“…until three months ago she was under the spell of what she calls “the Trump cult.” She attended the Jan. 6 rally as a self-appointed “citizen journalist”…

“…January 6th, it’s a WAR!”

Hemphill later said that she had not realized how lost she had become.

“You don’t see it as a cult when you’re in it…”

She said she had deepening doubts that the election had really been stolen.

But Trumpism kept its hold on her until after she was back home and family members began speaking hard truth to her just as she had to alcoholics and drug abusers before she retired as a substance abuse counselor.

“I started seeing the narcissistic behavior,” she recalled. “And I said, ‘Wait, wait, this is gaslighting. This is not true.’” She began to listen to what her gut had been telling her.

She came to understand how she and others became members of the Trump cult.

“It’s called love-bombing,” she said. “He’s a rescuer trying to save the world, you know.”