welcome to the club, Ms. Willis.
But now imagine defying the bully to their face, live on national television.
On live national television, Fani Willis showed us how it’s done. She was defiant in the face of specious attacks against her integrity. Her responses were righteously indignant. Her testimony was historic.
Pass this on to anyone who needs a pick me up, or a lesson on how to stand up for themselves and their country.
1. Standing up for women everywhere
In questioning Willis about her romantic relationship with lead prosecutor Nathan Wade, Ashleigh Merchant, a lawyer representing former Donald campaign official/co-defendant Michael Roman hinted that Willis received financial support from Wade.
Willis put her foot down.
“Let’s go on and have a conversation,” Willis said. “I don't need anything from a man. We would have brutal arguments about the fact that ‘I am your equal…’ I don’t need anything from a man. A man is not a plan. A man is a companion. I don't need anybody to foot my bills… The only man who has had to foot my bills completely is my daddy.”
On behalf of women everywhere, yes, yes, and YES.
2. Setting the record straight
In refusing the defense team's demands for her personal records, Willis said this:
“You've been intrusive into people's personal lives. You're confused, you think I'm on trial. These people [Donald and his alleged coconspirators] are on trial for trying to steal an election.“
That, I believe, is what they call a mic drop.
When the opposition attacks you personally, don’t play around—set the record straight about the big picture: This isn’t about Fani Willis’ personal life, it’s about the deadly serious allegation that Donald and his co-conspirators—all 18 of them—tried to steal an election.
3. Standing up for her integrity
Merchant demanded to know if Willis and Wade were sleeping with each other in 2019. Willis put Merchant in her place:
“You tried to implicate I slept with him at that conference, which I find to be extremely offensive,” Willis said.
“When someone lies on you… and it's highly offensive… When they implicate that you slept with somebody the first day you met with them. And I take exception to it.”
I continue to be amazed that Judge McAfee allowed this travesty to go on in his courtroom.
4. Whose interest?
At one point, Willis took issue with being characterized as a hostile witness.
"I very much want to be here, so I’m not a hostile witness," Willis said. "I very much want to be here."
Judge McAfee replied, "It’s not so much you’re a hostile witness, Ms. Willis. It would be an adverse witness… Your interests are opposed to Ms. Merchant’s."
"Ms. Merchant's interests are contrary to democracy, your Honor, not to mine," Willis responded.
Brilliant.
5. Charged up
Any attempts to muddy the waters with accusations of Willis’ personal impropriety are a pathetic attempt to change the subject away from the fact that, as Willis made emphatically clear, “These people are on trial for trying to steal an election.“
Verdicts in this case must be based on the merits, not on the personal life of the prosecutor.
To watch Willis stand strong against intimidation—to stand up for women and democracy while the whole world was watching—blew me away.
“I’m ready to go,” Willis said.
So am I, Ms. Willis. So am I. 💪
I’m charged up… My full time job is now defending democracy: I currently have 167,527 free subscribers. If just 5% chipped in for a membership at the price of a tall coffee, I could reach even more voters with inspiration like this… and the truth. 👇
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Loved how she described the end of the relationship. To paraphrase, for men it’s when the sex stops. For women, it’s when they have The Talk. Wade thought it was June or July. She was clear they had The Talk in August. She schooled all the men. It was a moment when I hooped and hollered at her truth! Amen, Sister!
All the questions to Ms Willis were soaked in sexism and racism. A couple of the men who questioned her came right out of their Jim Crow past to cast aspersions at the uppity woman who dared to respond. It was sickening. The whole line of questioning about her cash let everyone know the very white attorneys are clueless about what it is like to be Black in America and that cash can be life saving. Today was a very sad spectacle painful to watch.