Trump: Georgia Sec. of State Raffensperger is an 'enemy of the people'
President calls Georgia's voting system 'fraudulent,' accuses Stacey Abrams of ballot harvesting
President Trump said he likely would travel to Georgia to campaign for Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue ahead of their runoff elections.
Fox News has learned that the Peach State trip would take place on Saturday, Dec. 5.
The president called the Georgia voting system a “fraudulent system” and called Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger the “enemy of the people.”
“I told [the senators] today, I said 'Listen, you have a fraudulent system',” Trump told reporters on Thursday.
“I understand, the secretary of state, who is really, he's an enemy of the people,” the president continued. “whether he's Republican or not.”
Trump also made unfounded claims that Raffensberger “made a deal” to allow ballot harvesting and that he "read this morning where [former Georgia gubernatorial candidate] Stacey Abrams has 850,000 ballots accumulated.”
In 2019, the Peach State passed a law tightening regulations against ballot harvesting, allowing only for mail ballots to be turned in from the voter, the voter’s immediate family member or someone who lives in the same household.
On Wednesday, Raffensberger had accused Trump of throwing him “under the bus” as he fought to uphold the integrity of elections" in his state.
TRUMP SAYS HE WILL LEAVE OFFICE IF ELECTORAL COLLEGE VOTES FOR BIDEN
Georgia had a "smooth" and "successful" November election, Raffensperger wrote in the piece published by USA Today, noting that the state "finally defeated voting lines."
"This should be something for Georgians to celebrate, whether their favored presidential candidate won or lost," he asserted. "For those wondering, mine lost — my family voted for him, donated to him and are now being thrown under the bus by him."
While American elections need to be run in non-partisan manner, Raffensperger added, "some don't seem to see it that way," including the president's campaign. "People on both sides of the aisle generated controversies out of nowhere to stir up trouble."
"Georgia Secretary of State, a so-called Republican (RINO), won’t let the people checking the ballots see the signatures for fraud. Why?" the president asked via Twitter earlier in the month. "Without this the whole process is very unfair and close to meaningless. Everyone knows that we won the state. Where is @BrianKempGA?"
Georgia’s presidential votes underwent a hand recount after President-elect Joe Biden held a razor-thin majority in the state. The recount results remained in favor of Biden, and Georgia certified its results last week.
The Trump 2020 Campaign requested another recount of Georgia's votes over the weekend, clashing with Raffensperger once again over demands that signature-matching played a major role.
GEORGIA SEC OF STATE SAYS TRUMP THREW HIM 'UNDER THE BUS'
The secretary of state's office says that's not possible because emergency rules designed to protect voter privacy require that ballots are separated from their outer envelopes – where the signature is – after they are initially verified.
Meanwhile, attorney Sidney Powell filed a lawsuit in Georgia on Wednesday evening alleging “massive election fraud” that changed the state’s results in the 2020 election.
The lawsuit, which names Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Raffensperger among the defendants, alleges multiple constitutional violations, citing fact witnesses, expert witnesses and statistical impossibilities within the election results, and says tens of thousands of votes were impacted.
“The scheme and artifice to defraud was for the purpose of illegally and fraudulently manipulating the vote count to make certain the election of Joe Biden as President of the United States,” the 104-page filing said.
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The lawsuit argues there is no adequate remedy under the law and seeks to have the state’s results of both the 2020 presidential and congressional elections set aside. Biden beat Trump by 12,670 votes, or 0.25%, according to results that were certified by the State of Georgia on Friday.
Fox News' Jonathan Garber contributed to this report.
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