Trump Seeking To Punish Honest Georgia Official In GOP Primary

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

Former president Donald Trump vowed revenge for those who refused to support the "big lie" that he won re-election, and one of his first targets is Brad Raffensperger. The Georgia Republican Secretary of State stuck to his guns and the law, refusing to be intimidated by Trump and his minions and overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Trump has found a candidate to primary Raffensperger: a pastor and far right-wing Republican U.S. Congressman from Georgia, Jody Hice, who is one of the 147 Republicans who voted to overturn the results of the election.

Hice won election to Georgia's 10th Congressional District in 2014 by making outrageous anti-LGBTQ claims, like saying gay people have a secret plot to seduce and sodomize America's sons, and calling same-sex marriage akin to bestiality and incest. He also compared abortion to the genocide waged by Adolph Hitler.

Hice has toned down the anti-LGBTQ rhetoric in public, but he's tied to the anti-LGBTQ hate group Family Research Council, and his positions overall are still just as extreme.

Trump is endorsing Hice for Secretary of State.

"Unlike the current Georgia Secretary of State, Jody leads out front with integrity," Trump said, as CNN reported. "I have 100% confidence in Jody to fight for Free, Fair, and Secure Elections in Georgia, in line with our beloved U.S. Constitution. Jody will stop the Fraud and get honesty into our Elections!"

Before Trump officially endorsed Hice Monday, Politico reported that Hice has "said that Trump was 'supportive' of his potential candidacy."

"Trump has been fixated on Georgia as he maps out his plans for the 2022 midterms," Politico also reported. "The former president has been trying to recruit a primary opponent to GOP Gov. Brian Kemp, whom Trump has accused of doing too little to intervene in the state's vote count. He has also publicly encouraged former NFL running back Herschel Walker to mount a Senate bid."

CNN notes that back in December "Hice falsely said on Fox News radio that 'there has been so many credible accusations of fraud' and called Raffensperger's job performance 'nothing shy of embarrassing and downright wrong.'"

"I'm telling you, the secretary of state of Georgia, Raffensperger, has got to be among the worst in the nation," Hice said.