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VSObservative agents and a super PAC linked to infamous GOP con artist Roger Stone are calling on Trump supporters to punish Republicans by avoiding the crucial second round of the Georgia Senate or by writing on Trump’s behalf instead. And although their efforts remain on the sidelines of the party, the trajectory of the movement has Republicans feared that it could cost the GOP control of the Senate.
The most aggressive call for a boycott or protest vote in both second-round races so far comes from a dormant pro-Trump super PAC linked to Stone, which has unveiled a new retaliatory initiative against the alleged setbacks of the Republican Party by handing over the Democrats. control of the US Senate.
The group, dubbed the Committee for American Sovereignty, unveiled a new website encouraging Republicans in Georgia to write on Trump’s behalf in the next two Senate second-round elections, which could determine which party controls the upper house during President-elect Joe Biden’s first two years. in the office. The PAC argued that this would show its support for the president in addition to forcing Republicans to grapple with savage voter fraud conspiracy theories launched by Trump supporters and members of his own legal team.
“If we can do that, we have a real chance to get these RINO Senators to act on the illegitimate and corrupt election chaired by a Democratic Party that is vested in the Communist takeover of Our Great Nation,” wrote the group on their new website, writeintrumpforgeorgiasenate.com. “We will not stop fighting for you, the American patriot, against the evils of socialism and inferior religions.”
The effort is representative of a broader push among some of President Trump’s most staunch supporters to deny support to the two Georgia Republican senators facing second-round challenges, Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, in the hope of leverage the party’s fear of losing the US Senate to gain more institutional support for their willingness to change the outcome of the election. The goal, these agents say, is to expose a supposed large-scale electoral fraud conspiracy encouraged by high-level Republicans in Georgia state government, including Governor Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
The Committee for American Sovereignty and a sister nonprofit group were set up in 2016 as vehicles for prominent pro-Trump operatives – including Stone and former Blackwater chief Erik Prince – to attempt to suppress the black vote by amplifying claims that Bill Clinton had an illegitimate biracial son. It’s been pretty quiet since then. PAC’s recent filings with the Federal Election Commission reveal nothing more than outstanding federal and state tax obligations, and its new effort in Georgia does not yet appear to have received much success.
A request for comment sent to the Committee for American Sovereignty email address registered with the FEC was not returned. Efforts to reach Pamela Jensen, a California political activist who heads the group, have failed. Her husband, a lawyer named Paul Jensen who describes Stone as a “long-time client,” told The Daily Beast in an email that his wife “had no comment, and neither did I.” Stone did not respond to inquiries about his current involvement with the group.
Efforts by the super PAC and other pro-Trump activists to catch Georgia Republicans nonetheless gained popularity over the past week thanks in large part to public statements by Powell, who said in a Saturday interview. on Newsmax that his imaginary electoral fraud plot involving Dominion voting machines and Venezuelan bribes extended to Kemp and Raffensperger. Powell even suggested that Loeffler would have lost this month to Rep. Doug Collins, his main Republican challenger, had it not been for the alleged voter fraud that plagued the Georgia election.
“Sir. Kemp and the Secretary of State have to take it because they’re in the Dominion scam with their last minute buy or the reward of a $ 100 million contract with Dominion,” Powell said. .
Fears of an intra-party disaster in Georgia fueled by Trump fans enraged at Powell’s conspiracy theories have been tempered a bit by internal polls showing that a relatively thin portion of Trump’s voters in the state are so unhappy that they might reprimand the GOP’s own Senate candidates. A Republican agent who saw this poll told the Daily Beast that the number was “single digit”.
But the January 5 second-round events are expected to be extremely tight, even with fewer defections. And even Republicans who fully adhere to conspiracy theories around Trump’s electoral defeat say they fear it will reduce the GOP’s turnout, potentially enough to cost the party both Senate seats and the majority.
“The anger over the incompetence of the secretary of state and the governor’s inability to lead could mean Republicans are just staying home,” said Newt Gingrich, former Georgia congressman and speaker of the House. “I think there is a really big problem in getting Republicans to come out.”
Gingrich told the Daily Beast in an interview on Monday that he has full confidence that Democrats will attempt to steal both Senate elections. Republicans “might actually win the popular vote but not win the counted vote,” Gingrich predicted. “They actually have a fairly easy campaign … The problem is when you are done doing all of that – traditional and classic campaign – if the other side then has sufficient control over the electoral mechanism, they beat you.” quite simply.
But Gingrich said he hoped such dire predictions of an inevitable election theft would lead Republicans to the polls, rather than reinforce the very apathy of voters he said worried. “I have a very simple model,” he says. “You have to win by a bigger margin than they can steal.”
While Gingrich can see the stakes in the second round in no uncertain terms, other Republicans do not. On conservative media social site Speak, Trump fans mourning said they will express their displeasure with the GOP by skipping the second round or writing on behalf of Trump. Last week, radio host Rush Limbaugh told his audience that “Never Trump” Republicans were desperate for their votes in the second round, suggesting that votes from Trump supporters could be won.
“It’s funny how these folks at Never Trump want us to save their bacon right now as they sat on their ass and ridiculed Trump and us for voting for him,” Limbaugh said.
Limbaugh ultimately urged his audience to vote for Loeffler and Perdue anyway. But Georgia pro-Trump lawyer Lin Wood, who has sued Georgia in an attempt to stop the state’s certification of votes, tweeted on Saturday that he would not vote in the second round unless Loeffler and Perdue no longer takes action against her allegations of voter fraud on Election Day.
“Threatens to withhold your votes and your money,” Wood tweeted. “Demand that they represent you.”
“Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue can either do as we said, because we are their constituents, we are their donors, we are their volunteers, or we literally won’t vote.“
– Ali alexander
Conservative agent Ali Alexander, who has staged “Stop the Steal” protests across the country, demanded that Perdue and Loeffler call on Kemp to order a special session of the Georgian legislature to investigate allegations of electoral fraud. Otherwise, Alexander said, Trump supporters would boycott the second round.
“Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue can either do as we said, because we’re their constituents, we’re their donors, we’re their volunteers, or we literally won’t vote,” Alexander said, before emulating the concerns. of his detractors concerning the control of the Senate. . “‘Oh, but Ali, then the Democrats will take the Senate?’ I would prefer an enemy in front of me rather than a traitor behind.
Alexander, who has nearly 200,000 Twitter followers and is inclined to make grandiose statements about his own influence within the party, has threatened to launch primary campaigns across the country under the brand “Stop the Steal” against Republicans deemed insufficiently supportive of Trump’s post-election legal efforts. . He claimed he could convince 100,000 Georgian voters to boycott the Jan.5 runoff and urged his fans not to donate to Georgia Senate candidates or Republican groups, saying they already had enough money. ‘silver.
“No one should donate to the NRSC, the RNC, Kelly Loeffler or David Perdue,” Alexander said.
Alexander’s comments prompted Representative-elect Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), the former QAnon supporter who was now due to be sworn into Congress in January. Greene tweeted that the threats “would cede the Senate to Democratic Socialists!”
“People who take donations from their personal PayPal account should spend it on the election,” tweeted Greene, an apparent blow to Alexander for soliciting donations on his PayPal account from Trump voters.
Other Republicans have rushed to ensure that Trump voters angry with the GOP still show up to vote in the second round. Donald Trump Jr. tweeted Monday calling for Trump supporters to respond to calls from Conservative activists to abstain from voting.
“This is absurd,” Trump Jr. tweeted, “IGNORE these people.”
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