On Monday morning, Donald Trump raged on his Truth Social website at the former lieutenant governor of Georgia, Geoff Duncan (R). That “nasty disaster,” Trump said, should not testify to a grand jury deciding whether to indict the former president over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in the Peach State.
Come sunset, Duncan had not only testified but emerged from the courthouse speaking what Trump’s MAGA faithful surely regard as blasphemy: Trump can’t win in 2024 and Republicans must “take our medicine and realize the [2020] election wasn’t rigged.”
“Donald Trump was the worst candidate ever in the history of the party,” Duncan declared. “Now we’re going to have to pivot from there. We want to win an election in 2024, it’s going to have to be somebody other than Donald Trump if we do it.”
This was no new political apostasy — Duncan broke sharply with Trump years ago and wrote a book about it.
But it was a fresh reminder of how Trump’s fourth indictment is (partly) the story of a few Republican officials in Georgia choosing to be the immovable objects that withstood the not-quite-irresistible force that was the former president — and current front-runner for the 2024 GOP nomination.
And on Jan. 5, 2021 — one day before Trump supporters ransacked the U.S. Capitol, interrupting the certification of President Biden’s victory — my colleague Amy Gardner posted the recording and transcript of Trump’s phone call to Georgia elections officials.
The hour-long conversation pitted Trump against Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, his office’s general counsel, Ryan Germany, and Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs.
Trump, trailed Biden in the state by 11,779 votes, detailed what he described as hundreds of thousands of fraudulent Democratic votes, only to have the Georgia officials refute his claims (they’d been investigated) and rebuff his entreaties.
Trump’s most notorious contribution: “I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have because we won the state.” The response from the state officials: He wouldn’t, and he hadn’t.
Duncan opted not to run for reelection. But Gov. Brian Kemp (R), who also rebuffed Trumpian pressure to overthrow the election, and Raffensperger romped to new terms.
“Trump was charged with 13 counts, including violating the state’s racketeering act, soliciting a public officer to violate their oath, conspiring to impersonate a public officer, conspiring to commit forgery in the first degree and conspiring to file false documents,” they reported.
So it’s also a story about the battalions of people — there are 41 charges against 19 defendants, per Holly and Amy — from every walk of life who rallied to Trump’s efforts.
“Among those charged are Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor who served as Trump’s personal attorney after the election; Trump’s former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows; and several Trump advisers, including attorneys John Eastman, Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro,” my colleagues noted.
The indictment (Page 15) says Trump and his indicted supporters “constituted a criminal organization whose members and associates engaged in various related criminal activities including, but not limited to, false statements and writings, impersonating a public officer, forgery, filing false documents, influencing witnesses, computer theft, computer trespass, computer invasion of privacy, conspiracy to defraud the state [and] acts involving theft and perjury.”
The candidate long thought to be the most serious challenger, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, has criticized Trump, sometimes fairly sharply, but not on this issue. (One wonders whether DeSantis is thinking not just about 2024 but also about 2028.)
Former vice president Mike Pence, who refused Trump’s demands that he reject rather than certify Biden’s victory, faces vanishingly long odds of winning.
But here’s the real reality check: Kemp, after everything Trump put him through, says he will “almost certainly” vote for whoever wins the GOP nomination.
Even if it’s Trump.
Come sunset, Duncan had not only testified but emerged from the courthouse speaking what Trump’s MAGA faithful surely regard as blasphemy: Trump can’t win in 2024 and Republicans must “take our medicine and realize the [2020] election wasn’t rigged.”
“Donald Trump was the worst candidate ever in the history of the party,” Duncan declared. “Now we’re going to have to pivot from there. We want to win an election in 2024, it’s going to have to be somebody other than Donald Trump if we do it.”
This was no new political apostasy — Duncan broke sharply with Trump years ago and wrote a book about it.
But it was a fresh reminder of how Trump’s fourth indictment is (partly) the story of a few Republican officials in Georgia choosing to be the immovable objects that withstood the not-quite-irresistible force that was the former president — and current front-runner for the 2024 GOP nomination.
Find me the votes to overturn Biden’s victory, Trump demanded
Much of Trump’s months-long campaign to sow suspicion about the 2020 elections and ultimately overthrow them was public — in rallies, on social media, via speeches. Much of it was private, in increasingly frantic West Wing meetings and telephone calls to state officials he cajoled, argued with or threatened.And on Jan. 5, 2021 — one day before Trump supporters ransacked the U.S. Capitol, interrupting the certification of President Biden’s victory — my colleague Amy Gardner posted the recording and transcript of Trump’s phone call to Georgia elections officials.
The hour-long conversation pitted Trump against Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, his office’s general counsel, Ryan Germany, and Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs.
Trump, trailed Biden in the state by 11,779 votes, detailed what he described as hundreds of thousands of fraudulent Democratic votes, only to have the Georgia officials refute his claims (they’d been investigated) and rebuff his entreaties.
Trump’s most notorious contribution: “I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have because we won the state.” The response from the state officials: He wouldn’t, and he hadn’t.
Duncan opted not to run for reelection. But Gov. Brian Kemp (R), who also rebuffed Trumpian pressure to overthrow the election, and Raffensperger romped to new terms.
The indictment speaks
The new indictment, unveiled late Monday, criminally charges Trump and 18 others in connection to the former president’s multipronged efforts to overturn Biden’s victory, my colleagues Holly Bailey and Amy Gardner reported.“Trump was charged with 13 counts, including violating the state’s racketeering act, soliciting a public officer to violate their oath, conspiring to impersonate a public officer, conspiring to commit forgery in the first degree and conspiring to file false documents,” they reported.
So it’s also a story about the battalions of people — there are 41 charges against 19 defendants, per Holly and Amy — from every walk of life who rallied to Trump’s efforts.
“Among those charged are Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor who served as Trump’s personal attorney after the election; Trump’s former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows; and several Trump advisers, including attorneys John Eastman, Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro,” my colleagues noted.
The indictment (Page 15) says Trump and his indicted supporters “constituted a criminal organization whose members and associates engaged in various related criminal activities including, but not limited to, false statements and writings, impersonating a public officer, forgery, filing false documents, influencing witnesses, computer theft, computer trespass, computer invasion of privacy, conspiracy to defraud the state [and] acts involving theft and perjury.”
A model for resisting Trump in 2024?
In short: Nope. With few exceptions, Trump’s rivals for the 2024 GOP nomination haven’t been especially critical of his efforts to cancel the election. He leads the rest of the field by healthy double digits, four indictments and all.The candidate long thought to be the most serious challenger, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, has criticized Trump, sometimes fairly sharply, but not on this issue. (One wonders whether DeSantis is thinking not just about 2024 but also about 2028.)
Former vice president Mike Pence, who refused Trump’s demands that he reject rather than certify Biden’s victory, faces vanishingly long odds of winning.
But here’s the real reality check: Kemp, after everything Trump put him through, says he will “almost certainly” vote for whoever wins the GOP nomination.
Even if it’s Trump.
