Georgia has a Republican Governor and Republican state officials. The presidential election was conducted under the auspices of Republicans. Biden won the election by a small margin. Trump insisted on a hand recount, and it confirmed that Biden won. Trump has demanded another recount.
Trump has taken to Twitter to excoriate Governor Kemp for refusing to change the results. He and his proxies have attacked the state’s election officials. The Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger condemned the conspiracy theories and groundless attacks on the election. Another state election official spoke out and said, “This has to stop.” He warned that someone could be killed because of the violence unleashed by Trump.
This story appeared in the New York Times:
ATLANTA — In one of the most striking rebukes to President Trump since he launched his baseless attacks on the American electoral process, a top-ranking Georgia election official lashed out at the president on Tuesday for failing to condemn threats of violence against people overseeing the voting system in his state.
“It has to stop,” Gabriel Sterling, a Republican and Georgia’s voting system implementation manager, said at an afternoon news conference at the state Capitol, his voice shaking with emotion. “Mr. President, you have not condemned these actions or this language.”
He added: “This is elections. This is the backbone of democracy, and all of you who have not said a damn word are complicit in this. It’s too much.”
Mr. Sterling’s outburst of anger and frustration came amid a sustained assault on Georgia’s election process by Mr. Trump as he seeks to reverse his loss to his Democratic rival, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. Mr. Sterling, who previously said he had received threats himself, said that threats had also been made against the wife of his superior, Brad Raffensperger, the Republican secretary of state.
“Mr. President, it looks like you likely lost the state of Georgia,” Mr. Sterling said. He added that the president needed to “step up” and say, “Stop inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence. Someone is going to get hurt, someone is going to get shot, someone is going to get killed. And it’s not right.”
Mr. Sterling also called on the state’s two Republican senators, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, to condemn the rhetoric that he said was getting dangerously out of hand. The two senators, both Trump loyalists, have called for Mr. Raffensperger to resign.
As Mr. Trump hurls false claims of fraud in Georgia, a number of lawsuits filed by conservatives in state and federal courts are seeking to decertify the results. The second of two recounts requested by the Trump campaign is in progress and is expected to wind up Wednesday. And the Georgia Republican Party has descended into a state of virtual civil war as some of its most powerful players maneuver and malign their rivals, seeking advantage, or at least survival.
In the meantime, Mr. Trump continues to lash out at Gov. Brian Kemp and Mr. Raffensperger, both staunch Republicans and Trump supporters, over the fact that he lost Georgia, saying they have not sufficiently rooted out fraud.
As late as Tuesday morning, Mr. Trump made the latest in a series of unsubstantiated claims about the Georgia election, writing on Twitter that the state had been “scammed” and urging Mr. Kemp to “call off” the election.
Some of Mr. Trump’s supporters have taken to the streets and the Capitol building in downtown Atlanta, where the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones of Infowars recently joined them. In other cases, Trump supporters have harassed or threatened Mr. Sterling, Mr. Raffensperger and others.
In a statement Tuesday evening, Tim Murtaugh, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, said: “The campaign is focused on ensuring that all legal votes are counted and all illegal votes are not. No one should engage in threats or violence, and if that has happened, we condemn that fully.”
Amid all of this, Mr. Sterling, a detail-oriented former city councilman from the Atlanta suburb of Sandy Springs, has taken on a prominent role in the state as it conducted its recounts. Along with Mr. Raffensperger, he has often been the main speaker in numerous news conferences in which he has explained the complexities of Georgia’s election and recount systems and has argued that the results, which currently show Mr. Biden winning by about 12,700 votes, are trustworthy.
Ari Schaffer, press secretary for the secretary of state’s office, did not answer directly when asked Tuesday whether Mr. Raffensperger had given Mr. Sterling his blessing to speak out so forcefully against the president. But he noted that the deputy secretary of state, Jordan Fuchs, had been standing near Mr. Sterling when he made his statements.
“Gabriel has my support,” Ms. Fuchs said independently in a text message.
Late Tuesday, representatives for Ms. Loeffler and Mr. Perdue said they condemned violence of any kind but also said they would not apologize for seeking accountability and accuracy in the state’s elections.
In the second of two news conferences called by the secretary of state’s office on Tuesday, Mr. Sterling, speaking loudly, emotionally and deliberately, said that people had intruded on Mr. Raffensperger’s personal property. He said that Mr. Raffensperger’s wife “is getting sexualized threats through her cellphone.” He mentioned that he had police protection outside his own house, a topic he had also broached in a Nov. 21 tweet.
“So this is fun … multiple attempted hacks of my emails, police protection around my home, the threats,” Mr. Sterling wrote then. “But all is well … following the law, following the process … doing our jobs.”
This is not fun. This is no joke. Trump is sowing distrust in democracy and endangering the lives of election officials who refuse to rig the results for him.
I wonder what that dumpster thinks about Barr now?
Barr Says No Election Fraud Has Been Found By Federal Authorities
https://www.npr.org/2020/12/01/940819896/barr-says-no-election-fraud-has-been-found-by-federal-authorities
Is Barr afraid of being DISBARRED?
Agreed. Clearly some “cya” going on here.
It’s obviously too late for these Republicans to learn any lessons from the wonderful recent BBC documentary “Rise of the Nazis” now on PBS. I highly recommend it. It’s a three part docu-series, about how the German aristocratic conservatives thought they could use the Nazis to maintain their own power, but which ultimately proved to be their undoing.
Beth,
I have been watching “Rise of the Nazis” on PBS. Episode 4 is on tonight. The other episodes are online and free. Hitler promised to make Germany great again. The elites thought they could use him but he used them. It’s a warning to us.
Thanks for letting me know. I watched the 3 episodes available online.
One thing for which this country has always stood was the smooth transition of power, that is until now. We have disgraced ourselves and given cover to dictators around the world. THIS is the way that dictators seize power, they get into office by fair means or foul and then will not relinquish their hold on the office; president, chancellor etc and democracy is out the window.
Democracy is fragile, very fragile and a pied piper comes along and promises Deutschland uber alles, make our country great again or something similar, divide and conquer and here we go again.
We MAY have dodged a bullet this time but a precedent has been set for the next would be dictator here and one can see now how many and how easily when lies are yelled loud and long enough that a significant number of people are like the proverbial lemmings led into destruction.
I do not know what the future will look like unless people wise up to the real issues confronting us all but for me it looks very scary.
Sooner or later, someone would have tried to become dictator president. It’s human nature and free will. ☹️
Bible believers believe Adam and Eve ate that apple. If they didn’t, someone would have. ☹️
What peaceful transition of power took place when Trump was elected? Did you not pay attention?
Yes, the Democrats are trying to pave the way for a Marxist or Communist Regime.
I say the majority of Democrats would survive about a week in a Chinese work camp. In those camps you actually have to work for your meager allotment of food. Nothing is free.
Sara,
Hillary Clinton called Trump to concede on the night of the election. The very next day, she gave a speech formally conceding and noting that a peaceful transition of power is one of the hallmarks of American democracy.
She won the popular vote (Trump lost the popular vote by 3 million in 2016 and by more than 6 million in 2020), but she did not ask for any recounts in the three states where the margin was close.
She conceded graciously unlike Trump.
trump has already caused violence with his bellicose vituperations on Twitter. He has to realize that his words stir the fringes of society into carrying guns around, and that the less moored of those will use them.
I’m wondering WHERE the voices are from the current Republican leadership that claim to be “patriotic” Americans about the irreparable damage to iur system of government that Trump and his minions are causing by continuing to squawk about this past election? As an aside- Michael Flynn has just called for the U. S Constitution to be suspended. So that Trump can stay in power, and overturn the election results. Pardon me, but isn’t this considered to be sedition? The silence from the Republican leadership is quite deafening about these developments…..
Yes, now Flynn is guilty of sedition.
What Trump is doing is nothing new. For decades he attacked everyone that dared to fight back when he cheated them through rigged business deals or refused to pay them for work done. He dragged through through the courts with the goal of destroying them financially for daring to stand up to him.
Now we know what all of his victims have gone through and that includes rape victims that reported the rape to the police to only drop the charges later after being bought of or scared off with death threats.
“Donald Trump Is Completely Obsessed With Revenge”
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/10/donald-trump-obsessed-with-revenge/
Trump: “I love getting even with people”.
“Just How Badly Does Trump Want Revenge?
“Angry about his loss, the president can make life difficult for the officials he believes have crossed him.”
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/11/trump-critics-worried-about-retaliation/617088/