A senior Republican official in Georgia warned that President Trump’s baseless and inflammatory attacks against election officials have led to death threats — and told Trump to back off his rhetoric before it gets someone killed.
“It has to stop. Mr. President, you have not condemned these actions or this language,” said Gabriel Sterling, a top staffer for Georgia’s Republican secretary of state and a career-long Republican. “Stop inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence. Someone’s going to get hurt, someone’s going to get shot, someone’s going to get killed. And it’s not right.”
Sterling, the state’s voting system implementation manager, let loose on Trump for inspiring potential violence, and on other Republicans for staying silent as his staff and others face increasing threats of violence for doing their jobs and counting their state’s votes.
Sterling’s comments are perhaps the sternest rebuke any Republican official in the country has issued against Trump for spending almost a month claiming that the election was stolen from him, and attacking any Republican who dared criticize him. And it comes after weeks of attacks from Trump against Sterling’s office, specifically Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
Sterling said Tuesday that people had been showing up at Raffensperger’s home, and that the secretary of state’s wife had been receiving “sexualized threats.” He added a 20-something staffer had received a death threat simply for doing his job.
Trump’s incendiary attacks on his fellow Republicans have triggered a GOP civil war in the state, with activists blasting Raffensperger and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp for refusing to try and overturn Joe Biden’s win in the state. That has Republicans deeply worried about what impact Trump may have on the party’s fortunes, as two GOP senators face tough runoff elections on Jan. 5. But as Sterling made clear, that’s not the only thing to worry about.
