December 15, 2020

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

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

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.

WE'LL BE BLUNT:

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate