Georgia Sec. of State Brad Raffensperger and Wife Are Getting Death Threats — And His Republican Colleagues Won’t Say Peep to Defend Him
Brad Raffensperger is a lifelong Republican who spent several years in the Georgia legislature before being elected Georgia secretary of state in 2018, so you might think that if he were getting death threats, his fellow Peach State Republicans might defend him. You might think that, but you would be wrong.
As Raffensperger and his wife Tricia told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, supporters of President Donald Trump are furious with him over the November 3 election, where President-elect Joe Biden won the state. As early returns came in on Election Night, Trump was initially ahead but the race narrowed and then ultimately went for Biden due to his stronger performance with early and mail voting.
Raffensperger has been the target of Trump’s oft-tweeted ire for his role in encouraging mail-in voting — a decision he made due to the coronavirus pandemic — along a number of other baseless accusations that he was somehow engaging in election fraud. Raffensperger’s well-established Republican bona fides and the fact that he voted for Trump have been little help to fend off the attacks.
January’s looming double runoff with Republican Senators David Perdue and and Kelly Loeffler defending their seats against John Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock has ratcheted the tension even higher. Undoubtedly concerned about keeping the mercurial president on their side, Perdue and Loeffler have joined Trump’s attacks that Raffensperger is running a “fraudulent system,” even writing a letter accusing him of some sort of undefined election “failures” and demanding he resign.
Raffensperger is not going to resign, but Perdue and Loeffler’s letter was the triggering point for he and his wife to start getting death threats, he told the AJC.
He and his wife described the threats as starting out as “a warning” but soon escalating into “horrific” and graphic threats of sexual violence.
“It’s vulgar,” said Raffensperger, who has had to hire round-the-clock security. “It’s disgusting.”
Patricia Murphy, the AJC politics reporter who interviewed the Raffenspergers, tried to get a comment from Republican legislators — many of whom served at the same time as Raffensperger and have known him for years.
“Multiple requests for comment to Republican lawmakers who have supported him in the past were declined or not returned,” wrote Murphy, noting that one did tell her “I’ll take a pass.”
Georgia’s secretary of state and his wife have become the target of vile, even sexualized, death threats.
Asked about those threats, the GOP lawmakers who once supported Raffensperger won’t comment now. “I’ll take a pass,” said one.https://t.co/ZsaKZEq7ZE
Via @1PatriciaMurphy pic.twitter.com/oW6YJ0Emyq
— Bill Grueskin (@BGrueskin) November 28, 2020
The post Georgia Sec. of State Brad Raffensperger and Wife Are Getting Death Threats -- And His Republican Colleagues Won't Say Peep to Defend Him first appeared on Mediaite.
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