Donald Trump, Stacey Abrams are twin liars: Georgia secretary of state

Fairly just a few of my fellow Republicans raised an eyebrow lately when former President Donald Trump seemingly endorsed Stacey Abrams for governor of Georgia. However it didn’t come as a lot of a shock to me. In reality, Abrams and Trump have fairly a bit in widespread.

Abrams used false stolen election claims to create a nationwide profile. Trump did the identical to keep up his nationwide profile. Now, Abrams is demonstrating learn how to run a marketing campaign primarily based on the identical baseless allegations. It makes excellent sense that she would have Trump’s assist.

Within the months since November’s election, Trump and his allies have adopted virtually the very same post-election playbook that Abrams and her allies originated in 2018. Each Abrams and Trump used over-the-top rhetoric to generate headlines and a focus; each filed lawsuits that weren’t supported by proof; and each raised a whole bunch of tens of millions of {dollars} off of stolen election claims to maintain their political operations going.

Sore losers to the top

Following her loss by over 50,000 votes in Georgia’s 2018 gubernatorial election (a bigger margin than the one which gave President Joe Biden his electoral school majority nationwide), Abrams famously stated, “Concession means to acknowledge an motion is true, true or correct. … I can not concede.” Following Abrams’ playbook, Trump stated after the 2020 election, “We will never concede. … You don’t concede when there’s theft involved.”

Raffensperger:Baseless stolen election claims do not justify federal takeover

The similarities don’t finish there. Trump was impeached by congressional Democrats for “incitement” when he falsely alleged that the 2020 election was stolen. Abrams nonetheless claims her 2018 gubernatorial election “was stolen from the voters.”

Earlier this yr, talking about Georgia’s new election regulation, Abrams stated, “We’re at warfare, combating to guard our democracy from home enemies at this second. And people home enemies ought to be renounced, they need to be pushed again towards.” Trump known as me an “enemy of the individuals” for likewise standing up for the integrity of Georgia’s elections.

Abrams has funded teams that made unsupported recommendations that Georgia’s voting machines flipped votes from Abrams to Gov. Brian Kemp. Do these claims sound acquainted? They had been virtually the very same claims raised within the notorious “Kraken” case that obtained Trump-allied attorneys sanctioned for making frivolous arguments.

Sloppy accusations undermine belief

Lawsuits filed by each Trump allies and Abrams allies did not assist the scorching accusations of stolen elections. As a substitute, they submitted unexpectedly gathered declarations that fell aside below additional investigation.

One voter within the 2018 go well with submitted a sworn affidavit that he by no means obtained his absentee poll. He later admitted below oath that he had obtained his poll however wished to vote in particular person as an alternative. One other 2018 voter who was allegedly suppressed merely refused to just accept that his poll had been obtained and counted as information indicated. One allegedly suppressed voter was annoyed that she needed to vote a provisional poll at her polling place, however not noted that her provisional poll was truly counted after she was verified as a registered voter. 

Scott Jennings:What occurred to ‘Trustworthy Joe’? President Joe Biden’s guarantees are turning into lies.

Unsurprisingly, each Abrams and Trump deliberate their stolen election claims nicely prematurely of their elections. Trump started pushing the concept the election can be stolen months earlier than November’s election. Proof delivered to gentle throughout Abrams’ lawsuit towards my workplace confirmed that her allies began planning to make use of “themes of voter suppression” as a get-out-the-vote device as early as 2014. 

The inflammatory rhetoric and baseless however headline-generating lawsuits paid off for each Abrams and Trump. Based on Georgia’s Authorities Transparency and Marketing campaign Finance Fee, the Abrams-founded political motion committee Truthful Struggle raised virtually $100 million through the 2019-20 election cycle. Based on The New York Instances, Trump raised over $250 million within the months following the 2020 election.

So I, for one, was not stunned to see Abrams obtain Trump’s endorsement. Abrams created the blueprint that Trump adopted to lift a whole bunch of tens of millions and keep a nationwide profile after shedding an election. Now, Abrams is creating the playbook for turning stolen election claims right into a marketing campaign for political workplace.

Brad Raffensperger is the secretary of state of Georgia.