Sen. Lindsey Graham Says Stacey Abrams ‘Conned’ Georgia Republicans
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is still outraged that Trump lost the state of Georgia, the first Republician to do so since 1992. Instead of blaming his party or the candidate, Graham is blaming Stacey Abrams.
According to The Hill, Graham said on The Mike Gallagher Show, "Stacey Abrams conned the Republican leadership in Georgia into a consent decree that basically adulterated the signature verification system, so that you’re comparing the ballot signature to the application signature.
He continued, “They’re the same person who did the fraud. You should be comparing the ballot signature, the envelope signature on the ballot, to a signature that existed before the application was made. She changed that."
Trump has also made this accusation. However, the Associated Press has debunked this claim: "There is nothing in the consent decree that prevents Georgia election clerks from scrutinizing signatures. The legal settlement signed in March addresses accusations about a lack of statewide standards for judging signatures on absentee ballot envelopes."
That said, Graham, who represents South Carolina, made the unorthodox moving of calling Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and seemingly encouraging him to toss out legally cast ballots. According to Raffensperger, "He asked if the ballots could be matched back to the voters. I got the sense it implied that then you could throw those out for any, if you look at the counties with the highest frequent error of signatures. So that's the impression that I got.”
Raffensperger also added, "It was just an implication of, 'Look hard and see how many ballots you could throw out.’”
Abrams, whose voting rights advocacy goes back decades, launched the voting rights group Fair Fight after her loss in Georgia’s 2018 gubernatorial race. For the presidential election, Fair Fight registered 800,000 in the state, and Abrams’ leadership is believed to be responsible for Biden’s win. There is hope that her efforts will help deliver the Senate to Democrats, which is contingent on the upcoming runoff election on Jan. 5. Democrat Jon Ossoff is challenging incumbent Sen. David Perdue, while. Rev. Raphael Warnock is the Democratic challenger to Republican incumbent Sen. Kelly Loeffler.
If Warnock and Ossoff win, the Senate will be tied, which will give Vice President-elect Kamala Harris the tie-breaking vote and remove Senator Mitch McConnell from the role of majority leader.
