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Senator David Perdue (R-Ga.) At Capitol Hill on October 4, 2018. (Alex Brandon / AP)
Amy B Wang
Generalist journalist covering national and last-minute news
An attempted conversation between a Georgia Tech student and Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) Ended abruptly when lawmaker seized the student's cell phone while he was being interrogated on the possible removal of voters in the state.
On Saturday, a student member of the Young Social Democrats from Georgia Tech contacted Perdue, who was traveling to the Atlanta campus to campaign for Brian Kemp.
Kemp, a Republican and Georgian secretary of state, is locked in a race for governorship with Democrat Stacey Abrams, a former state legislator. The race was the subject of further scrutiny this week after the Associated Press announced that more than 53,000 voter registration applications were pending from the Kemp office; according to an analysis of the PA, the vast majority of these applications concerned African-American voters and other minorities.
Abrams accused Kemp of suppressing voters and using his current position to try to tip the race to the governorship in his favor. Kemp defended his office asserting that he was only complying with an "identical" state law that requires election officials to suspend a registration application s & # 39; 39, there are even minor discrepancies with existing records (for example, a typo or additional hyphen). a name).
Polls show that the race between Kemp and Abrams is a shot put.
On Thursday, the controversy escalated when a coalition of civil rights groups sued Kemp over the exact matching law, claiming it was disproportionately and unfairly Voters belonging to a minority.
This is of course what a unnamed Georgia Tech student imagined on Saturday when he approached Perdue and started asking questions about Kemp, while recording a video on his mobile phone.
"Hey, then, how can you support a candidate–" . .? "
It was as far as the question arose for the student. Before he could continue, Perdue tore the phone from the student's hands, as evidenced by what followed and the video suddenly erratic.
"No, I do not do that. I do not do that, "said the senator while the cell phone continued to record.
"You stole my property," says the student to Perdue. "You stole my property."
"Okay, you wanted a picture?", Replies the senator.
"Give me back my phone, senator," the student said.
"You wanted a picture? I will give it to you, "the senator continues, ignoring the student's request. "Did you want a picture?"
"Give me back my phone, senator," repeats the student.
At this point, the video is recovering, apparently because the student is reunited with his phone. At this point, Perdue walks away on a crowded footpath.
"This is the US Senator David Perdue. US Senator David Perdue has just picked up my phone because he will not answer a question from one of his constituents, "the student was told as he followed Lost over a short distance. "He's trying to leave. He is trying to leave because he does not understand why he is endorsing a candidate who is trying to prevent people from voting on the basis of their race. "
Calls to Perdue's offices in Atlanta and Washington were not immediately recalled Sunday.
In a statement, Georgia Tech 's Young Social Democrats said they believe Perdue had accidentally stopped and restarted the recording for a few seconds by hiding the phone behind his back to protect him from the phone. student.
"Lost has entered Georgia Tech's garden, and students are not allowed to ask him a simple question?" Said the group. "It's one thing to say nothing or not to ask questions. Lost would have had the legal right to simply withdraw or decline the issue. But instead, he took their phone by force, suddenly and violently, without justification or provocation.
"If today's situation had been reversed and if the Georgia Tech student had taken a sitting US Senator's phone, he would probably have been arrested on the spot," the group said. "This behavior is shocking, appalling and totally unworthy of the supposedly sacred office of the US Senator."
The group said the student, who wanted to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal, was considering filing a report with the campus police to report the double standard. The Washington Post spoke to the person who recorded the video and confirmed that he was a student at Georgia Tech.
Lost is not a candidate for re-election this year, but a few weeks away from mid-term elections in November to make a campaign for Kemp and other Republicans in Georgia. The senator drew attention this month to the fact that he likened to the Nazis the candidates for the candidacy of Brett M. Kavanaugh, Supreme Court candidate, after the protesters had him. stuck in a Washington airport.
Abrams Sunday continued to call national attention on what she described as a "problematic" law.
"We know it's a faulty system that has a disproportionate effect on people of color, but it also has the ability to erode trust in our system," she said in "Meet the Press "from NBC News. "I know Secretary Kemp is well aware of this, and this is part of the usual behavior in which he tries to tip the scales in his favor or in favor of his party."
Abrams added that she remained confident that the November elections would still be fair, as the 53,000 people whose voter registration requests had been reported would still be able to vote – although they would be at the mercy of a "subjective" check by thousands of tellers. through the state.
"We are creating a new set of hurdles for people who just want to exercise their right to vote," Abrams told NBC News's Chuck Todd. "But we have national organizations that are paying attention [to voter protections]and I think we can do it. "
Kemp Sunday at Abrams, l & # 39; calling "Without extreme excuse" and re-reading on TV a story from Daily Caller saying he was "wrongly accused of eliminating racist voters". . . Again."
Read more:
Georgia's GOP governor Brian Kemp is sued for having repressed thousands of minority voters
"Who did this ?!" Someone took a crazy look at a statue of Georgia Police want answers.
How Georgian registration laws allow Republican candidates
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