Former President Donald Trump released a statement lambasting the politicization of the Department of Justice, following the announcement of a lawsuit against the state of Georgia over a recently passed election reform bill.
“The right of all eligible citizens to vote is the central pillar of our democracy, the right from which all other rights ultimately flow,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement announcing the decision.
“This lawsuit is the first step of many we are taking to ensure that all eligible voters can cast a vote; that all lawful votes are counted; and that every voter has access to accurate information.”
In his statement, Trump slammed the Justice Department for filing the suit and urged Peach State residents to sue their representatives.
“Biden’s Department of Justice just announced that they are suing the Great State of Georgia over its Election Integrity Act,” his statement began. “Actually, it should be the other way around! The PEOPLE of Georgia should SUE the State, and their elected officials, for running a CORRUPT AND RIGGED 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION — and for trying to suppress the VOTE of the AMERICAN PEOPLE in Georgia.”
“If we don’t address these issues from the 2020 Election head on, and we allow the Radical Left Democrats to continue to politicize the DOJ and Law Enforcement, we will lose our Country. SAVE AMERICA!”
The legislation in question, signed by Gov. Brian Kemp in late March, overhauls election protocols in the Peach State, placing new restrictions on voting by mail and increases legislative control over the voting process.
It also allows the State Election Board to remove and replace county election officials, while curtailing the power of the secretary of state as Georgia’s chief elections officer.
The law does not alter Election Day hours and expands early voting by adding a second mandatory Saturday.
It also affirms that counties have the option of opening two Sundays and allowing counties to extend early voting hours beyond standard business hours.
President Biden compared the voter integrity law to “Jim Crow” in late March, which caused him to run afoul of fact-checkers for repeatedly misdescribing the legislation’s details.
Within two days of a corporate and Democratic pressure campaign endorsed by the president, Major League Baseball said it was pulling its 2021 All-Star Game out of Atlanta to protest the law.
That move sparked backlash, given that the league opted to move its game from a city with a large population of minorities who would benefit from the business. It moved it to Denver, with a significantly lower minority population and even tighter voting laws than Georgia’s.
Many GOP lawmakers in Georgia and elsewhere have insisted the changes are needed to restore voters’ confidence after the 2020 election.