President Trump will seemingly do anything to hold onto the White House while complaining about “massive dumps,” which he falsely claimed cost him the election, to which Attorney General Barr has responded that there’s no evidence of such voter fraud. Of course, Trump has already tweet-hinted that he could refuse to leave the White House while ranting about a “Rigged Election,” and he may simply be trolling for “legal fund” money, but this has all still devolved into dangerous stuff.
A case in point would be a Georgia GOP election official, Gabriel Sterling, revealing that a noose (and a threat about a “treason” hanging) had been sent to a contractor for Dominion (which has been the target of a false MAGA conspiracy theory about a server switching Trump votes to Biden). A visibly emotional Sterling held a press conference in which he declared, “Mr. President, 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.” The noose incident occurred after Trump lawyer Joe DiGenova declared that former White House cybersecurity official Chris Krebs should be “drawn and quartered” after Trump fired DiGenova for calling 2020 the safest election in history. And there have been threats against Georgia election workers. Sterling argued, “Someone is going to get shot. Someone’s going to get killed. And it’s not right.”
How did Trump respond to this plea to urge an end to violent threats? Not well. He retweeted a video of Sterling while escalating his rhetoric: “What is Secretary of State and @BrianKempGA afraid of. They know what we’ll find!!!” And yes, there was a “Rigged Election” in the mix as well.
Rigged Election. 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!!! https://t.co/Km7tRm2s1A
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 2, 2020
In doing so, Trump had retweeted video of Sterling posted by a reporter, Brendan Keefe, who hails out of Georgia. In response, Keefe retweeted Trump’s double-down: “This is the president’s reaction tonight to my tweet of @GabrielSterling asking him to lower the temperature after multiple death threats against Georgia election workers.”
This is the president’s reaction tonight to my tweet of @GabrielSterling asking him to lower the temperature after multiple death threats against Georgia election workers. The governor has no powers over the elected Sec of State. We’ve found no ‘massive’ voter fraud @11AliveNews pic.twitter.com/yBIuti70jz
— Brendan Keefe (@BrendanKeefe) December 2, 2020
It’s mind-boggling stuff, and it’s happening while the newly pardoned Michael Flynn calls for Trump to declare martial law for the purpose of holding a new election. 2020, are you over yet?