Trump Retweets a Threat to Jail Georgia’s Governor and Secretary of State

The president is furious that Republican officials didn’t steal the election for him.

Curtis Compton/ZUMA

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It’s a strange day for democracy when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s very belated recognition of Joe Biden’s victory qualifies as breaking news. But that’s because the current president—six weeks after losing his reelection campaign—is still retweeting things like this: 

The unhinged claim that Georgia’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp, and its Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, will soon “be going to jail” comes from Lin Wood, a conspiracy-theory-loving, pro-Trump attorney. Wood and Trump are furious that Kemp and Raffensperger haven’t tried to overturn Biden’s victory in the state—a victory that has now been confirmed by two recounts. It comes nearly two weeks after a Georgia rally featuring Wood and former Trump lawyer Sidney Powell, during which Trump supporters chanted, “Lock him up” in reference to Kemp.

Now, as the entire world, including Vladimir Putin, accepts the Electoral College’s formal recognition of Biden as the next president, it appears as though Trump is standing alone, flirting with the idea of literally locking up two Republicans.

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

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DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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