During a discussion on CNN this week with host Kaitlan Collins, Geoff Duncan, a Republican and former lieutenant governor of Georgia, harshly condemned former President Donald Trump.
He and others in the panel were discussing the recently filed Georgia indictment that accuses the former president and 18 others of involvement in a criminal conspiracy to target that state’s election results from 2020. Duncan argued that many of the arguments heard so far were procedural in nature rather than related to the facts of what transpired during Trump’s well-documented, desperate attempts to hold onto power despite his loss to Biden.
“The reality is, nobody’s doubling down on the facts, right?” Duncan said. “We’re two and a half years into this, and I think that’s the biggest hurdle they’re going to have to climb. When you go on a two-plus year crime spree from coast to coast, this is what — a lot of folks are complaining about the calendars. When you have four trials to have to compete with on a calendar, you’re not going to be able to skip certain days because it’s your birthday or skip certain days because you got a nail appointment, right? You’re going to have to actually go face the music.”
Duncan, who testified in the criminal investigation that led to the Georgia case and has faced personal targeting from Trump, cast the situation more broadly for Republicans. “As a Republican, the dashboard is going off with lights and bells and whistles, telling us all the warning things we need to know, right?” the former official concluded. “91 indictments, fake Republican, eight trillion dollars worth of debt. Everything we need to see to not choose him as our nominee, including the fact that he’s got the moral compass more like an ax murderer than a president.” Yet, Trump remains generally the front-runner in the GOP primary, despite his 91 accusations across four cases of felony criminal behavior.
Duncan also suggested that moving forward under the Trump banner inside the GOP could constitute the party’s “last gasp.” Meanwhile, some have said they expect further cooperation with investigators from associates of Trump, though one subject of speculation — Mark Meadows, who was charged alongside the former president in the Georgia case — is instead seeking to move the handling of his Georgia charges to federal court.
Three Georgians on what went down in their home state today, including surprise testimony from Mark Meadows. From the perspective of a former U.S. attorney, a former Democratic state senator and the state’s former Republican lieutenant governor: pic.twitter.com/kDKzS1x4l0
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) August 29, 2023
