Georgia election official condemns Trump after threat to worker

[Tin tức]

Gabriel Sterling, an aide to Georgia's secretary of state, said Trump should "stop inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence."

By ZACH MONTELLARO



Gabriel Sterling, a top official in the Georgia secretary of state’s office, condemned President Donald Trump and the state’s two Republican senators, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, in a fiery press conference Tuesday after a local election worker received death threats.

Sterling, who works for Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, opened the press conference by saying an election contractor in Gwinnett County had received death threats after conspiracy theorists spread videos of the worker on social media.

Sterling did not name the worker, who he called a “twenty-something tech” working for Dominion Voting Systems, a voting machine vendor that has become the subject of unfounded right-wing conspiracy theories regarding the election results. Sterling said the worker has “death threats and a noose put out, saying he should be hung for treason” and that his family has been harassed. Social media posts falsely accuse the worker by name of manipulating data. (POLITICO is also not further identifying him for his safety.)

“Mr. President, you have not condemned these actions or this language,” he said. “Senators, 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.”
“Mr. President, it looks like you likely lost the state of Georgia,” Sterling said later in the press conference. “Stop inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence. Someone is going to get hurt, someone is going to get shot, someone is going to get killed. And it’s not right.”

Sterling noted that both he and Raffensperger, along with Raffensperger’s wife, have also received threats. Sterling also brought up Joe DiGenova, an attorney for the president, calling for Chris Krebs to be shot. Krebs was fired by Trump from leading the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency after saying the election was secure, and DiGenova later tried to portray his comment as a hyperbole.

“It has to stop,” Sterling said. “This is elections. This is the backbone of democracy. And all of you who have not said a damn word are complicit in this. It is too much. … It is not right. They have lost the moral high ground to claim that it is.”

Dominion, which supplies voting systems for Georgia, has been at the center of conspiracy theories circulated by the president and his allies. The president tweeted falsely that Dominion has deleted millions of votes, among other conspiracy theories he has spread about the election.