Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger called out failed gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams for her recent interview on CNN where she claimed host Kaitlan Collins was spreading “disinformation” about her.
Collins reminded Abrams about the 2018 gubernatorial election when she claimed to have defeated now Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, and refused to concede.
“Well, I do remember the time you told The New York Times, ‘I won.’ You did describe it as a stolen election,” Collins told Abrams.
Abrams interrupted the host to argue what she said was “incorrect” and “disinformation.”
“I have never been the governor of Georgia. I’ve never claimed to be the governor of Georgia,” Abrams said. “What I have said is that voters were denied their full rights. Courts agreed with me at the time of that election. They agreed with me post-election. The state made changes to the laws, some of them, unfortunately too many of them, have been restored in different ways.”
“And we continue to face voter suppression not only in Georgia, but around the country, because Republicans are using the ability to change the laws because we no longer have the protection of the Voting Rights Act to make it harder for average voters to show up at the polls and votes counted,” she continued. “That should be where our focus is.”
YOUR REACTION: Stacey Abrams (@staceyabrams) appeared on @CNN's @kaitlancollins show to deny she claimed repeatedly that her election was stolen and even refused to concede defeat. Here is Stacey Abrams on CNN, and what she said before. WATCH to the end. pic.twitter.com/XJXAKy7M2p
— Simon Ateba (@simonateba) July 31, 2024
Raffensperger released a lengthy statement responding to the remarks.
"In my time in office, I have spent a lot of time holding failed candidates like Stacey Abrams accountable to Georgia's voters. The latest comments from Stacey Abrams show that she still can’t accept that she lost in 2018. And the fact that she still can’t accept that means she has no business going on TV talking about defending democracy.
The fact is that she lost fair and square under the established rules of the game.
She even spent over $50 million of her donors’ money to try to show that the rules were unfair to her, but she completely lost on all her claims.
She lost not because of any technicality like she now tries to claim, but because, after getting millions of documents and conducting hundreds of depositions, the evidence didn’t support her claims.
She had every chance in the world to prove her claims of “systematic voter suppression” and she couldn’t do it because her claims were nothing but cheap, political talking points.
She tries to wrap herself in flowery language about protecting the right to vote, but the fact is that she is just an election denier.
She wants everyone to forget that her group continually referred to the 2018 election as a “stolen election” and referred to Governor Kemp as Governor* Kemp for many months after he was legitimately elected and sworn in. But Abrams and Fair Fight did both of those things, and they should be ashamed.
The only thing she should be going on TV to say is that she lost the 2018 election fair and square and that she apologizes for her post-election refusal to accept that fact."