I’m out at Public Notice today with a look at how the narrative of left-wing political violence doesn’t add up. This has been a busy week. Hell, every week is a busy week these days. I can’t do this alone, so if you want to support my work, please consider a paid subscription for as little as $6 a month or a contribution to the Doom Coffee Fund. - jg
Amid the deluge of news this week showcasing the nation’s ongoing crises, the Trump administration and its allies in federal agencies as well as local governments continued their assault on elections.
The Justice Department announced on Thursday that it was suing six states for refusing to hand over voter registration lists (VRLs). This is a stunning development. It means that the Trump administration is directly interfering in states’ rights to manage their own elections. It also means that Attorney General Pam Bondi’s Justice Department may get access to the personal information of millions of voters — for purposes unknown.
Voting rights groups suspect that the information will be used to further a false narrative of widespread illegal voting by undocumented immigrants. The VRLs the Justice Department is now suing over would also give the Trump administration information that would allow it to target its political enemies.
Meanwhile in Georgia, the State Election Board met for two days to continue its work aiding the Trump administration in its election denial efforts. The three Trump-supporting members who control the board approved a series of election denial actions aimed at discrediting future elections and investigating past ones under false claims of widespread voter fraud. This matters because Georgia will play an important role in deciding the makeup of the U.S. Senate next year, when Sen. Jon Ossoff will run for re-election.
Next year’s mid-term elections in Georgia are shaping up to be an absolute mess. In July, the state’s election systems will no longer be allowed by law to be used — part of election denial efforts to get rid of voting machines. No replacement system has been proposed. But the SEB went further this week, proposing that the Georgia legislature completely eliminate no-excuse absentee voting, and reduce the number of days that the state can count military and overseas ballots.
But that’s not all. Led by Dr. Janice Johnston, a full-throated election denier and hardcore Trump supporter, the SEB’s majority questioned the effectiveness of the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), signaling that Georgia’s election denial movement still views the system as a prime target. (Even Republican secretaries of state have said ERIC helps them to clean voter rolls, removing ineligible voters and spotting fraud.) The SEB’s election denier trio of Johnston, Janelle King and Rick Jeffares also moved to send a letter to the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) recommending a citizenship question to be added to federal voter registration forms. (The EAC is being targeted by Trump and his election denier allies to force states to do away with voting machines, mail-in and absentee ballots, and other measures based on false claims of widespread voter fraud.)
Incredibly, Johnston, King and Jeffares also passed a motion that will allow the board to subpoena Fulton County — for at least the second time by my count — for a variety of materials related to the 2020 election. Johnston, King and Jeffares remain convinced that fraud was widespread in Fulton County that year, leading to Trump’s election loss.
Meanwhile in Fulton County, the fallout over the nomination of two hardcore election deniers to serve on the election board there continues. Earlier this month, the Fulton County Board of Commissioners — which is responsible for approving political appointees to the election board — passed on appointing Jason Frazier and Julie Adams. Frazier and Adams are at the center of a small but very vocal and powerful network of election deniers in Georgia who have forced the state to adopt rules — some of them illegal, according to the courts — that affect millions of Georgia voters. They also have significant ties to the country’s most prominent election denier, Cleta Mitchell, and her Election Integrity Network.
Frazier and Adams sued the county — with the backing of the Republican National Committee, who also backed Adams efforts to overturn last year’s election — in order to take their seats on the Fulton County election board, which has a majority of Democrats. The county has appealed, and a decision on the matter now rests with a state judge.
But the madness has continued while we await the judge’s ruling. Fulton County Commissioner Bridget Thorne has taken a cue from her colleagues on the American right, who are increasingly calling any speech with which they disagree an incitement to violence.
“Political attacks lead to political violence,” reads a post on Thorne’s Instagram.
The post contains a photo of fellow Fulton County Commissioner Dana Barrett, who has filed an ethics complaint against Thorne for her involvement in attempts to place Frazier and Adams on the election board. The complaint also notes that Thorne, in a recent board of commissioners meeting, said she would essentially control Frazier and Adams’ actions on the election board.
“If Jason and Julie did anything that was illegal or harmful or falsely removed anybody, I’d be the first person to correct them,” Thorne said at the meeting. “And they would take that correction.”
In her complaint, Barrett says Thorne’s comment “raises grave concerns about the improper exercise of influence over independent officials expected to operate free of external political pressure, especially from members of the body that appointed them.”
In response, Thorne said the complaint “is a deliberate mischaracterization of a statement and lacks any valid grounds for a legitimate complaint.”
“These political attacks only spur political violence and that is what our county and nation do not need,” Thorne added on Instagram.
I reached out to Thorne to see if she actually believes that an ethics complaint filed against her by a fellow elected official could lead to political violence. Because Thorne has repeatedly accused me of misrepresenting her statements or not given her proper notice in my requests for comment, I’ve provided her entire response to my questions below.
Thorne’s response to Barrett’s complaint, as over-the-top as it may seem, is in line with a growing narrative from Republicans across the nation that any criticism of actions taken by the Trump administration or its allies is akin to acts of violence like the one that was carried out by the lone shooter who killed Charlie Kirk. This narrative is being used by Trump and Republicans for their growing crackdown on left-wing groups that threatens free speech and Americans’ constitutional rights.
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