Trump and the Georgia Senate Runoffs

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25 Nov 2020, 4:10 pm

How Trump’s conspiracy theories have inspired some supporters to boycott the Georgia runoffs by Aaron Rupar, Vox, Nov 24, 2020:

Quote:

President Donald Trump’s lies about the election being stolen from him are having an unintended consequence: There are now members of his base who are advocating for Republicans not to vote in the Georgia runoff for two vital Senate seats.

Democrats can take control of the US Senate if both Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff defeat Republican incumbents Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue in the upcoming runoffs. But Trump has been hurting his party’s cause by attacking two state Republican officials — Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican Trump has demeaned as a “RINO,” or Republican in name only — for their supposed involvement in a far-fetched scheme to throw the state’s presidential election for Joe Biden. (In reality, both Raffensperger and Kemp are Trump supporters.)

...

Another related story:

With Senate on the Line, Trump's Claims of Election Fraud Put Georgia Republicans in Bind, Reuters, Nov. 24, 2020:

Quote:

...

The Jan. 5 runoffs are critical for each party; while Biden narrowly carried the state, Georgia has not elected a Democratic senator in two decades. Losses by both Perdue and Loeffler would deadlock the Senate, giving Vice President-elect Kamala Harris the tie-breaking vote.

A win by either Republican would keep the Senate in Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's hands, likely blocking much of Biden's legislative agenda.

...

ATTACKS ON FELLOW REPUBLICAN

Perdue and Loeffler previously called on Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to resign despite no evidence of major irregularities, an extraordinary attack on a fellow Republican that underscored the intense pressure to fall in line behind Trump's claims.

Over the weekend, Lin Wood, a Trump campaign attorney, suggested Trump supporters withhold their votes for Perdue and Loeffler unless they do more to address the alleged "steal." A super PAC backing Trump, the Committee for American Sovereignty, launched a website encouraging supporters to write in Trump's name for Senate to push Perdue and Loeffler to act.

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Last edited by Mona Pereth on 25 Nov 2020, 5:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Mona Pereth
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25 Nov 2020, 5:09 pm

Recently a one-page website appeared, urging "you, the American Patriot" to write in Trump in the Georgia Senate writeoff, as a way of pressuring the Republican Senate candidates "to act on the illegitimate and corrupt election presided over by a Democrat party that is invested in the Communist takeover of Our Great Nation." The website says at the bottom that it "has been paid for by the Committee for American Sovereignty."

But the Committee for American Sovereignty, a now-dormant super-PAC, denies authorship of the above web page, according to Roger Stone-Tied Group Claims Dems Are Framing Them as Republican Party Turncoats: The group appeared to be encouraging Trump backers to either not vote in the GA runoffs or write in the president’s name. They now say it’s a lie by Lachlan Markay and Will Sommer, The Daily Beast, Nov. 24, 2020.

The above article nevertheless still says, more generally:

Quote:

... There has been a broader push among some of President Trump’s most devoted supporters to withhold support for Georgia Republican senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, who are facing competitive runoff challenges, in the hope of leveraging the party’s fear of losing the U.S. Senate to get more establishment backing for their election-fraud conspiracy theories. The goal, those operatives say, is to expose a supposed vast election-fraud conspiracy abetted by high-level Republicans in Georgia’s state government, including Gov. Brian Kemp and secretary of state Brad Raffensperger.

The idea of writing in Trump’s name for Senate faces some significant obstacles—chiefly, that there is no space for write-in candidates on Georgia’s runoff ballots, which simply ask voters to select one of two candidates. But the underlying effort to kneecap Georgia Republicans nonetheless gained major traction over the past week thanks largely to the public utterances of Sidney Powell, who claimed in a Saturday interview on Newsmax that her imagined voter-fraud conspiracy involving Dominion voting machines and Venezuelan bribes extended all the way to Kemp and Raffensperger. Powell even suggested that Loeffler would have lost this month to Rep. Doug Collins, her top Republican challenger, had it not been for the supposed voter fraud that tainted Georgia elections.

“Mr. Kemp and the secretary of state need to go with it because they’re in on the Dominion scam with their last-minute purchase or reward of a contract to Dominion of $100 million,” Powell said.

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25 Nov 2020, 7:06 pm

Interesting, Mona. Thanks for posting.

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26 Nov 2020, 3:03 pm

Trump’s conspiracies have MAGA world talking Georgia boycott by Tina Nguyen and James Arkin, Politico, 11/26/2020:

Quote:

Powell, Trump’s erstwhile attorney, turned parts of the MAGA community against Loeffler when she started pushing an untrue allegation that Loeffler had somehow conspired with a voting technology company, Dominion Voting Systems, to suppress votes for Collins.

The QAnon-leaning MAGA community has long looked to Powell as a leading authority on such deep state plots against Trump’s supporters, especially after she took over as Michael Flynn’s attorney.

...

Lin Wood, a prominent Georgia attorney who filed his own suit to overturn the state’s results, has repeatedly called for Loeffler to drop out of the race, pressed Perdue to show more Trump loyalty and for them both to begin “investigations” into the election.

“Threaten to withhold your votes & money,” he directed his followers on Twitter.

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26 Nov 2020, 4:50 pm

Rush Limbaugh Does Full 180, Blasts Sidney Powell After Team Trump Disavowed Her by Justin Baragona, Daily Beast, Nov. 23, 2020.

Includes the following (emphasis mine):

Quote:

Over the weekend, after Powell claimed millions of votes were stolen from President Donald Trump by corrupted software, Powell gave an off-the-rails interview to Newsmax TV in which she expanded her bonkers conspiracy to include Georgia’s Republican governor and secretary of state being bribed.

With Powell having already come under fire from Fox News host Tucker Carlson for failing to provide any evidence for her outrageous allegations, which included claims that late Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez was involved in stealing votes, Team Trump finally distanced itself from Powell on Sunday evening, saying she “is practicing law on her own. She is not a member of the Trump Legal Team. She is also not a lawyer for the President in his personal capacity.”

Rush Limbaugh's earlier praise for Sidney Powell's allegations can be found here: Rush Limbaugh praises deranged election conspiracy theories of Trump lawyers, Media Matters, 11/19/2020.

EDIT: More about Limbaugh and Sidney Powell here: Limbaugh: Trump legal team better produce something fast by Dominick Mastrangelo, The Hill, 11/23/2020

Last edited by Mona Pereth on 26 Nov 2020, 6:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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26 Nov 2020, 5:05 pm

Mona Pereth wrote:

Trump’s conspiracies have MAGA world talking Georgia boycott by Tina Nguyen and James Arkin, Politico, 11/26/2020:

Quote:

Nothing wrong with the chuds making it easier to pick up two seats in Georgia.

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26 Nov 2020, 5:12 pm

When I contemplate these events I have to wonder:

Do these people understand what the facts are and spout off these outrageous claims and then go home and chortle about putting one over on the MAGAs.

Or do they deep in their hearts believe this stuff? If they really believe it, is it because they are taken in by a religious type conversion? Or is the American system of educating lawyers such that when they graduate they can no longer tell the difference between fact and fiction?

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26 Nov 2020, 5:16 pm

Donald Trump finally found someone with a too-crazy conspiracy theory about the 2020 election by Chris Cillizza, CNN, November 23, 2020.

Powell is quoted as saying:

Quote:

"Georgia is probably going to be the first state I'm going to blow up ... and Mr. Kemp and the Secretary of State need to go with it because they're in on the Dominion scam. ... Another benefit Dominion was created to reward is what I would call election insurance, that's why Hugo Chavez had it created in the first place. I also wonder where he got the technology, where it actually came from because I think it's him or ... the CIA."

The author of the article comments:

Quote:

OK, OK. So Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican and a man who had adhered himself to Trump throughout his political career, is actually part of a massive fraud involving Dominion, a voting machine company, that somehow has ties to the late Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez and/or the CIA?

...

Dominion is a voting systems company founded in Canada in 2003. As for Powell's claim that Kemp and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger are "in on the Dominion scam," there's no evidence of any sort to back up that claim.

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26 Nov 2020, 6:23 pm

From Twitter:

Lin Wood on Nov 21:

Quote:

Let’s speak truth about @SenLoeffler & @sendavidperdue .

Why are they doing little or nothing to support efforts by GA citizens to address unlawful election & need for @BrianKempGA to order special session of legislature?

If not fixed, I will NOT vote in GA runoff.

Will you?

Donald Trump Jr. on Nov 23:

Quote:

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 for @KLoeffler and @PerdueSenate .

That is NONSENSE.

IGNORE those people.

We need ALL of our people coming out to vote for Kelly & David.

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26 Nov 2020, 6:49 pm

Some background on relevant Georgia Republican politics, from Trump's bizarre Georgia play: He wants to show Republicans he's still the boss by Heather Digby Parton, Salon, November 25, 2020:

Quote:

Recall that Rep. Doug Collins of Georgia was one of Trump's made men in Congress, vociferously defending him through thick and thin. When Sen. Johnny Isakson resigned due to poor health, Trump wanted Republican Gov. Brian Kemp to appoint Collins to the Senate. But Kemp preferred the moneyed-up Loeffler — who, together with her husband, New York Stock Exchange chair Jeffrey Sprecher, is reportedly worth at least $800 million — and she was ultimately given the seat. Trump wasn't happy about that and there's apparently some lingering bad blood between him and Kemp. You know how he is.

Collins ran against Loeffler in the November special election — a nonpartisan "jungle primary" — and finished third, splitting the Republican vote and leading to Loeffler's January runoff against the Rev. Raphael Warnock, a Democrat. (Powell claimed the vote was rigged against Collins in favor of Loeffler.) Trump then put Collins in charge of his fruitless recount effort in the state — having already completed a hand audit of all the votes, Georgia is now conducting a second machine recount — and there's a lot of back-stabbing going on among all the players, complicating their ability to show a united front.

Trump has of course waded in, tweeting one bogus claim about voter fraud and election irregularities after another, all of them false. Loeffler and Perdue, the other incumbent Republican senator headed for a runoff in January (against Democrat Jon Ossoff), sought to please Trump by demanding the resignation of Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican who had the temerity to run an honest election. Collins dutifully echoed Trump's inane tweeting, garnering a harsh rebuke from Raffensperger, who called him a "failed candidate" and "a liar." (One can't help but suspect he was indirectly addressing the big guy, who fits that bill even better than Collins.) Trump has been tagging Kemp with every one of his outrageous tweets, undoubtedly taking pleasure in taunting the Georgia governor for refusing to show proper fealty by appointing Collins in the first place.

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01 Dec 2020, 10:22 pm

Donald Trump Jr. aides launch super PAC as Georgia worries mount by Alex ISenstadt, Politico, 11/30/2020: "The president's son stars in a new ad campaign as Republicans worry Trump's voter fraud accusations will depress GOP turnout in the Senate runoffs."

Quote:

Senior Republicans are alarmed that Donald Trump’s accusations of widespread voter fraud in Georgia and elsewhere, which he has not substantiated, will have the unintended side effect of discouraging his voters from turning out in the runoffs.

The idea of a boycott has recently caught fire online, where Trump supporters have accused Georgia’s Republican senators up for election, Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, of not doing enough to intervene in the state’s ballot counting. Hashtags like #CrookedKelly and #CrookedPerdue have begun to pop up on social media, and some Trump backers have called for voters to write in the president’s name.

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01 Dec 2020, 11:00 pm

Here's an article on recent developments regarding Sidney Powell's allegations: Judge freezes voting machines in three Georgia counties by Josh Gersten, Politico, 11/30/2020:

Quote:

...

U.S. District Judge Timothy Batten Sr. revealed in his four-page directive that he held a hearing via Zoom Sunday evening on the suit — one of two cases filed in federal courts last week by Sidney Powell, an outspoken Texas attorney who joined President Donald Trump’s legal team earlier this month only to be dismissed from it a few days later

The hearing was not announced on the court’s docket and appears not to have been open to the press or public. It seems to have focused on claims that the election results in Georgia were wildly inaccurate due to use of machines from a leading vendor of voting equipment — Dominion Election Systems.

Powell has alleged, based on scant evidence, that the firm’s foreign ties allowed hostile governments to meddle in the U.S. election via a conspiracy that involved both Democratic and Republican U.S. officials.

...

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05 Dec 2020, 8:21 am

There have been a number of news stories about Republican worries that Trump's voter fraud allegations could depress Republican voter turnout in the upcoming Georgia Senate runoffs.

But the bigger story is how Sidney Powell's recent lawsuit could make it difficult to hold the election at all in Democratic-dominated districts.

According to Sidney Powell’s Georgia Lawsuit Could ‘Significantly’ Impact Runoff Election, Officials Warn by Alison Durkee, Forbes, Dec 4, 2020:

Quote:

A court order in a Georgia legal challenge brought by former Trump legal advisor Sidney Powell and conservative attorney Lin Wood could “significantly and materially interfere” with preparations for the state’s Jan. 5 runoff election in two counties, Georgia officials said in a court filing late Thursday, potentially making voting more difficult for some voters in the Democratic-leaning Atlanta suburbs if the order is allowed to stand.

...

As part of that case, a district court judge ordered Nov. 29 that election officials in Georgia’s Cobb, Gwinnett and Cherokee counties not alter or erase any data from Dominion voting machines for ten days or until the court orders otherwise.

...

Cobb County officials’ ability to prepare for the Jan. 5 runoffs “will be significantly hindered if not practically precluded altogether” if the order stands, the officials said, and Gwinnett county voters could be “deprived” of early voting, which is set to begin Dec. 14.

Voters in the two counties, which both elected President-elect Joe Biden over President Donald Trump, could also face long voting lines “due to an insufficient number of voting machines.”

The officials also note that it’s unnecessary to keep voting data on the machines as Powell and Wood want, because data from the election is already stored in multiple other places and will not be lost if the machines are cleared.

...

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05 Dec 2020, 4:35 pm

They have not earned your vote': Trump allies urge Georgia Republicans to sit out Senate runoffs by Joey Garrison, USA Today, Dec. 2, 2020, updated Dec 3. Attorneys Lin Wood and Sidney Powell urge supporters not to vote on Jan. 5 "on another machine made by China."

'It has to stop': Georgia official calls on Trump to 'stop inspiring' death threats over election by Joey Garrison, USA Today, Dec. 1, 2020, updated Dec 2.

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11 Dec 2020, 5:14 pm

Below is a video in a series called "The Breakdown," hosted by the Lincoln Project, a group of anti-Trump Republicans and former Republicans.

The episode below features an interview with Jim Galloway, a longtime reporter at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, about Georgia politics.

Note that the program itself begins at 4:55. (The first five minutes of the video, before that time, displays a series of Tweets from viewers, before the program itself begins.)

(My boyfriend is a former Republican and a fan of the Lincoln Project.)

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11 Dec 2020, 11:01 pm

Sidney Powell unrelenting in legal battle on Trump’s behalf by Kate Burmback, AP News, December 10, 2020:

Quote:

...

Despite being tossed off the president’s legal team, Powell has continued to push his claim that the election was stolen.

She filed her lawsuit in Georgia the day before Thanksgiving, one of a group of similar “Kraken” suits — including in Michigan, Wisconsin and Arizona — that allege widespread fraud in seeking to overturn the results of the presidential election.

...

U.S. District Judge Timothy Batten promptly dismissed the Georgia suit at the end of an hourlong hearing Monday. The suits in Michigan, Wisconsin and Arizona met similar fates. Powell is vowing to fight on in appeals.

...

“It’s hard to believe that the lawyers actually believe they’re going to win,” New York University law professor Stephen Gillers said. “The reason you file a lawsuit is to win. But when their loss rate is as high as it is, one looks for another explanation for what they’re doing.”

...

Powell appeared Dec. 2 at a “Stop the Steal” rally in Alpharetta, a suburb north of Atlanta, alongside prominent Atlanta attorney Lin Wood, who has teamed up with her on the Kraken suits and filed his own federal lawsuit challenging the outcome of the election in Georgia.

Wood invited questions from the audience. The first woman to climb onstage to ask a question turned to Powell and said, “First of all, Sidney, you’re my hero.” ...

...

There are rules of civil procedure and ethics rules that forbid lawyers from filing cases with no factual or legal basis, and judges can impose sanctions for frivolous or vexatious lawsuits or motions. But it’s pretty rare, and judges might be more forgiving in cases like election-related lawsuits, where lawyers have less time to gather facts and draft their pleadings, Fordham University law professor Bruce Green said.

So why is she doing this? My guess is that she has political ambitions. Either she wants to run for office, or she wants a new career as a right wing media star. Either way, her first step is to make herself a "hero" to the Republican base.

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