Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R), who is on the defensive with his fellow Republicans over his handling of the election and the recount, is now lobbying a serious accusation against U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and blaming President Donald Trump for not receiving more votes.
Raffensperger gave an interview to Justin Gray of WSB-TV, who tweeted Tuesday, “Live exclusive at 4 on @wsbtv: the typically mild mannered @GaSecofState comes out swinging in our interview – says Donald Trump cost himself the election by discouraging mail in votes: “he would have won by 10 thousand votes he actually suppressed, depressed his own voting base”.
Live exclusive at 4 on @wsbtv: the typically mild mannered @GaSecofState comes out swinging in our interview – says Donald Trump cost himself the election by discouraging mail in votes: "he would have won by 10 thousand votes he actually suppressed, depressed his own voting base" pic.twitter.com/1mM7Mmf8xi
— Justin Gray (@JustinGrayWSB) November 17, 2020
Raffensperger placed Trump’s total alleged vote loss in Georgia at 24,000, based on primary voting totals for Republicans.
Raffensperger has been under mounting pressure to resign amid Georgia’s ongoing voter fraud debacle.
Republican U.S. Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler have called for him to resign “immediately” due to “mismanagement and lack of transparency,” CBS News reported.
The secretary of state refused to resign, WTOC reported.
Let me start by saying that is not going to happen. The voters of Georgia hired me, and the voters will be the one to fire me. As Secretary of State, I’ll continue to fight every day to ensure fair elections in Georgia, that every legal vote counts, and that illegal votes don’t count.
Cody Hall, a spokesman for Gov. Brian Kemp (R), said in a tweet that the election debacle should serve as a “wake up call” to Raffensperger’s office.
Statement from the Governor’s Office #gapol pic.twitter.com/im0kGBHpcm
— Cody Hall (@CodyHallGA) November 9, 2020
In his latest dustup with fellow Republicans, Sen. Graham has accused Raffensperger of misrepresenting his inquiry into the recount as a “bizarre” demand to throw out legally mailed ballots. Graham made the remarks to Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Tuesday.
“I know what I talked to the Secretary of State about, and it wasn’t for him to throw out ballots, that was beyond bizarre and ridiculous,” Graham said in an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Tuesday. “I was talking about a system and how it works and to make sure we have confidence in it.”
Graham said he had called Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia’s secretary of state and the official in charge of the state’s electoral system, to address security around the mail-in ballot signature verification process.
Raffensperger made the accusation during an interview Tuesday with “CBS This Morning.”
The recount deadline is Friday, and Raffensperger has defended its accuracy and railed against Republican infighting despite taking a few swipes himself at members of his party, the National Review reported.
“I’m a conservative Republican, and sometimes we hear young people say that we eat our own,” he told the publication.
However, Raffensperger gave liberals ammunition to use against Graham.
Three attorneys filed an ethics complaint against Graham with he Senate Select Committee on Ethics, accusing the senator of disenfranchising voters, the Associated Press reported.
Meanwhile, the recount that the secretary of state has praised on his Facebook page has run into issues.
One of those issues was unveiled when Project Veritas interviewed a Republican National Committee vote monitor. He saw auditors count Trump votes for Joe Biden, The Tennessee Star reported.
U.S. Rep. Austin Scott (R-GA-08) told The Star that Georgia’s absentee ballot system has compromised election integrity. Georgia couldn’t sustain election integrity with these sudden, vast expansions of absentee ballot voting. Especially since those ballots don’t require photo identification.
“Absentee ballots are built around 5 percent in the state of Georgia, historically, and now you’re looking at around 27 percent of the election,” stated Scott. “You can’t have 25 to 30 percent of the election determined by no identification.”
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Jason M. Reynolds has more than 20 years’ experience as a journalist at outlets of all sizes. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Background Photo “Georgia Capitol” by DXR. CC BY-SA 4.0.
dear sir. you be an idiot. only the state legislature can change the law. you will soon learn that.
I’m familiar with him. Another RINO. After the President is finally declared the winner, we need to flush the RINOs down the drain. Let them Join Schumer and Pelosi. They deserve each other!