Rich brings a deeply personal perspective to this briefing. For years, he was a committed MAGA activist: volunteering, campaigning, and writing in support of the movement. But beginning in 2022, a series of events shook his convictions. The handling of COVID-19, the response to January 6, and ultimately the tragedy in Uvalde became incidents he could not defend, no matter how deeply committed he was to the MAGA community. By August 2022, he made the difficult decision to leave the movement he once believed in wholeheartedly.