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      Georgia Republicans Contort Themselves to Avoid Trump’s Fury

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      State Certified Vote Totals

      Election Disinformation

      Full Results

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    • 125 Shares119 Views

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      2,596 Trades in One Term: Inside Senator Perdue’s Stock Portfolio

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Coronavirus OutbreakliveLatest UpdatesMaps and CasesWho Gets the Vaccine First?Vaccine TrackerFAQAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story2,596 Trades in One Term: Inside Senator Perdue’s Stock PortfolioThe Georgia Republican’s stock trades have far outpaced those of his Senate colleagues and have included a range of companies within his Senate committees’ oversight, an analysis shows.Senator David Perdue’s stock trading accounts for nearly a third of all Senate trades reported in the past six years.Credit…Caroline Brehman/CQ Roll Call/Bloomberg, via Getty ImagesBy More

    • 188 Shares189 Views

      in US Politics

      Dear President Trump: election officials are facing death threats on your watch | Gabriel Sterling

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      On Tuesday, a Republican senior election official in Georgia, Gabriel Sterling, gave an emotional and scathing press conference in which he described death threats and abuse he and others affiliated with counting the presidential vote in Georgia have endured. Sterling called out Donald Trump and other Republicans for stoking conspiracy theories about the election and encouraging an atmosphere of intimidation against people trying to do their jobs.
      Here is a transcript of his public remarks:
      I’m going to do my best to keep it together because it all gone too far, all of it. Joe diGenova [an attorney for the Trump campaign] today asked for Chris Krebs, a patriot who ran [the federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency], to be shot. A twentysomething [voting technician] in Gwinnett county today has death threats and a noose put out saying he should be hung for treason because he was transferring a report on batches from a [voting machine] to a county computer so he could read it. It has to stop.
      Mr President, you have not condemned these actions or this language. Senators, you have not condemned this language or these actions. This has to stop. We need you to step up, and if you’re going to take a position of leadership, show some.
      My boss, [Georgia secretary of state Brad] Raffensperger, his address is out there. They have people doing caravans in front of their house. They’ve had people come on to their property. Tricia, his wife of 40 years, is getting sexualized threats through her cellphone. It has to stop.
      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. Yes, fight for every legal vote. Go through your due process. We encourage you. Use your first amendment. That’s fine.
      Death threats, physical threats, intimidation, it’s too much. It’s not right. They’ve lost the moral high ground to claim that it is.
      I don’t have all the best words to do this because I’m angry. And the straw that broke the camel’s back today is, again, this 20-year-old contractor for a voting-system company just trying to do his job … in fact, I talked to Dominion [a voting system company] today, and they said he’s one of the better ones they’ve got. His family’s getting harassed now. There’s a noose out there with his name on it, and it’s just not right.
      I’ve got police protection outside my house. Fine. You know, I took a higher-profile job. I get it. Secretary ran for office. His wife knew that too. This kid took a job. He just took a job. It’s just wrong. I can’t begin to explain the level of anger I have right now over this. And every American, every Georgian, Republican and Democrat alike, should have that same level of anger.
      Mr President, it looks like you likely lost the state of Georgia. We’re investigating, there’s always a possibility, I get it. You have the rights to go to the courts. What you don’t have the ability to do – and you need to step up and say this – is 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. It’s not right … all of this is wrong.
      DiGenova, who said for Chris Krebs to get shot, is a former US attorney. He knows better. The people around the president know better. Mr President, as the secretary said yesterday, people aren’t giving you the best advice of what’s actually going on on the ground. It’s time to look forward. If you want to run for re-election in four years, fine – do it. But everything we’re seeing right now, there’s not a path. Be the bigger man here, and step in. Tell your supporters: “Don’t be violent. Don’t intimidate.” All that’s wrong. It’s un-American. More

    • 163 Shares179 Views

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      Georgia Republican warns Trump is inciting violence over election: 'Someone will get hurt'

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      Gabriel Sterling tells president to soften his language or ‘someone is going to get killed’One of Georgia’s top election officials has made an impassioned plea to Donald Trump to tone down his rhetoric disputing the election results, saying the president is “inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence”.Gabriel Sterling, a Republican who oversaw the implementation of the state’s new voting system, also issued the stark warning that if Trump does not rein in his supporters then “someone is going to get hurt”. Continue reading… More

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      ‘It Has to Stop’: Georgia Election Official Lashes Trump

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      State Certified Vote Totals

      Election Disinformation

      Full Results

      Transition Updates

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    • 146 Shares159 Views

      in Elections

      No, Georgia’s governor cannot ‘overrule’ its secretary of state on voting.

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      President Trump on Monday morning inaccurately described Georgia’s vote counting process and implausibly urged the state’s Republican governor to “overrule” its Republican secretary of state.Why won’t Governor @BrianKempGA, the hapless Governor of Georgia, use his emergency powers, which can be easily done, to overrule his obstinate Secretary of State, and do a match of signatures on envelopes. It will be a “goldmine” of fraud, and we will easily WIN the state….— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 30, 2020
      The tweet was the latest of Mr. Trump’s continuing assault on election results in Georgia and its top Republican officials, which has ignited an intraparty feud in the state.Governor Brian Kemp of Georgia does not have the authority to do what Mr. Trump is suggesting. Moreover, signature verification is already part of the vote counting process.When absentee ballots are received, Georgia’s election officials verify the signature on the envelopes. The ballots and envelopes are then separated to protect privacy, so rechecking the envelopes during a recount would be meaningless.“Georgia law prohibits the governor from interfering in elections. The secretary of state, who is an elected constitutional officer, has oversight over elections that cannot be overridden by executive order,” a spokesman for Mr. Kemp told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.The notion that “the governor has inherent executive authority to suspend or investigate or somehow interfere with this process — that’s just not true,” said Anthony Michael Kreis, a constitutional law professor at Georgia State University. “There is no plausible case here whatsoever.”Unlike the federal government, Georgia does not have a unitary executive and its governor and secretary of state have separate duties. Even the governor’s emergency powers are limited.Mr. Kreis said that Georgia’s code was “very clear” on the kinds of things a governor can do in a state of emergency. Mr. Kemp can move resources and funds and enact temporary measures, Mr. Kreis said, but “he does not have the authority to expressly interfere with elections.”Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, continued to push back on Mr. Trump’s and his allies’ baseless claims of mass voter fraud in a news conference on Monday.“The truth matters, especially around election administration,” Mr. Raffensperger said. “There are those who exploit the emotions of many Trump supporters with fantastic claims, half-truths, misinformation and frankly, they’re misleading the president as well, apparently.” More

    • 138 Shares129 Views

      in US Politics

      Trump's baseless claims of Georgia voter fraud spark fears among Republicans

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      Despite giving his strongest hints yet that he is coming to accept his loss of the White House to challenger Joe Biden, Donald Trump’s continuing reluctance to leave office and baseless claims about electoral fraud are increasingly worrying his own party.
      In particular, Republicans are concerned that the chaos caused by Trump’s stance and his false comments on the conduct of the election in the key swing state of Georgia, which Biden won for the Democrats, could hinder his party’s efforts to retain control of the Senate.
      Control of the key upper chamber of the US Congress hangs in the balance as runoff races for the state’s two Senate seats play out over the remainder of 2020, with an election scheduled in early January. If Democrats win those seats, they grab the Senate while if Republicans emerge victorious, they keep control and can seriously hinder Biden’s agenda, including his ability to freely pick his cabinet.
      Trump has attacked the election system in Georgia, even though it is headed by Republicans, after Biden flipped the southern state to the Democrats for the first time since 1992.
      On Thanksgiving – a day usually reserved for presidential platitudes – Trump broke with tradition and repeated those attacks in a now rare face-off with journalists. “I’m very worried about that,” Trump said when asked about his previous baseless claims of fraud in Georgia. “You have a fraudulent system.” He then called Georgia’s Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, who has defended the state’s election process, an “enemy of the people”.
      Such attacks have Republicans worried as they seek to motivate Georgia voters to come to the polls in January, volunteer for their Senate campaigns and – perhaps most importantly of all – dig deep into their pockets to pay for the unexpected runoff races.
      In particular Trump’s comments have spurred conspiracy theories that the state’s electoral system is rigged and prompted some of his supporters to make calls for a boycott of the coming vote – something that local Georgia Republicans desperately do not want. “His demonization of Georgia’s entire electoral system is hurting his party’s chances at keeping the Senate,” warned an article published by Politico.
      Even Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr, has jumped into the fray, tweeting: “I’m seeing a lot of talk from people that are supposed to be on our side telling GOP voters not to go out & vote.. That is NONSENSE. IGNORE those people.”
      The president has also pledged to visit Georgia to hold rallies in support of the two Republican candidates, Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue. The first of those events is expected to be on Saturday 5 December and could be a double-edged sword. Trump is still a powerful force with a loyal following whose endorsement is a key mobilizing tool for the race. On the other hand, in freewheeling his rallies, Trump may spout conspiracy theories that undermine their campaigns.
      Certainly Trump’s mood has become increasingly erratic even as he has made the clearest signs yet that he will eventually leave the White House, which he convincingly lost to Biden in both the popular vote and the vital electoral college that actually picks the next president.
      On Thanksgiving Day, Trump grumpily said he would leave the White House when the electoral college voted for Biden. He has so far defied tradition by refusing to concede defeat and launching legal attempts to challenge the outcomes in battleground states includijng Georgia, Pennsylvania and Michigan. So far, those efforts have largely failed.
      New court defeat for Trump
      On Friday, Trump’s legal team suffered yet another defeat as a federal appeals court in Philadelphia roundly rejected its latest effort to challenge the state’s election results.
      Trump’s lawyers vowed to appeal to the supreme court despite the judge’s assessment that the “campaign’s claims have no merit”.
      The case had been argued last week in a lower court by Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani without tangible proof presented. “Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here,” Judge Stephanos Bibas wrote for the three-judge panel on Friday.
      On Thursday, Trump had declined to say whether he would attend Biden’s inauguration, which is due to take place on 20 January, and called one reporter a “lightweight”, telling him: “Don’t talk to me like that.”
      Trump continued his rant on Friday, producing a long string of retweets and tweets making untrue claims about the election and his opponent. “Biden can only enter the White House as President if he can prove that his ridiculous ‘80,000,000 votes’ were not fraudulently or illegally obtained,” he tweeted.
      He even retweeted a video of a fight between a lion and a pack of attacking hyenas, over which was narrated a piece of movie dialogue by the actor Christopher Walken, taken from the film Poolhall Junkies. “So much truth,” Trump remarked.
      The Republican party has shocked many observers by mostly continuing its adherence to Trump and backing his wild claims and legal efforts, though daylight has started to appear between some top party figures and the White House.
      “We’re going to have an orderly transfer from this administration to the next one,” Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate majority leader, told reporters recently. “What we all say about it is, frankly, irrelevant.”
      Also on Friday, Republicans picked up their third US House seat in California. David Valadao reclaimed the seat he lost two years ago, defeating the Democratic representative TJ Cox. More