CNN found a new darling in Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R), who bashed Republicans and President Donald J. Trump in an interview with the network Thursday.
“For two long months, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger endured, standing in the firing line of Trump’s baseless attacks,” CNN’s Amara Walker said in a television interview featuring Raffensperger.
After decrying Wednesday’s protests at the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., Walker then cut to Raffensperger.
“People have been spun up for two months about the election results,” he said. “People have been, you know, misrepresenting the facts, spreading this disinformation – saying whatever they wanted to on social media – and there were consequences, and we saw those consequences [Wednesday].”
When asked if he blamed Trump for Wednesday’s protests, Raffensperger did not directly blame the president, but did not shift the burden elsewhere.
“Well, obviously, that’s why I’ve said from day one that we really have to be mindful of our speech, because we can’t spin people up and play people and get them into an emotional frenzy,” he said. “Deal with the facts. And the facts are on our side. We had fair and honest elections in Georgia.”
When Walker asked Raffensperger if Trump betrayed America, he danced around the question, saying that Trump has a “responsibility” to hold people “to a higher standard of behavior.”
“When something like [the D.C. protest] happens, then his accomplishments really get negated – they get obscured, and you actually go out with a black mark on your record,” Raffensperger said when asked if he still supported Trump, for whom Raffensperger says he voted in November.
He also bashed the Republican Party.
“It’s also a shame that many people – political leaders, elected political leaders in the Republican Party – didn’t have the courage to stand and say, Mr. President here’s what the real numbers are, and I believe the real numbers,” he said.
Raffensperger also invoked the Founding Fathers, saying that they would disapprove of the revolutionary spirit that appeared among protesters in D.C. on Wednesday.
“Just imagine what our founders would say if they looked at that, you know, what they fought for,” he said. “It wasn’t so we could bludgeon each other. It was so that we could come together and have peaceful, respectful conversations on the halls of Congress, and that’s where we worked out our differences.”
Raffensperger said that his office will certify the election results from Tuesday’s U.S. Senate runoffs “as soon as we can,” and added that they will try to get it done before January 20, when President-elect Joe Biden will be inaugurated.
Thursday, Senator Kelly Loeffler (R-GA), conceded her race to Democrat challenger Rev. Raphael Warnock. Many media outlets have declared Democrat challenger Jon Ossoff the winner of his race against Sen. David Perdue (R-GA). Perdue has not conceded.
The Georgia Star News closely followed and reported upon November’s election process in Georgia, and the subsequent auditing of the election that followed, which contained major red flags. On several occasions, The Star News reached out to Raffensperger’s office for comments and clarifications on the election and audit procedures, giving his office the opportunity for complete transparency into its processes. His office did not respond to a single comment request.
The Star News reached out Raffensperger’s office again Friday to ask if he believes the lack of transparency could have led to some of the “disinformation” that he claimed caused Wednesday’s protests at the Capitol. Once again, his office did not respond.
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Pete D’Abrosca is a contributor at The Georgia Star News and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
