No Surprises in 2nd Georgia Recount

Former Trump lawyer urges Georgians to boycott Senate runoff election
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 2, 2020 7:04 PM CST
'No Substantial Changes' in 2nd Georgia Recount
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany speaks during a briefing at the White House, Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2020, in Washington.   (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Ballots are being counted in Georgia once again—but elections officials don't believe it's going to be third time lucky for President Trump. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said Wednesday that "no substantial changes" have been seen from any county so far in the recount, CNN reports. "And that's what we expected, and I think that's what most other people have also," Raffensperger said. The Trump campaign requested the electronic recount after a hand tally of results confirmed that Joe Biden had won the state by more than 12,000 votes. More:

  • Raffensperger says Trump is refusing to tone it down. Raffensperger, a Republican, said he supported Gabriel Sterling, his office's voting implementation manager. Sterling warned Tuesday that "somebody would get killed" if Trump, who insists there was a conspiracy to "steal" the election, doesn't tone down his rhetoric, Forbes reports. Raffensperger said his office had asked Trump to "quell the violent rhetoric being born out of his continued claims of winning the states where he obviously lost," but the president did not stop making incendiary statements.

  • Trump ally calls for election boycott. Sidney Powell, a former Trump campaign lawyer who has falsely claimed that voting software created in Venezuela switched votes from Trump to Biden, spoke at a rally north of Atlanta Wednesday. She slammed state Republican officials and urged Trump supporters to boycott the Senate runoff elections in January, the Washington Post reports. "I would encourage all Georgians to make it known that you will not vote at all unless your vote is secure,” Powell said. "There should not be a runoff. Certainly not on Dominion machines."
  • Trump rants about results. The president released a video on Facebook Wednesday in which he ranted about the election results and repeated discredited conspiracy theories for 46 minutes, the Hill reports. He accused Democrats of conspiring to steal the election and said he couldn't understand how other Republicans on the ballots won their races, but not him. "It's statistically impossible, that the person, me, that led the charge, lost," he said.
  • Senators discuss Trump 2024 run. Politico asked numerous Republican senators about a potential Trump run in 2024. Some declined to comment, while others expressed strong support. "If he were to run in 2024, I think he would be the nominee. And I would support him doing that," said Sen. Josh Hawley.
  • "Is the president seriously considering skipping the inauguration?" White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany declined to answer Wednesday when a reporter asked if Trump would skip Biden's inauguration, the Post reports. "I'll leave that to the president to make his announcement," she said. "He tweeted something to the effect of he knows what his decision is, and he'll make his decision at the right time."
(Attorney General William Barr said Tuesday that federal investigators had found no sign of widespread election fraud.)

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