Republican officials in two Georgia counties this week formally censured Gov. Brian Kemp, Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on the grounds that they betrayed former U.S. President Donald Trump last November.
Conservative activist Debbie Dooley told The Georgia Star News Wednesday that the GOP pushback against those three Georgia officials has only just begun.
GOP officials in Whitfield and Murray counties have already censured the three state Republicans.
“I am encouraging people to fight. The grassroots Trump supporters in Georgia are angry, and folks are underestimating the anger that’s out there,” Dooley said, adding Georgia Republicans’ loyalties lie solidly with the 45th president.
“They are angry with Kemp. They are angry at what happened with Donald Trump, and a lot of new folks are showing up to make sure that the Georgia Republican Party stays the party of Donald Trump.”
Dooley said she’s focused on this fight since February and encouraged Trump supporters statewide to show up at mass precinct GOP meetings — especially now as GOP activists prepare for county conventions scheduled for Saturday.
Dooley said Georgia has between 130 to 140 organizations at the county level.
Dooley said she doesn’t expect all of the counties will pass censure resolutions.
“My email list doesn’t go to everybody,” Dooley said.
“If we can get six or seven [resolutions] passed against Kemp with the reach I have at the GOP meetings [then] that would be huge to do that against a sitting governor.”
As The Star News reported in November, state legislators pushed Kemp to call a special legislative session before the January U.S. Senate runoff elections. The special session did not happen. Had such a special session occurred then state legislators would likely have addressed the appointed presidential electors and the implementation of laws limiting voter fraud in the general election runoff.
As reported in December, Kemp would not use his authority to change the date of the state’s two U.S. Senate elections from January 5 to February 1 of this year. Moving back the date might have given members of the Georgia General Assembly additional time to coordinate and develop ways to prevent potential election fraud. Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff defeated incumbent U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) and incumbent U.S. Sen. David Perdue, respectively.
As The Star News reported last month, Duncan (R-Cumming) told a nationally-televised audience that his fellow Republicans should move past Trump and forget passing certain election reform bills.
Duncan said this on NBC’s Meet the Press.
Also as reported last month, a Georgia Secretary of State official under Raffensperger’s supervision anonymously sourced a Washington Post story about Trump — a story that people now discredit.
Georgia Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs was that anonymous source.
The Post story cited Trump’s phone call late last year with Georgia Secretary of State Chief Investigator Frances Watson. During that call, Trump urged Watson to look for fraudulent mail-in ballots in Fulton County. The paper said Trump’s conduct and words — which the paper now admits it took out of context — constituted criminal behavior.
Writers at The Post, upon discovering new evidence, this week corrected their story.
Dooley said Wednesday that she and others “are going after people that we think betrayed Trump and turned their back on him.”
“We are coming for you,” Dooley warned.
“We are going to send a message.”
– – –
Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
Background Photo “Georgia Capitol” by DXR. CC BY-SA 4.0.
