Former Texas Sen. Wendy Davis and others are suing members of the “Trump Train,” a January 6th-like caravan of Trumpers who threatened and tried to run off the road a Biden campaign bus last fall.
From The Texas Tribune:
The confrontation, captured on video in late October, made national news in the days leading up to the 2020 presidential election. It featured at least one minor collision and led to Texas Democrats canceling three scheduled campaign events in Central Texas, citing “safety concerns.” The plaintiffs argue the forced cancellation due to these intimidation tactics also infringed on their First Amendment rights. The FBI continues to investigate the incident, according to a law enforcement official familiar with the investigation.
A group of Trump supporters, who documented their progress on social media, had followed the group throughout the Texas campaign. On Oct. 30, a social media user using the hashtag #TrumpTrainTexas posted on Twitter, “Trolling is FUN.” The user called for other Trump supporters to “escort the Biden [bus] coming through San Antonio.”
Once they left San Antonio, dozens of trucks with Trump and American flags surrounded the bus, shouting and honking at it, and tried to slow it down. The campaign canceled an event in San Marcos and continued on to an event in Austin. But plaintiffs said they struggled to get police to respond as they continued north on Interstate 35.
In a January interview with The Tribune, Davis said she felt a sense of déjà vu watching the same anger and aggression from the insurrectionists sieging the Capitol on January 6. Also like January 6th, Donald Trump tweeted his support of the harassers. Donald Trump Jr. may have incited the incident. Sen. Marco Rubio said, “we love what they did.”
“This is a symptom of a broader problem that is not going away. This truly is the birth of a domestic terrorist unit. And I think that the FBI and local law enforcement need to see it this way,” Davis said in her January interview. “It's risen to a level that is emboldened and embraced, unfortunately, by elected officials, and it's going to continue to rise to these dangerous fever pitches if we don't do something about it.”
Now, Davis and her colleagues on the bus are doing something.
Just like some of the January 6th insurrectionists, some of the Trump Train cohorts made it ridiculously easy to be found. The Tribune notes:
Many of the defendants who are named in the filing were linked by their social media posts of the incident in which their license plate numbers are visible. According to the filing, the defendants include Steve and Randi Ceh, who were apparent leaders of the Trump Train in New Braunfels, and their daughter, Hannah. The filing states that Hannah posted several videos that showed her license plate number. Eliazar Cisneros, who appeared to participate in the Alamo City Trump Train, also posted videos with his license plate visible, the filing states.
Davis is 100% right about the connection between the Trump Train and January 6. “The filing also said according to social media posts, Steve and Randi Ceh were also pictured at the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 insurrection,” The Tribune reported.
