Gabriel Sterling, a Republican who serves as Georgia’s election implementation manager, took aim at pro-Trump lawyers Sidney Powell and Lin Wood on Thursday morning, a day after they encouraged Georgians to boycott the battleground state’s runoff elections in January that will determine control of the Senate.
On Tuesday, Sterling torched President Trump and Georgia’s two Republican senators — Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler — for failing to condemn death threats of violence against election officials and workers.
Purdue and Loeffler attempted to pressure Sterling’s boss, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, into resigning amid Trump’s unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud.
“Mr. President, you have not condemned these actions or this language,” Sterling said on Tuesday. “Senators, you have not condemned this language or these actions. This has to stop. We need you to step up. And if you’re going to take a position of leadership, show some.”
During an interview on CNN Thursday morning, Sterling was asked about Powell and Wood’s remarks during a Georgia rally the day before when they spread more falsehoods of widespread election fraud as they called on Georgians against voting in “another rigged election.”
Sterling was baffled by the pro-Trump lawyers’ comments.
“Who the heck knows. I mean, it’s Looney Tunes,” Sterling said, before calling Trump out for his 46-minute screed filled with unfounded voter fraud claims. “The President’s literally coming to Georgia to campaign for the same two senators that his two former lawyers who are filing lawsuits to contest the election, with the same claims that the President made in his very long 46-minute video yesterday that have already been debunked.”
Sterling added that he’s “speechless” and “that’s the best I got right now.”
Asked if he knows Wood, Sterling said that he’s “never had to deal with him directly,” although “if you live in Atlanta, of course you know” of Wood.
A clip then aired of Wood taking aim at Sterling during the Wednesday rally.
“You listen up, Gabriel!” Wood said at the Wednesday rally. “You’re not gonna sell our votes to China!”
Puzzled by Wood’s remarks, Sterling characterized the pro-Trump lawyer’s remarks as something that “all comes out of fever dreams.”
“There’s just no basis in any reality whatsoever. But there are people who are emotionally tied to the President, and the President is taking advantage of that,” Sterling said.
Sterling argued that people like Powell and Wood are “taking advantage of people not understanding the ins and outs of a relatively complex system of how elections work.”
Watch Sterling’s remarks below:
“It’s Looney Tunes.”
Gabriel Sterling, the voting systems implementation manager for the Georgia secretary of state's office, responds to pro-Trump lawyers encouraging people to not vote in the Senate runoff races. https://t.co/P6RouVU1Rt pic.twitter.com/ef5XcmQYCR— New Day (@NewDay) December 3, 2020
