ATLANTA — The blame game within the Republican party doesn’t appear to be dying down less than a month before the critical Senate runoff elections.
Since the presidential election when Georgia flipped blue for Joe Biden, President Trump has made several baseless claims of voter fraud in the state.
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on “ABC This Week” Sunday morning said again the claims aren't true.
“The people of Georgia spoke in this election. Obviously, I’m a conservative Republican disappointed in the results, but I’ve said we’ll count every legal vote and work hard to make sure that no illegal vote is counted and that’s what we’ve been doing,” said Raffensperger.
But, at a recent Georgia rally, Trump ripped into Raffensperger.
“You’ve got to make sure your Secretary of State knows what the hell he’s doing and you’ve got to make sure your governor gets a lot tougher than he’s been,” President Trump said on Saturday in Valdosta.
Gabriel Sterling is the voting implementations manager with the Secretary of State’s office. He didn’t shy away from straightening out the accusations either on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday.
“The president’s statements are false. They’re disinformation. They’re stoking anger and fear among his supporters. Hell, I voted for him,” said Sterling.
But, Sterling thinks Trump’s words aren’t doing Republican senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler any favors as the Senate runoff approaches.
“Do you believe that the president is doing damage to the Republicans in Georgia by continuing to stir this pot? Do you think it could cost Loeffler and Perdue their senate races?” NBC’s Chuck Todd asked Sterling.
“Yes,” Sterling responded.
11Alive political analyst Andra Gillespie also thinks it’s a distraction.
“Both sides have to assume that they’re roughly and equally matched, that they have to do everything they can possibly do to get their bases out to vote. This is going to be a base vote and it’s going to be a highly partisan vote,” she said.
11Alive reached out to Governor Brian Kemp’s office as well and did not hear back.