A battle erupted within the Republican Party this week on how best to tackle allegations of fraud in Georgia in the Nov. 3 election.
Attorneys Lin Wood and Sidney Powell, who are behind a number of lawsuits alleging fraud in battleground states such as Georgia, appeared to some to suggest boycotting the upcoming Senate runoffs, sparking fury from some in the party.
“I would encourage all Georgians to make it known that you will not vote at all until your vote is secure,” Powell added. “There should not be a runoff. Certainly not on Dominion machines.”
The incumbents are fighting to win after failing to garner a majority of votes in the presidential election. If both lose and Democrats also gain the White House, they'll have control of both chambers of Congress and the presidency.
Trump allies criticized the lawyers, including Townhall columnist Kurt Schlichter and California lawyer Harmeet Dhillon. Georgia Rep. Vernon Jones, a Democrat who supports Trump and was present at the rally, urged people to vote in the runoffs.
Some critics drew attention to an article on Breitbart posted after the rally, alleging that Wood has donated to Democrats for decades, including former President Barack Obama. The conservative website gave Wood a demeaning nickname and described him as going “for sabotage” in Georgia.
“I really have a problem with somebody like Lin Wood, who hasn’t voted Republican primaries since 2004, telling Republicans, don’t vote for the Republican Senate candidates. It’s maddening. I can’t even begin to put words to it,” Sterling said.
Wood defended himself in a series of posts on Twitter, saying the runoff election “will be rigged” just like the general election was.
“Same machines, same absentee ballots, same fraud. Fix the fraud. Then exercise your vote in an election which has integrity,” he wrote in one post, in response to a user who asked if Republicans risked losing the Senate if they followed his advice.
In others, he called on Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, to call a special session of the legislature to correct perceived issues with the election system. He also said he voted for Trump in both 2016 and 2020.
A Kemp spokesperson has said the governor can’t interfere in elections.
Powell, who didn’t return an inquiry, shared a post by a woman who said she’s voting for Perdue and Loeffler but has no expectation that her votes will be counted accurately.
Kemp and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, “deserve the scrutiny,” the user wrote. “THEY created the problem.”
In an emailed statement this week, Loeffler campaign spokesman Stephen Lawson told The Epoch Times, “Every Republican in this state knows the stakes of this race because it will decide the future of our country, and that’s why everyone is getting to the polls to vote for Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue.”
Georgia Republicans “know that Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue continue to stand with President Donald Trump,” said Abigail Sigler, a Georgia GOP spokeswoman.
The intra-party fights came hours after a group of former Republican leaders, including former Sen. Johnny Isakson and former Gov. Nathan Deal, penned a letter calling for unity within the party and a focus on winning the runoffs.
While work to correct any irregularities that occurred during the presidential election should continue, “we cannot let this ongoing work detract from a mission that only Georgia Republicans can accomplish: maintaining control of the U.S. Senate so that our children and grandchildren can continue to enjoy the national security, economic opportunity, and personal freedom that have defined our great nation since its Founding.”