Former President Donald Trump speaks to the media at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport after surrendering at the Fulton County jail on August 24, 2023, in Atlanta, Georgia. | Source: Joe Raedle / Getty
Former President Donald Trump invoked Stacey Abrams‘ name after he was arrested and booked in Atlanta following a sweeping RICO indictment centered on allegations that he attempted to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia.
While repeating the lie that the 2020 presidential election was “rigged” and “stolen” from him, the same man who’s been indicted four times in as many months disingenuously cited Georgia’s former Democratic gubernatorial nominee as an example of why he says he should have “never” been indicted.
In this handout provided by the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office, former President Donald Trump poses for his booking photo at the Fulton County Jail on August 24, 2023, in Atlanta, Georgia. | Source: Handout / Getty
Trump spoke to reporters at an airport before he flew from Georgia back to his golf club in New Jersey.
“If you challenge an election, you should be able to challenge an election,” Trump said. “I thought the election was a rigged election, a stolen election and I should have every right to do that.”
He then deflected to Abrams and Hilary Clinton as examples of Democrats who have contested election results without being criminally charged.
“As you know, you have many people that you’ve been watching over the years doing the same thing, whether it’s Hilary Clinton or Stacey Abrams or many others,” Trump continued. “When you have that great freedom to challenge, you have to be able to. Otherwise, you’re gonna have very dishonest elections.”
Of course, Trump’s comparison to Abrams and Clinton is flawed.
What Trump failed to mention is that while Abrams and Clinton both contested the results of the 2018 midterm and 2016 presidential elections, respectively, neither of them took the steps that Trump is accused of: violating a racketeering act, the solicitation of violation of oath by public officer, conspiracy to impersonate a public officer, conspiracy to commit forgery in the first degree and giving false statements and writings and filing false documents.
It’s those allegations that earned him a trip to the Fulton County Jail, not simply vocally objecting to an election’s results.
Trump went on to tell reporters that it was he, not Georgia, who is the true victim of election interference, suggesting his criminal charges are a conspiracy to disrupt his presidential candidacy for the 2024 election.
“What they’re doing is election interference,” Trump insisted. “They’re trying to interfere with an election. There’s never been anything like it in our country before.”
He suggested prosecuting him is the Democrats’ “way of campaigning” against him.
Trump on Thursday joined most of his 18 co-defendants in surrendering for arrest in the Georgia indictment. The accused were given a deadline by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to voluntarily turn themselves in by Friday.
In 2018, the former majority leader ran a tight gubernatorial race against then-Secretary of State Brian Kemp. After months of campaigning, Abrams lost to Kemp, but she did not initially accept the defeat.
“I acknowledge that former Secretary of State Brian Kemp will be certified as the victor in the 2018 gubernatorial election, but to watch an elected official who claims to represent the people in this state baldly pin his hopes for election on suppression of the people’s democratic right to vote has been truly appalling,” the Nobel Peace Prize winner said in a speech.
Prior to losing the election, a group of voting rights organizations filed a lawsuit against Kemp for using a racially-biased method to purge around 700,000 voters ahead of the 2018 midterm elections. The plaintiffs also accused the Republican of using the state’s deeply flawed Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck Program to maintain Georgia’s list of eligible voters. Kemp vehemently denied the allegations.
Determined to become Georgia’s first Black female governor, Abrams ran against Kemp, again, in 2022, but the Republican incumbent won again, sweeping past the voting rights activist with 53% of the vote.
In April 2022, Abrams filed a lawsuit under her Fair Fight Action organization against Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and the Georgia State Election Board. The lawsuit accused both parties of creating and enforcing “unconstitutional and otherwise unlawful policies, engaged in gross mismanagement” and claimed that both parties failed “to ensure uniform application of election laws across Georgia’s 159 countries.”
Abrams also alleged that Raffensperger failed to “provide adequate training to counties on the correct procedures” for in-person absentee ballots and failed “to maintain accurate voter rolls,” the lawsuit stated.
The Democratic hopeful ended up losing the lawsuit.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams makes a concession speech to supporters at an election-night party on November 8, 2022, in Atlanta, Georgia. | Source: Jessica McGowan / Getty
Abrams’ refusal to concede during the 2018 election was not a crime, and neither was Trump’s in 2020. But one major difference is that there is no evidence she tampered with election results. Fulton County DA Willis claimed the opposite for Trump and his associates for allegedly attempting to interfere with the presidential election results.
A few X users perfectly summed it up for Pollak and all of the naysayers on X. Many claimed that Abrams’ pursuit to prove her election was “stolen” was not an unjust offense, unlike Trump, who may have carried out criminal and fraudulent acts to sway his 2020 election results.
SEE ALSO:
How Trump’s Georgia Indictment Provides A Legal Path To Keep Him Off The Ballot In 2024
Thanks To Trump, Black Women Prosecutors Have The Added Burdens Of Racist, Gendered Attacks
The post After Being Booked, Trump Disingenuously Invokes Stacey Abrams’ Name For ‘Doing The Same Thing’ appeared first on NewsOne.
After Being Booked, Trump Disingenuously Invokes Stacey Abrams’ Name For ‘Doing The Same Thing’ was originally published on newsone.com
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