Lauren Ober
Appearances
Radio Atlantic
“We Live Here Now” and Trump’s Retelling of January 6
It took us a minute, but with the help of some friends, we finally figured out that Mickey was our new neighbor. I wasn't sure what I thought about having Ashley Babbitt's grieving mother come back to the place where her daughter was killed. Why was she here in our DC neighborhood? What did she want? Was there some sort of future Jan 6 on the horizon?
Radio Atlantic
“We Live Here Now” and Trump’s Retelling of January 6
It all felt just a little too close for comfort. In the days after our run-in with the neighbor, I Googled till my eyeballs dried out. There were a lot of videos on social media that featured Mickey, but not a lot of solid information. I reported what I could find to Hannah. Do you want to know what the house is called? What? The Eagle's Nest. Oh, stop.
Radio Atlantic
“We Live Here Now” and Trump’s Retelling of January 6
What does the Eagle's Nest mean to you?
Radio Atlantic
“We Live Here Now” and Trump’s Retelling of January 6
No. Well, sure, one would think, oh, it's patriotic, right? American Eagle. It's where all the eagles go. But do you know who else had a very particular property called the Eagle's Nest? No. No? Well, I'll tell you. It's Adolf Hitler. However, to quote Mickey, who explained to HuffPost why they called the house the Eagle's Nest.
Radio Atlantic
“We Live Here Now” and Trump’s Retelling of January 6
She said, we call our house the Eagle's Nest, which some would say was Hitler's hideout. But we're American citizens and we won that war and we're taking back the name. So this is absolutely not an ode to Hitler. Here's what else I found out. The online videos of Mickey didn't exactly make me want to bring over a tray of homemade welcome-to-the-neighborhood brownies.
Radio Atlantic
“We Live Here Now” and Trump’s Retelling of January 6
Lots of shouting and scowling and general unpleasantness.
Radio Atlantic
“We Live Here Now” and Trump’s Retelling of January 6
In one clip online, Mickey is being arrested for blocking and obstructing roadways. She was at a march to honor the second anniversary of her daughter's death, and she walked into the street one too many times. The D.C. cops did not appreciate that, and they let her know it. It wasn't the only time she got into it with the cops. A year later...
Radio Atlantic
“We Live Here Now” and Trump’s Retelling of January 6
There were more than a few videos of Mickey and her housemates getting into dust-ups with D.C. folks who did not seem to appreciate their presence in the city.
Radio Atlantic
“We Live Here Now” and Trump’s Retelling of January 6
But later in that same video, there's this. Our new neighbors are getting harassed by anti-J6 protesters, folks who like to chalk the sidewalk with phrases like, Mickey is a grifter. There are a number of D.C. cops on the scene. I get tense just watching it. Finally, Mickey snaps and screams at them.
Radio Atlantic
“We Live Here Now” and Trump’s Retelling of January 6
Right. She's a mom, and the police killed her kid. That's why she's here. She wants to make sure her dead daughter isn't forgotten and that someone is held accountable for what happened. And one way to do that is to maybe get yourself arrested or at least show up everywhere. January 6th trials, congressional hearings, the Supreme Court, rallies, marches, my neighborhood.
Radio Atlantic
“We Live Here Now” and Trump’s Retelling of January 6
Another way for people to take notice, a nightly vigil outside the D.C. jail every single night for more than 700 nights.
Radio Atlantic
“We Live Here Now” and Trump’s Retelling of January 6
As I explained to Hannah, every night at 7 p.m., these apparently true patriots come out. And they have a vigil for all of the January 6th defendants who are currently being held in the jail, either awaiting trial or awaiting sentencing. And every night they get like a January 6th inmate on the phone and they put them on the speaker and then they join in singing like the national anthem of
Radio Atlantic
“We Live Here Now” and Trump’s Retelling of January 6
Or America the Beautiful. And they're chanting, like, justice for Ashley. And the evening ends often with God bless America. Lee Greenwood.
Radio Atlantic
“We Live Here Now” and Trump’s Retelling of January 6
So there's a small cadre of true believers who believe that the people in the D.C. jail are political prisoners.
Radio Atlantic
“We Live Here Now” and Trump’s Retelling of January 6
But it didn't happen that way. Instead, two opposite dramas unfolded. One, we got an up-close, intimate view of how history gets rewritten. Call it the Lost Cause narrative for the 21st century. A group of Americans immediately sets to work retooling the history of an event through tweets and podcasts and viral video clips in a way that distorts collective memory forever.
Radio Atlantic
“We Live Here Now” and Trump’s Retelling of January 6
This woman, Mickey Witthoff, is many things to many people. Mama Mickey to the January 6th defendants, mother of a dead domestic terrorist to others. But to us, she's something else. She's our neighbor. Do you want to hear something rotten?
Radio Atlantic
“We Live Here Now” and Trump’s Retelling of January 6
After months of getting to know Mickey, I felt like I needed to confess something. She had been telling me how people in the neighborhood had generally been nice to them, except for this one time. One of her roommates, Nicole, had been sitting in the car, and these two women walked by and said something totally rude, and I know, you've already heard the story before. The Nicole sitting in the car?
Radio Atlantic
“We Live Here Now” and Trump’s Retelling of January 6
Mm-hmm. That was me. And I'm like... fully disgusted with myself and embarrassed. Like, because that's not how, that's not how I want to be treated. And that's not how I want to think about people, but I did it.
Radio Atlantic
“We Live Here Now” and Trump’s Retelling of January 6
Since that incident, I spent a lot of time with Mickey, trying to understand her cause, her politics, and her anger. I've had many moments where I thought, what the hell am I doing? Getting all caught up in their revisionist history of January 6th. But what I can tell you is that Mickey is not who I thought she was.
Radio Atlantic
“We Live Here Now” and Trump’s Retelling of January 6
She is every bit as fiery as she comes off in speeches and confrontations with people who want her out of this city. After nearly a year of knowing her, I'm still terrified of her. I have never before in my life met a person with such penetrating eyes, and she wields them to great effect. If she is staring you down, I promise you, you will find no relief.
Radio Atlantic
“We Live Here Now” and Trump’s Retelling of January 6
So the window rolls down and I guess Nicole said, you know, justice for J6, right? Reflexively, in two seconds, I go, well, you're in the wrong neighborhood for that, right? Now, I feel like you would appreciate that because sometimes things pop out of your mouth that maybe you didn't think about. I am a person who is very guilty of that is my mouth runs away with me.
Radio Atlantic
“We Live Here Now” and Trump’s Retelling of January 6
So I said that and she goes, we live here now. So suck it bitch.
Radio Atlantic
“We Live Here Now” and Trump’s Retelling of January 6
But now, after nearly a year of reporting this story, we know so much more. In the rest of the series, we're going to take you through this upside-down world we landed in, where we found ourselves talking conspiracies. I don't know what I believe that I'm capable of.
Radio Atlantic
“We Live Here Now” and Trump’s Retelling of January 6
how you can suddenly find yourself joking with January Sixers about militias. If you're going to come down here, you've got to know your militias straight. You know, I can't, there are too many splinter groups, you know. There's factions, there's levels, there's color coding. Listen, when the gay militia happens, I'm there. Okay, when that happens, until then. We're a country of militias.
Radio Atlantic
“We Live Here Now” and Trump’s Retelling of January 6
And wondering, what could possibly be coming for us?
Radio Atlantic
“We Live Here Now” and Trump’s Retelling of January 6
We Live Here Now is a production of The Atlantic. The show was reported, written, and executive produced by me, Lauren Ober. Hannah Rosen reported, wrote, and edited the series. Our senior producer is Ryder Alsop. Our producer is Ethan Brooks. Original scoring, sound design, and mix engineering by Brendan Baker. This series was edited by Scott Stossel and Claudina Bade.
Radio Atlantic
“We Live Here Now” and Trump’s Retelling of January 6
Fact-checking by Michelle Siraca. Art direction by Colin Hunter.
Radio Atlantic
“We Live Here Now” and Trump’s Retelling of January 6
When the neighbor incident first happened, it didn't really feel like much of anything. Or maybe we were both just too stunned to take it all in.
Radio Atlantic
“We Live Here Now” and Trump’s Retelling of January 6
I guess it started just like any other dog walk. Hannah and I leashed up our pups and set out from our house on our post-dinner stroll. It was early November of 2023, and I remember it was unseasonably warm. We headed off down the hill from our house towards our neighborhood park.
Radio Atlantic
“We Live Here Now” and Trump’s Retelling of January 6
Stickers we're very much not used to seeing in our mixed-race, mixed-income neighborhood. Our vibe is more like, make DC the 51st state and no taxation without representation. These stickers were a combo platter of skulls and American flags.
Radio Atlantic
“We Live Here Now” and Trump’s Retelling of January 6
There was a Roman numeral for three, the symbol of a militia group called the Three Percenters, and the pièce de résistance, a giant decal in the center of the back window that read, Free Our Patriots, J4, J6, meaning justice for January 6th.
Radio Atlantic
“We Live Here Now” and Trump’s Retelling of January 6
Right after I said that moderately unneighborly thing, the passenger side window rolled down. Cigarette smoke curled out of the car. And the person inside shouted, justice for J6. To which Lauren said, you're in the wrong neighborhood for that, honey. And then the woman in the car said words I'm not going to forget anytime soon. We live here now. So suck it, bitch.
Radio Atlantic
“We Live Here Now” and Trump’s Retelling of January 6
We'll get to who that person is soon enough, but we're not there yet. When we first encountered the woman from the car, we had no idea who we were dealing with. I just knew I was sufficiently put in my place. Well, okay, I remember saying to Hannah as we walked back home.
Radio Atlantic
“We Live Here Now” and Trump’s Retelling of January 6
I remember being mad because I lost. Right. Because I didn't get the final word. Yeah. And because I just kept thinking, like, the whole combination of it felt bad to me. It's like, it's like, militia stickers, justice for J6, we live here, you just called me a name. You know, the whole thing was very out of place. And... I felt it was a little destabilizing.
Radio Atlantic
“We Live Here Now” and Trump’s Retelling of January 6
I'm Lauren Ober. And I'm Hannah Rosen. And from the Atlantic, this is We Live Here Now. Most of the country watched January 6th from a safe distance, something happening in their Twitter feeds or on their phone screens. But for those of us living in D.C., it was happening in our backyard.
Radio Atlantic
“We Live Here Now” and Trump’s Retelling of January 6
So we were actually left with the wreckage of that day. We were in a militarized city, we were living under a curfew, streets were blocked off, the windows were all boarded up, and you felt like you were living, if not in a war zone, in a dangerous place.
Radio Atlantic
“We Live Here Now” and Trump’s Retelling of January 6
I bought a baseball bat for protection. I remember that. Which is why two-plus years later, it felt like this whole period of time we'd rather forget was racing back. Donald Trump was looking like he'd be the Republican nominee, and a second Trump presidency seemed possible. Plus, we had a car with militia stickers lurking in our neighborhood.
Radio Atlantic
“We Live Here Now” and Trump’s Retelling of January 6
In the immediate aftermath of January 6th, there were three names I associated with what happened at the Capitol. The QAnon shaman, for obvious reasons. Oath Keeper's founder, Stuart Rhodes, because he seemed really dangerous, and also he had an eye patch. And Ashley Babbitt, who has everything to do with our new neighbor's arrival in D.C.,
Radio Atlantic
“We Live Here Now” and Trump’s Retelling of January 6
Four people died that day, but I only remember hearing about Ashley. Maybe that's because she was the only rioter killed by law enforcement. Ashley Babbitt was a Trump diehard, so it's not surprising she made her way to D.C. for the rally. She was a Second Amendment-loving libertarian. She wholeheartedly believed in MAGA and QAnon.
Radio Atlantic
“We Live Here Now” and Trump’s Retelling of January 6
During the pandemic, she was hostile about mask mandates and refused to get vaccinated. When California issued a stay-at-home order, she tweeted, "'This is that commie bullshit.'"
Radio Atlantic
“We Live Here Now” and Trump’s Retelling of January 6
On the day of the riots, she seemed genuinely thrilled to be there. And it was amazing to get to see the president talk.
Radio Atlantic
“We Live Here Now” and Trump’s Retelling of January 6
Rumors spread immediately that the woman killed was 25, 21, a mere teenager. In actual fact, Ashley was 35. But the details didn't matter. She was a young white woman in the prime of her life shot dead by a black officer. People were quick to point out that she was a veteran, a war hero even, purportedly upholding her oath to defend the Constitution when she died.
Radio Atlantic
“We Live Here Now” and Trump’s Retelling of January 6
On far-right pro-Trump message boards post-January 6th, Ashley was called a freedom fighter and the first victim of the Second Civil War. One person wrote, Your blood will not be in vain. We will avenge you.
Radio Atlantic
“We Live Here Now” and Trump’s Retelling of January 6
This conspiracy has gotten more elaborate over time. The insurrection was a setup, or the prosecution of January 6th rioters represented gross government overreach, or the government can turn on its own citizens, even kill them.