President Donald Trump’s Twitter account marched through Georgia on Wednesday as the president called for Gov. Brian Kemp, a fellow Republican, to resign.
“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,” Trump tweeted.
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.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 30, 2020
Trump earlier issued another angry tweet against Kemp.
“I love the Great State of Georgia, but the people who run it, from the Governor, @BrianKempGA, to the Secretary of State, are a complete disaster and don’t have a clue, or worse. Nobody can be this stupid. Just allow us to find the crime, and turn the state Republican,” he tweeted.
I love the Great State of Georgia, but the people who run it, from the Governor, @BrianKempGA, to the Secretary of State, are a complete disaster and don’t have a clue, or worse. Nobody can be this stupid. Just allow us to find the crime, and turn the state Republican….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 30, 2020
Trump’s salvos came after Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office announced the findings of a signature audit conducted of mail-in ballots from Cobb County.
The examination of 15,000 absentee ballot envelopes found “no fraudulent absentee ballots,” according to the audit report.
“This audit disproves the only credible allegations the Trump campaign had against the strength of Georgia’s signature match processes,” Raffensperger said Monday, The Associated Press reported.
Democratic nominee Joe Biden has already won sufficient Electoral College votes to be the presumptive winner of the election.
Trump’s campaign has insisted that there has been voter fraud in states that include Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin, as well as Pennsylvania. Trump’s comments about Georgia have included multiple criticisms of Kemp.
However, despite numerous claims of voting irregularities, including affidavits alleging fraud sworn to by reported eyewitnesses, no court has yet ruled that widespread fraud materially affected the results of the presidential election.
Georgia will remain in the nation’s political limelight through the state’s Jan. 5 special elections as Republican Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler seek to hold their seats.
If they win, the new Senate will have a 52-48 GOP majority. If they both lose, the Senate would be split 50-50, meaning presumptive Vice President-elect Kamala Harris would hypothetically be able to break a deadlock in votes that require a simple majority.
Some worry Trump’s comments could impact the results of those elections.
“You can’t say the system is rigged but elect these two senators,” Eric Johnson, an adviser to Loeffler and former GOP leader in the Georgia Senate, told The New York Times. “At some point he either drops it or he says I want everybody to vote and get their friends to vote so that the margins are so large that they can’t steal it.”
But former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Trump is venting anger at officials who are unpopular with Georgia Republicans.
“I’ve had very close friends write me and say, ‘I have a Republican governor and secretary of state, and they’re both useless, so why do I stay involved?’” Gingrich said. “But I think they’ll take pretty active measures to get people to turn out based on the long-term historical importance of these two seats.”