POLITICUSUSA
The Department of Justice is filing a lawsuit challenging new voting restrictions in Georgia.
Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the DOJ‘s action during a press conference this morning.
“This lawsuit is the first of many steps we are taking to ensure that all eligible voters can cast a vote, that all lawful votes are counted, and that every voter has access to accurate information,” he said.
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp (R) has signed a measure repealing the ability of the state‘s residents to perform citizen’s arrests after outrage at the 2020 murder of Ahmaud Arbery raised concerns about the practice.
The message they send to Americans is clear: “Stay out of politics and leave the destruction of you and your country to us.”
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp defended his state’s controversial new voting legislation despite significant backlash.
“I’m glad to deal with it,” Kemp said of the backlash, the most high profile of which came from corporations like Delta Airlines and Coca-Cola. “If they want to have a debate about the merits and the facts of the bill, then we should do that.”
If Democrats want to save democracy and work toward unity, they must remove the obstacle of the filibuster.
President Donald Trump called for Brian Kemp, the Republican governor of Georgia, to resign from office while continuing to assert that he won the swing state even though it has long certified its results for President-elect Joe Biden.
“Hearings from Atlanta on the Georgia Election overturn now being broadcast,” the president wrote, directing his followers to watch them on the pro-Trump One America News Network (OANN) and Newsmax.
Kemp “should resign from office,” the president added. “He is an obstructionist who refuses to admit that we won Georgia, BIG! Also won the other Swing States.”
Trump’s tweet was immediately flagged under Twitter’s civic integrity policy, which prohibits individuals from sharing disinformation about the election on its platform. The company has been more aggressive in recent weeks: Whereas before it would tag Trump’s tweets for sharing claims that had been “disputed,” now it clearly and unequivocally states that Biden was the clear winner of the 2020 election.
Hearings from Atlanta on the Georgia Election overturn now being broadcast. Check it out. @OANN @newsmax and many more. @BrianKempGA should resign from office. He is an obstructionist who refuses to admit that we won Georgia, BIG! Also won the other Swing States.
President Donald Trump called out Georgia Governor Brian Kemp (R), wondering aloud why Kemp has not called a special session to address his false claims about election fraud in the state.
A special session would be “So easy to do, why is he not doing it?” Trump wrote on Twitter. “It will give us the State. MUST ACT NOW!”
Governor @BrianKempGA of Georgia still has not called a Special Session. So easy to do, why is he not doing it? It will give us the State. MUST ACT NOW!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 18, 2020
President Donald Trump lashed out Georgia Governor Brian Kemp (R) for informing lawmakers that he will not call a special session to overturn election results despite Trump’s insistence that he appoint Republican electors who would support him despite having lost the state.
“The Republican Governor of Georgia refuses to do signature verification, which would give us an easy win. What’s wrong with this guy? What is he hiding?” Trump wrote on Twitter.
The Republican Governor of Georgia refuses to do signature verification, which would give us an easy win. What’s wrong with this guy? What is he hiding?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 7, 2020
When President-elect Joe Biden won the state of Georgia, he became the first Democratic presidential candidate to carry the state since 1992. That achievement was in large part due to the efforts of former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, whose organization, Fair Fight, helped register a slew of new voters in the state. The Georgia race was one of the most closely watched races during this election cycle, and Biden’s victory has wide-ranging implications for future Democratic success in the state.
Despite that success––and the eyes of the nation on the upcoming runoff elections that will determine which political party has control over the Senate––Abrams has detractors, including former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who suggested that she stole the election and went so far as to declare that President Donald Trump actually won the state.
“This election is going to come down to turnout,” he said in an appearance on “Fox and Friends” earlier this morning. “The objective fact is, I believe, Trump probably did actually carry Georgia. I believe that the election process is a mess. I really wish that Governor [Brian] Kemp would call a special session to clean it up and Republicans simply to have turn out more votes than Stacey Abrams can steal.”
“It’s a very straightforward thing. They will probably keep both seats Republican,” he continued, “but it’s going to be… every person who’s worried about the future of the country from a conservative standpoint has to go vote, and that’s the number one challenge. It’s not the debate or arguments: It’s getting people to vote.
You can watch Gingrinch’s comments in the video below.
Fox's Newt Gingrich: "The objective fact is I believe Trump probably did actually carry Georgia. … Republicans simply have to turn out more votes than Stacey Abrams can steal." pic.twitter.com/xKhpwEBdqU
While we can repeat over and over again that Joe Biden was elected president of the United States and will be sworn into this highest office in our land next January 20, for many Americans and even media pundits, it is difficult to say the verdict is in. Nervousness persists, and it is intensely palpable. Just watch the media tracing every little movement Trump and his lawyers make in this drama; and listen as the talking heads insist Biden’s inauguration is a foregone conclusion while within the same breath often posing the question, with a slight tone of worry, “Is there anything Trump can actually do to steal the election?”
During the 2020 election, voters in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania voted for Joe Biden. This wasn’t too big a surprise as those states had traditionally voted blue.
The GOP, though, was dismayed by the fact that Democrats were able to flip Arizona and Georgia. Georgia, a long-time stronghold for Republicans, was particularly galling.
Since the party can never blame Donald Trump for anything, they’ve turned their anger towards their own. Senate candidates Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue ripped GOP Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
And now, some in the party are angry with Governor Brian Kemp, saying that he didn’t do enough to help the party. Among those upset with Kemp is Newt Gingrich who served Georgia’s 6th District for 20 years.
During a Tuesday interview with Sean Hannity, Gingrich encouraged Trump supporters to demonstrate against the Republican governor. The host said, “The bottom line is, and this is just true, we will never be able to have faith in the ultimate outcome of this. You just can’t.”
The former congressman responded:
“That’s right and until it’s cleaned up it’s going to always be [inaudible]. But look, I would say to every person in Georgia who favors Donald J. Trump: Go to the governor’s mansion, physically. Go to the Capitol, physically. Communicate that you’re prepared to stand up for America and you’re prepared to stand up for an honest election and that you are sick of politicians selling you out.”
The Coronavirus task force convinced the President to change his mind about reopening Georgia, a new report claims. The state’s Republican governor has earned criticism for his plan.
CNN’s Jim Acosta reported on Twitter that President Donald Trump was initially in favor of the move. Governor Brian Kemp declared he would reopen his state despite expert advice.
“Members of the coronavirus task force had to convince Trump to change his view on Georgia governor Brian Kemp’s decision to reopen businesses in his state later this week, a source close to the task force tells CNN,” the Chief White House Correspondent said.
News: Members of the coronavirus task force had to convince Trump to change his view on Georgia governor Brian Kemp’s decision to reopen businesses in his state later this week, a source close to the task force tells CNN.
Stacey Abrams, the former Georgia gubernatorial candidate who lost to Governor Brian Kemp (R) following a contentious election riddled with accusations of voter fraud, says there is “no logic” to her former opponent’s decision to open the economy.
“There is no logic and that’s part of the problem,” Abrams told View co-host Ana Navarro. “We only shut down Georgia two weeks ago. So let’s remember, we were one of the last states to respond to the call for the shutdown because the governor did not recognize that asymptomatic people could spread the disease.”
“We are seeing our rates over the last two weeks, not decline, and we know that you cannot perform a tattoo from six feet away. You can’t do someone’s nails from six feet away, but I want you to remember who you saw the last time you walked into a nail salon — who you saw working on the front lines at a restaurant,” she added. “Those are the people who need to be home protecting themselves and their families, making sure that they are safe because they are often the only breadwinners, and instead of protecting their lives, we are prioritizing the potential of the economy.”
Abrams added that the Senate’s support for an enlargement of the Paycheck Protection Act is the right choice as many grapple with financial uncertainty amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“That’s the solution to the economic challenges we face, not putting people’s lives on the line so you can say you did something,” she said.
During a separate appearance on CNN political commentator David Axelrod’s podcast “The Axe Files,” Abrams said Kemp’s decision to reopen the economy would disproportionately harm low-wage workers.
“The more insidious part of what he’s doing is that he claims this is to support small business owners,” Abrams said. “And that may be true, but the front-line workers tend to be low-wage workers who, right now, because they are furloughed or cannot go to work, can collect unemployment and protect themselves.”
“Instead of fixing an unemployment system that is not processing people fast enough, his response is to send those people back to the front lines without the protective equipment that they need,” she continued. “Without any assurances that the owners that they will work or will actually do what they’re supposed to.”
Stacey Abrams called Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA) incompetent after he announced that he is reopening the state within a week even as coronavirus cases surge.
Officials in Georgia have criticized Governor Brian Kemp’s decision to reopen beaches. The Republican has angered some state leaders by easing Coronavirus restrictions.
The Mayor of Tybee Island has been especially critical of Kemp’s move. Mayor Shirley Sessions closed the island’s beaches on 20 March.
“As the Pentagon ordered 100,000 body bags to store the corpses of Americans killed by the Coronavirus, Governor Brian Kemp dictated that Georgia beaches must reopen,” Sessions wrote on Saturday.
“And declared any decision makers who refused to follow these orders would face prison and/or fines.”
“The health of our residents, staff and visitors are being put at risk and we will pursue legal avenues to overturn his reckless mandate,” she said.
“We are now in a position where we are pleading with the public and with our residents to adhere to the beach closing,” Sessions said on Friday.
Kemp had issued a stay-at-home order but on Thursday he ordered the beaches to reopen. The decision was met with fury and disbelief by many officials in the state.
Allen Booker, a Democratic county commissioner, called the move “stupid and crazy at the same time.”
A series of other officials throughout the state echoed Booker’s sentiments.
Kemp said on 2 April that he only just found out Coronavirus could spread without symptoms.
Kemp said this was ‘a revelation and a game changer.’
This information was widely available before the Governor realized it.
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp (R) says he just learned that asymptomatic people can transmit the coronavirus. Kemp said it was that info that prompted him to issue a statewide stay-at-home order.
“So what we’ve been telling people from directives from the CDC for weeks now, that if you start feeling bad stay home, those individuals could have been infecting people before they ever felt bad,” Kemp said. “Well, we didn’t know that until the last 24 hours. This is a game-changer for us.”
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) threatened Republican Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia after he refused to appoint Trump's choice to fill the state's US Senate vacancy.
Trump was looking for a reliable vote against conviction at his impeachment trial, but Gov. Brian Kemp will defy him.
Democrat Stacey Abrams, who lost a heated and controversial Georgia governor’s race against Republican Brian Kemp, has announced that she will definitely run for public office again.
“Yes, I’m going to run again,” she told an enthusiastic crowd at Fortune’s “Most Powerful Women Next Gen Summit” in Laguna Niguel, Calif. “What it is I’m going to run for I haven’t decided yet. Stay tuned.”
Abrams said her focus has been and will continue to be on policy and social justice issues.
“I care about policy, I am driven by a commitment to justice, to ending poverty, to addressing social needs and using public policy as a tool to improve the lives of those around us,” she told her audience.
Abrams also said that despite the disappointment of losing last month’s race for governor of Georgia, she was also happy about some of the outcomes and results of her efforts. She said that her campaign was a success for the way it energized infrequent voters and got them involved in the political process.
“We turned out voters who had never been engaged in the body politic,” she said proudly. “We tripled the number of Latinos who voted. We tripled the number of Asian-Americans. We increased African-Americans by 38 percent, increased the youth vote.”
Abrams also explained why she did not concede the race to Kemp, who was known for using many voter suppression tactics.
“There’s a moral and legal nature to conceding. It means you accept that something is right, just, proper. What happened [in our governor’s race] was not just,” she said.
“It’s about thousands of people who were denied the right to vote,” she said, alluding to the evidence during the campaign that Kemp, who was Georgia’s secretary of state, suppressed Democratic voters through many different policies.
Kemp denied voter suppression allegations and refused to resign or recuse himself from his government position during the campaign, a position that was heavily criticized.
Abrams has not given up on her fight for fairness and justice. She is still working with her organization
Fair Fight Georgia
The incoming chairman of the powerful House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Rep. Elijah Cummings, has his sights set on Brian Kemp, the Republican governor-elect of Georgia.
Before using widespread voter suppression tactics to cheat in his race against Democrat Stacey Abrams, Kemp was the Georgia Secretary of State. This position put him in charge of the elections for the entire state. And he used this position well — for his own advantage.
Most observers believe that if Kemp had not used every trick in the book to suppress minority votes throughout Georgia that Abrams would have won, and become the country’s first African-American female governor.
So now Cummings says he wants Kemp to testify before his Congressional committee about all of the voter suppression charges against him.
“I want to be able to bring people in, like the new governor-to-be of Georgia, to explain … why is it fair for wanting to be secretary of state and be running [for governor],” Cummings told HuffPost in an article published Monday.
Kemp’s hard-fought and controversial contest against Abrams was brought many calls by independent observers for him to resign. They said it was not fair for him to keep his post overseeing the state’s elections while he ran for governor at the same time.
After the November 6 election was over, Abrams, through a group she founded, filed a lawsuit in federal court in Georgia. The goal of the lawsuit is not to overturn the election results but to overhaul the state’s election procedures and processes to make them more fair.
“It was not a free and fair election,” Abrams said after conceding the election to Kemp on November 20.
The lawsuit maintains that all of the current Georgia election processes are discriminatory. Abrams said often during her unsuccessful campaign, and afterwards, that elections in Georgia are very unfair and have the effect of disenfranchising Democrats and minorities.
One example cited was the reports that several months before the election it was discovered that a hugely disproportionate number of Georgia’s many thousands of stalled voter applications were from African Americans.
Rep. Cummings told HuffPost that he has definite plans to investigate the issue of voter suppression when Democrats are the majority in the 116th Congress and he assumes the chairmanship.
Cummings said he also wants to call on election officials from other states, such as Kansas and North Carolina, who have been accused of suppressing Latino and African-American votes.
He specifically mentioned county clerk Debbie Cox from Ford County, Kansas. She has been criticized, and is facing more scrutiny over her decision to move the only polling location in a city with a 50 percent Latino population outside the city limits. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sued over the move, saying it had the intent and the effect of limiting the voting power of Latinos and other minorities.
Democrats coming into power in the new Congress in January have promised that they will take on voting rights as a key part of their agenda next year.
In fact, probable new Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said she will
push propose a comprehensive package of reforms targeting campaign finance, ethics and voting rights laws