Just in: Stacey Abrams proposes raising the minimum salary for Georgia public school teachers to $50,000 a year if she’s elected governor, part of a four-year plan that would hike the pay of k-12 educators by $11,000.
#gapol
This is Joel from Woodstock, a former Republican who came to the Fulton County Jail this morning to deliver a message:
“I want to see the sociopath who tried to steal my vote in 2020 go to prison.”
Joe Biden has surpassed President Donald Trump in Georgia, a state where no Democratic presidential hopeful has won since 1992. The race is still too close to call, but it’s a major moment as Biden has now erased Trump’s edge.
#gapol
Yes, that was Stacey Abrams with a cameo on Star Trek Discovery as president of United Earth. A proud Star Trek nerd, Abrams has appeared as a guest on fan shows and has talked extensively about how the show shaped her perspective.
#gapol
The Biden administration just announced the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in downtown Atlanta will serve as a federally-run vaccine site capable of administering 6K shots each day.
#gapol
“Why are you arresting her?” This Facebook Live video from
@TWareStevens
shows the moment authorities detained state Rep. Park Cannon as
@GovKemp
was behind those doors signing elections restrictions into law.
#gapol
Even though there was only enough employees to keep Twitter going for a single day, the tweets continued tweeting for eight wondrous nights, leading the sages to declare a miracle
“This is ridiculous,” says Anita Heard, a 80-year-old who was first in line to vote at 6 this morning and is still waiting to cast her ballot. “Of course,” she says when I ask her if she plans to stay. “I worked for 40 years — where else am I going?”
#gapol
Whoops. The latest legal filing from former Trump attorney Sidney Powell in her Georgia lawsuit accuses Dominion voting machines of flipping votes from Biden to Trump — which would mean the president gained fraudulent votes. One GOP attorney calls it an “epic fail.”
#gapol
Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian just called the Georgia elections restrictions signed into law last week was “unacceptable” and “based on a lie” of widespread fraud in last November’s election.
#gapol
Fulton County DA Fani Willis isn’t messing around. Her letter to Kemp’s lawyer, embedded in the today’s court filing over a pending subpoena of the governor:
“The email you have sent is offensive and beneath an officer of the court. You are both wrong and confused.”
#gapol
The 88-year-old professor told the student that he could die from COVID-19 due to underlying health factors.
“I had risked my life to defend my country while in the Air Force. I was not willing to risk my life to teach a class with an unmasked student.”
.
@SenatorWarnock
: “The filibuster, at the end of the day, is about minority rights in the Senate. How are you going to insist on protecting minority rights in the Senate while refusing to protect minority rights in the society?”
#gapol
Georgia attorney William McCall Calhoun, Jr., who boasted of his participation in a “hostile takeover” of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and predicted a civil war if Donald Trump was not returned to power, was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
“When Trump descended into rage, his staff resorted to summoning an aide, nicknamed the Music Man, to play favorite show tunes they knew would soothe him, including ‘Memory’ from the Broadway musical ‘Cats.’”
A Fulton County judge has rejected former U.S. Sen. David Perdue’s request to inspect ballots from the November 2020 election, saying his evidence of voting fraud amounts to “conjecture and paranoia.”
#gapol
It’s over. Again. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger says he will announce today that he will recertify the election results for Joe Biden after three separate counts of roughly 5M ballots.
#gapol
Vince Todd arrived at his Atlanta polling site just before 7 and was about 50th in line.
“I wanted to see who I wanted in there: Warnock,” Todd told
@bycassidy
. “I believe in him, so I gotta get out there.”
By 7:25 a.m., he walked out with his prized voter sticker.
#gapol
#gasen
A long line of voters forms in heavily-Democratic DeKalb County, one of the handful of counties to allow early voting this week in the runoff between Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker.
#gapol
#gasen
In a remarkable press conference, Gov. Brian Kemp squashed the idea of a special legislative session to oust Fulton County DA Fani Willis -- and warned fellow Republicans of the risks in trying to use government powers to punish her.
#gapol
Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene tried to have a “You lie” moment. When Biden spoke of securing the borders, Greene stood and chanted, "Build the wall." Ignored by her peers, one lawmaker could be heard telling her to sit down.
#gapol
“
@Ossoff
will be sworn in using a book of Hebrew scripture once owned by Rabbi Jacob Rothschild, who led Atlanta’s historic synagogue The Temple...”
The rabbi was a key MLK ally who encouraged ATL’s Jewish community to fight for civil rights and oppose hate & intolerance.
#gasen
I just caught up with Duncan for a quick interview. “As Republicans we need to take our medicine and realize the election wasn’t rigged, Donald Trump was the worst candidate ever, in the history of our party … and now we are going to have to pivot from there.”
#gapol
Warnock: “I am glad that Senator Loeffler is listening to my sermons. One of my favorite sermons is entitled ‘Love your neighbor.' And in practical terms that means you don’t get rid of your neighbor’s healthcare in the middle of a pandemic.”
#gapol
#gasen
Democrats flipped at least seven local races across Georgia tonight, including in Warner Robins, where voters elected the first woman and first Black mayor to lead the city.
#gapol
Senator-elect
@ReverendWarnock
: “I intend to return to the pulpit and preach on Sunday mornings ... The last thing I want to do is become disconnected from the community and just spend all of my time talking to the politicians. I might accidentally become one.”
#gapol
#gasen
Just in: Former President Barack Obama is returning to Atlanta for the second time this campaign season, this time to hold a rally for U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock ahead of the Dec. 6 runoff.
#gapol
#gasen
.
@ossoff
on
@CNN
: “We all know what’s going to happen if McConnell holds the Senate. He will try to do to Biden and Harris just like he tried to do to President Obama. It will be paralysis, partisan trench warfare, obstructionism as far as the eye can see at a moment of crisis.”
A week before he turns 99, former President Jimmy Carter makes his first public appearance since he entered hospice care at — where else — the famed Plains Peanut Festival in his beloved hometown.
#gapol
Can y’all see who is in this car? God Bless Former President Jimmy Carter and Former First Lady Carter for making the
#plainspeanutfestival
parade this year!!! Happy early birthday to him!
#JimmyCarter99
A new batch of returns from Cobb County pulls Biden within 40k votes of surpassing Trump in Georgia. The Democrat has a path: The state says roughly 122,000 absentee ballots are still not returned, mostly from solidly Democratic metro ATL and Savannah.
#gapol
Just in: Former First Lady Michelle Obama is helping U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock energize voters in his Dec. 6 runoff against Republican Herschel Walker, making a rare foray into campaign politics this cycle.
#gapol
#gasen
“This is beyond partisanship.” Jon
@ossoff
gets two minutes of mostly uninterrupted airtime on Fox News and uses it as a fundraising appeal and a chance to level attacks at both Perdue and Loeffler before a conservative audience.
#gapol
#gasen
Just in: Stacey Abrams has raised more than $9.2M since entering the race for Georgia governor in December, setting a blistering fundraising pace that eclipsed Republican Gov. Brian Kemp.
#gapol
A newly elected Republican member of the Georgia House who ran unopposed in November was charged today with stealing prescription drugs from a residence at a northeast Georgia retirement complex where he works.
#gapol
The polls just opened in Georgia and long lines have already formed at some metro Atlanta polling places. The pandemic led officials to close some precincts and limit how many people can cast ballots at a time.
#gapol
The unprecedented review of signatures on absentee ballot envelopes found that the Cobb Elections Department had “a 99.99% accuracy rate in performing correct signature verification procedures” and no fraudulent absentee votes, Georgia’s top elections official says.
#gapol
#gasen
Georgia
@SenatorWarnock
gets a hero’s welcome in Byromville, a town of about 600 people where he’s promoting a $5B plan embedded in the coronavirus stimulus package to help farmers of color who have lost land and resources because of systemic racial discrimination
#gapol
>Raskin with a quote that won't soon be forgotten: "The Watergate break-in was like a Cub Scout meeting compared to this assault on our people and institutions."
Back on the pulpit:
@SenatorWarnock
gets a long and loud standing ovation as he’s introduced at his first church service at Ebenezer since Tuesday’s runoff.
“God bless each and every one of you. By the grace of God, we got it done.”
#gapol
#gasen
Herschel Walker on the federal climate change bill: “They continue to try to fool you that they are helping you out. But they’re not. Because a lot of money it’s going to trees. Don’t we have enough trees around here?”
#gapol
#gasen
Fulton DA Fani Willis tells
@maddow
the criminal investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn Georgia’s election “seems that it will go past just this one phone call” to Secretary of State Raffensperger.
#gapol
Just in: A federal judge has struck down Georgia’s congressional and legislative maps, ruling that they violate Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. Georgia lawmakers have until Dec. 8 to draw new lines, setting up a special legislative session.
#gapol
At the annual MLK Shabbat sermon,
@ReverendWarnock
makes a request for him and Jon
@ossoff
, who is about to be Georgia’s first Jewish US senator: “Regardless of your politics, will you pray for us? We must build together the beloved community. It takes all of us.”
#gapol
#gasen
.
@ossoff
: “There aren't even words to explain how completely unacceptable this kind of violence is toward any human being. I hope the other candidates in this runoff election will join me in condemning this & I'm calling on all of our supporters to treat each other with respect."
Someone walked up to a Democratic Get Out the Vote rally in Stockbridge today and punched a supporter in the face then tore up his
@ossoff
and
@ReverendWarnock
signs, per police & witnesses. The suspect was arrested and charged with battery. Victim is ok.
The response from Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger: “Let me start by saying that is not going to happen. The voters of Georgia hired me, and the voters will be the one to fire me.”
#gapol
I am thrilled to share the news that I’m writing a book on Georgia’s epic 2020 (and 2021) elections, chronicling the personalities and policies that paved the way to the November flip - and today’s swearing-in of Warnock and Ossoff to the US Senate.
#gapol
@TWareStevens
@GovKemp
Said Stevens, who is at the jail w/ Cannon now: "She wasn’t banging on the door. She was knocking on the door. She was being respectful. She knew he was signing a bill that would affect all Georgians – why would he hide behind closed doors? This isn’t a monarchy."
#gapol
Potential U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker and his wife live in Texas, but she voted in Georgia’s election for president last fall. Herschel, meanwhile, has called for prosecutions of voter fraud ...
#gapol
#gasen
"Very troubling." Fulton County DA Fani Willis said her daughters, her father and even her ex-husband had have their private information posted online. Some of those posts included racial slurs, others suggested violence.
Sen.
@ossoff
: “Sunday would've been Rep. John Lewis's 81st birthday ... He nearly lost his life in the struggle for voting rights. But as we speak, Georgia’s state Legislature is considering legislation that would make it harder for Georgians to vote.”
Georgia’s most powerful Republican politicians are rejecting pro-Donald Trump calls to change the state constitution to give the governor direct authority to pardon those convicted of crimes.
#gapol
Fulton County prosecutors are expected to appear before a grand jury this week seeking subpoenas for documents and witnesses related to their investigation of former President Trump and his allies for possible election fraud, the
@ajc
has learned.
#gapol
Georgia House Speaker Jon Burns has some pointed words about a far-right Republican’s fantasy push to impeach Fani Willis in a letter to the GOP caucus.
“Targeting one specific DA in this manner certainly flaunts the idea of separation of powers, if not outright violates it.” 1/
Here’s a glimpse of the scene at Cross Keys, where technical issues have ground voting to a standstill and officials have run out of provisional ballots.
#gapol
Just in: A state agency is moving ahead with plans that will determine whether Lt. Gov. Burt Jones faces criminal charges as part of a scheme to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia,
@dwickert
reports.
#gapol
Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss received death threats and were targeted by pro-Trump conspiracy theories during the 2020 election cycle. Now the Trump supporters who harassed them could face criminal charges,
@TamarHallerman
writes.
#gapol
Joe Biden to AFL-CIO convention: “Help Stacey Abrams in Georgia. There’s three things I learned about early on: One, she’s loyal. Two, she’s capable. Three, she’s smarter than you. And me. She knows what she’s doing. So folks, please help her out.”
(🎥
@nathansappp
)
#gapol
U.S. Sen. Jon
@ossoff
blames “out of control” Republicans for MLB’s All Star Game decision. “... This egregious and immoral assault on voting rights has also put our state’s economy at grave risk.”
#gapol
A source who was on the call yesterday but requested anonymity described the president’s accusations during the conversation as ‘batshit crazy.’
#gapol
#gasen
I spoke to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger yesterday about Fulton County and voter fraud in Georgia. He was unwilling, or unable, to answer questions such as the “ballots under table” scam, ballot destruction, out of state “voters”, dead voters, and more. He has no clue!
Why
@staceyabrams
isn't conceding: Her campaign manager says "there are tens of thousands of absentee ballots around the state, many of them we believe are Abrams voters." They're eyeing 20K in Gwinnett and 25K in Cobb.
#gapol
I've covered more than two dozen Trump rallies around the nation. This is the smallest crowd I've seen at a rally of his in Georgia since he won the 2016 election -- significantly smaller than the crowd in Perry in September.
#gapol
Georgia election official
@GabrielSterling
is pushing back on baseless claims of voter fraud in Georgia, calling them “hoaxes and nonsense.”
He tells voters not to “buy into these things ... This election was an amazing success here."
#gapol
Georgia elections official
@GabrielSterling
on
@wsbtv
: “From the numbers we’re looking at right now, it doesn’t look good for the two incumbent Republican senators.”
“Rosalynn was my equal partner in everything I ever accomplished,” President Carter said. “She gave me wise guidance and encouragement when I needed it. As long as Rosalynn was in the world, I always knew somebody loved and supported me.”
RIP, Mrs. Rosalynn.
Hawley has also endorsed Georgia Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker, who also faces allegations of violently assaulting his ex-wife and threatening other women.
#gapol
#gasen
The backstory on this moment: Mayor
@KeishaBottoms
referred to a hymn sung in Black churches, then she spotted me. “I don’t know, Greg, do they sing it in the white church?” Folks start laughing and before I could respond,
@SenatorWarnock
says: “Mayor, Greg is Jewish.”
#gapol
David Perdue has fallen to 50% of the vote in the race against Democrat Jon
@ossoff
and thousands of ballots from left-leaning counties remain to be counted, raising the prospects of a second Senate runoff in Georgia that could decide control of the chamber.
#gapol
#gasen
“This should be something for Georgians to celebrate, whether their favored presidential candidate won or lost. For those wondering, mine lost — my family voted for him, donated to him and are now being thrown under the bus by him.”
#gapol
“There is no question that the people of Georgia deserve a great deal of credit for what happened here today,” said
@ReverendWarnock
. “We simply would not be here had they not stood up in such a profound way in this historic election.”
#gapol
“Georgia Republicans Don’t Want Black People To Vote.” Spotted circling the Georgia Capitol as legislators debate sweeping restrictions on voting: A mobile billboard financed by Turnout Democrats, a new organization founded by
@NabilahforGA07
.
#gapol
After Trump loyalists spread viral lie that Kemp wants a probe of 17k “invalid” 2020 votes, the gov’s camp fires back:
“The moon landing was real, Bigfoot does not roam the forests of North America, and the 2020 election in Georgia was not stolen.”
#gapol
The FBI and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation are investigating threats to Georgia's top elections official and his deputies, the secretary of state's office said.
#gapol
The largest school district in Georgia reported today that 260 employees have tested positive for the coronavirus or are in quarantine because of possible exposure as they prepare for the new school year.
Sen.
@ReverendWarnock
on MSNBC: “The last time I was in the United States Capitol, I was arrested in an act of civil disobedience. And what was I focused on? I was focused on healthcare. And what will I be focused on as a United States senator? I’ll be focused on healthcare.”
.
@KamalaHarris
on Trump’s call pressuring Raffensperger to “find” enough votes to flip the Georgia election: "It was a bald-faced, bold abuse of power by the president of the United States."
#gapol
“Shawn,” the president said, “I wish I didn’t have to make this call … I know there’s nothing anybody can say or do to ease the pain. I’ve been there.”