Furious election official's spray at Trump after death threats
A state election official has given an impassioned press conference calling for US president Donald Trump to denounce violent threats.
Gabriel Sterling, an election official from the state of Georgia, addressed the media on Tuesday, saying he would do his best to “keep it together” and that it had all “gone too far”.
Sterling, a Republicam, spoke of Trump’s refusal to concede the Presidential election to Democratic winner Joe Biden and condemned Trump’s lawyers comments calling for Chris Krebs, the former director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, who was fired by Trump to be shot.
“Anybody who thinks the election went well, like that idiot Krebs who used to be the head of cybersecurity. That guy is a class A moron. He should be drawn and quartered. Taken out at dawn and shot,” Joe diGenova said on The Howie Carr radio show.
Sterling became more emotional as he condemned the vile act of intimidation against Dominion Voting Machines contractor, which was the “straw that broke the camel’s back”.
The contractor in question was falsely accused of voter manipulation online, according to CNN and Sterling said that contractor has received death threats and a noose outside his home.
Dominion told Sterling that contractor was one of the “better ones”, who was just trying to do his job and now his family is receiving threats.
“It has to stop,” Sterling said.
“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 gonna take a position of leadership show some.”
Election offical claims ‘this is not right’
Sterling said his boss, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, had his address made public and now people are coming on to his property.
He also said people were sending sexually explicit photos to Raffensperger’s wife.
“This is elections, this is the backbone of democracy, and all of you who have not said a damn word are complicit in this,” Sterling said.
“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.”
Sterling acknowledged that he was angry, he said that he has a police presence outside his home, which is fine, as he took a high profile job, as did Raffensperger, but the contractor didn’t.
“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,” he said.
He then appealed directly to Trump again, saying it was “likely” he lost the state of Georgia, though officials are investigating, even acknowledging the president has the right to go to the courts.
“What you don't have the ability to do, and you just step up and say this, is stop inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence,” Sterling said.
“Someone's gonna get hurt, someone's going to get shot, someone's going to get killed.”
He urged Trump to be “bigger man” and tell his supporters to not intimidate, or be violent, because that is “un-America”.
Trump decided against being the bigger man, taking to Twitter and sharing the footage of the press conference, the platform once again flagged his tweet as the claims were “disputed”.
“Rigged Election,” Trump tweeted.
“Show signatures and envelopes. Expose the massive voter fraud in Georgia. What is Secretary of State and @BrianKempGA afraid of. They know what we’ll find!!!”
Attorney General asserts there was no widespread voter fraud
On Tuesday (local time) Attorney General William Barr declared the US Justice Department has uncovered no evidence of widespread voter fraud that could change the outcome of the 2020 election.
Barr’s comments contradict the concerted effort by Trump, his boss.
Barr told the Associated Press that US attorneys and FBI agents have been working to follow up specific complaints and information they’ve received, but “to date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election.”
The comments, which drew immediate criticism from Trump attorneys, were especially notable coming from Barr, who has been one of the president’s most ardent allies.
Before the election, he had repeatedly raised the notion that mail-in voting could be especially vulnerable to fraud during the coronavirus pandemic as Americans feared going to polls and instead chose to vote by mail.
With Associated Press
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