On Wednesday, the Georgia State Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Elections held a hearing on election-related issues that one reporter, Georgia’s Stephen Fowler, characterized as “full of testimony from people that don’t know what they’re talking about.” The hearing, he added, was “held by a Senator who put out a “report” filled with baseless and false claims of fraud and only muddies the water.” That state Senator, William Ligon, was only recently appointed as the chairman of the subcommittee in question, and he’s already chaired a similar hearing held by the same subcommittee earlier this month.
I honestly don't recommend watching this unless you have to, because it has been full of testimony from people that don't know what they're talking about, held by a Senator who put out a "report" filled with baseless and false claims of fraud and only muddies the water. https://t.co/szmEwYYw1N
— stephen fowler covers Georgia's election! (@stphnfwlr) December 30, 2020
At an earlier hearing of Georgia State Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Elections, top Trump defender Rudy Giuliani himself appeared, insisting “that Georgia’s voting machines could not be trusted, tens of thousands of absentee ballots were illegally cast and counted and that the legislature should appoint its own slate of electors for President Trump,” as Fowler explained in a previous report. At that earlier hearing, Giuliani’s side also presented a short video clip purportedly showing covert ballot-counting in Fulton County involving ballots supposedly stored in a “suitcase” under a table. In reality, the item in question wasn’t a “suitcase”; it was one of the ordinary bins used for storing ballots. Furthermore, “those bins of ballots were already there and accounted for earlier in the day,” Fowler explains, based on the account of Gabriel Sterling, who’s overseen the implementation of voting systems in Georgia.
This easily fact-checkable claim isn’t the only nonsense that Trump’s allies have pushed about Georgia recently — this week, Trump himself parroted the claim on Twitter that supposed China connections on the part of Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s brother implied corruption on the family’s part. Brad Raffensperger doesn’t have a brother — the individual to whom Trump is referring isn’t related to the top Georgia election official. (UPDATE: The Georgia Secretary of State apparently does actually have a brother — but the China-connected individual to whom the president referred, who shares a last name, is not that brother.)
OK: 1) Brad Raffensperger does not have a brother who “works for China.” Trump was echoing a debunked conspiracy theory. 2) Raffensperger does have *a* brother. His staff said as recently as this morning that he only had two sisters, but there is a bro, and another sister.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) December 30, 2020
As for the Wednesday Georgia Senate hearing, Elena Parent — a Democratic state Senator in Georgia — criticized the proceedings on Twitter. She commented as follows:
‘The Report “adopted” by the Georgia Judiciary Subcommittee this morning does nothing. Committees of the Georgia Senate are prohibited from taking official action when the legislature isn’t in Session. This whole charade is just for show.’
The Report "adopted" by the Georgia Judiciary Subcommittee this morning does nothing.
Committees of the Georgia Senate are prohibited from taking official action when the legislature isn't in Session.
This whole charade is just for show. #gapol
— Elena Parent (@elenaparent) December 30, 2020
Trump himself took notice of the proceedings, characterizing the hearing as covering the “Georgia Election overturn,” seeming to delusionally suggest that the election outcome in Georgia is getting overturned, although no such development is taking place. Trump also angrily called for the resignation of Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, a Republican.
Hearings from Atlanta on the Georgia Election overturn now being broadcast. Check it out. @OANN @newsmax and many more. @BrianKempGA should resign from office. He is an obstructionist who refuses to admit that we won Georgia, BIG! Also won the other Swing States.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 30, 2020
