Republicans sound alarm on Georgia Senate runoffs as they privately weigh Trump’s influence
Republican leaders are increasingly alarmed about the party’s ability to stave off Democratic challengers in Georgia’s two Senate runoff elections — and they privately described President Trump on a recent conference call as a political burden who despite his false claims of victory was the likely loser of the 2020 election.
Those blunt assessments, which capture a Republican Party in turmoil as Trump refuses to concede to President-elect Joe Biden, were made on a Nov. 10 call with donors hosted by the National Republican Senatorial Committee. It featured Georgia’s embattled GOP incumbents, Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, and Karl Rove, a veteran strategist who is coordinating fundraising for the Jan. 5 runoffs.
The comments by the senators and Rove were shared with The Washington Post by a person who provided a detailed and precise account of what was said by each speaker on the call. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity since they were not authorized to divulge the contents of the private discussion.
Gabriel Sterling, a top official in the Georgia secretary of state’s office, condemned President Donald Trump and the state’s two Republican senators, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, in a fiery press conference Tuesday after a local election worker received death threats.
Sterling, who works for Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, opened the press conference by saying an election contractor in Gwinnett County had received death threats after conspiracy theorists spread videos of the worker on social media.
Sterling did not name the worker, who he called a “twenty-something tech” working for Dominion Voting Systems, a voting machine vendor that has become the subject of unfounded right-wing conspiracy theories regarding the election results. Sterling said the worker has “death threats and a noose put out, saying he should be hung for treason” and that his family has been harassed. Social media posts falsely accuse the worker by name of manipulating data. (POLITICO is also not further identifying him for his safety.)
“Mr. President, you have not condemned these actions or this language,” he said. “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.”
“Mr. President, it looks like you likely lost the state of Georgia,” Sterling said later in the press conference. “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.”
Sterling noted that both he and Raffensperger, along with Raffensperger’s wife, have also received threats. Sterling also brought up Joe DiGenova, an attorney for the president, calling for Chris Krebs to be shot. Krebs was fired by Trump from leading the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency after saying the election was secure, and DiGenova later tried to portray his comment as a hyperbole.
“It has to stop,” Sterling said. “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 is too much. … It is not right. They have lost the moral high ground to claim that it is.”
Originally posted by Cindysphinx: It’s like Charlie Brown kicking the football. Again and again, the liberal media tells me the Dems have a shot, and then we get smoked.
Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me a second time, won’t get fooled again.
We didn't get fooled in the Presidential election in Georgia.
