'This has to stop': Georgia election official begs Trump to condemn violent threats

On Tuesday, Gabriel Sterling, the implementation manager for Georgia’s voting system, angrily called on Donald Trump and other senior Republican leaders to condemn violent threats against election officials.

“Someone’s going to get hurt, someone’s going to get shot, someone’s going to get killed. And it’s not right. It’s not right,” Sterling said at an emotional press conference. “Death threats, physical threats, intimidation, it’s too much”

He noted that a tech working for Dominion Voting Systems, the target of baseless election conspiracy theories promoted by Trump, “has death threats and a noose put out saying he should be hung for treason.”

Stirling also noted that Tricia Raffensperger, wife of Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, “is getting sexualized threats through her cellphone.”

“Mr. President, you have not condemned these actions or this language. Senators, you have not condemned this language or these actions,” Stirling said. Addressing Trump, Stirling said, “Stop inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has indulged Trump’s false assertions that he won the election by declining to recognize Joe Biden as president-elect even though Biden clearly won the election.

Trump’s legal challenges attempting to overturn the election results have repeatedly lost in court and have been dismissed by federal judges, including judges Trump appointed.

Attorney General William Barr, one of Trump’s closest allies, admitted on Tuesday that the Department of Justice has not seen any evidence of widespread voter fraud despite Trump’s ongoing allegations and complaints.

From a Dec. 1 press conference:

GABRIEL STERLING: It has all gone too far. All of it. Joe DiGenova today asked for Chris Krebs, a patriot who ran CISA, to be shot. A twentysomething tech, in Gwinnet County today, has death threats and a noose put out saying he should be hung for treason because he was transferring a report on batches from an EMS to a county computer so he could read it.

 

It has to stop. Mr. President, you have not condemned these actions or this language. 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.

 

My boss, Secretary Raffensperger, his address is out there. They have people doing caravans in front of their house, they’ve had people come on to their property. Tricia, his wife of forty years, is getting sexualized threats through her cellphone. It has to stop.

 

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’s too much.

 

Yes, fight for every legal vote, go through your due process. We encourage you, use your First Amendment, that’s fine. Death threats, physical threats, intimidation, it’s too much.

 

It’s not right, they have lost the moral high ground to claim that it is. I don’t have the best words to do this because I am angry. The straw that broke the camel’s back today is again, this twenty-year-old contractor for a voting system company just trying to do his job, just there, in fact, I talked to Dominion today, they said he’s one of the better ones they’ve got, his family’s getting harassed now, there’s a noose out there with his name on it, and it’s not right.

 

I’ve got police protection outside my house, fine. You know, I took a higher profile job, I get it. Secretary ran for office, his wife knew that too, this kid took a job, he just took a job and it’s just wrong.

 

I can’t begin to explain the level of anger I have right now over this. And every American, every Georgian, Republican and Democrat alike, should have that same level of anger.

 

Mr. President, it looks like you likely lost the state of Georgia, we’re investigating, there’s always a possibility, I get it, and you have the right to go through the courts, what you don’t have the ability to do and you need to step up and say this, is stop inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence.

 

Someone’s going to get hurt, someone’s going to get shot, someone’s going to get killed. And it’s not right. It’s not right.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.