December 15, 2020

Trump Retweets a Threat to Jail Georgia’s Governor and Secretary of State

The president is furious that Republican officials didn’t steal the election for him.

Curtis Compton/ZUMA

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It’s a strange day for democracy when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s very belated recognition of Joe Biden’s victory qualifies as breaking news. But that’s because the current president—six weeks after losing his reelection campaign—is still retweeting things like this: 

The unhinged claim that Georgia’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp, and its Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, will soon “be going to jail” comes from Lin Wood, a conspiracy-theory-loving, pro-Trump attorney. Wood and Trump are furious that Kemp and Raffensperger haven’t tried to overturn Biden’s victory in the state—a victory that has now been confirmed by two recounts. It comes nearly two weeks after a Georgia rally featuring Wood and former Trump lawyer Sidney Powell, during which Trump supporters chanted, “Lock him up” in reference to Kemp.

Now, as the entire world, including Vladimir Putin, accepts the Electoral College’s formal recognition of Biden as the next president, it appears as though Trump is standing alone, flirting with the idea of literally locking up two Republicans.

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THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

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So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

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