Georgia voting systems manager Gabriel Sterling said Tuesday that President Trump will be responsible if Republicans Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue lose their Senate runoff races.
“It will fall squarely on the shoulders of President Trump and his actions since Nov. 3,” Sterling, a Republican, told CNN’s Amara Walker.
“When you tell people, your vote doesn’t count and has been stolen, and people start to believe that, then you go to the two senators and ask the secretary of state to resign and trigger a civil war in the Republican Party when we need to unite, all of that stems with his decisionmaking since the Nov. 3 election,” he continued.
Sterling has been one of Trump’s fiercest Republican critics in the Peach State, frequently challenging the president’s unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud.
Georgia’s Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan (R) also voiced worries about the impact Trump’s claims could have on GOP turnout, telling ABC News on Tuesday that he’s “absolutely” concerned that the president’s comments could depress the party’s turnout in the runoff.
“Unfortunately, too many folks in our party over the last two months have been talking about misinformation, election fraud and creating a distraction,” Duncan said.
On Monday, Sterling debunked a number of Trump’s voter fraud claims point-by-point during a press conference, and urged voters to have confidence in the state’s electoral process.
“Given the nature of the president’s statements and several other people who have been aligned with him previously … we are specifically asking you and telling you: Please turn out and vote tomorrow,” he said.
Sterling’s comments followed the release of audio from a call with Trump and Georgia Secretary of state Brad Raffensperger (R), in which the president tells Raffensperger to “find” more votes in the presidential election to flip the state in his favor. Biden became the first Democratic presidential nominee in decades to win Georgia, giving Democrats hope for the two runoff races.