Topline
In an apparent recognition of the potential political damage its most fervent supporters may pose to the GOP, the Trump campaign on Thursday went after pro-Trump attorney L. Lin Wood, who has touted Trump’s unfounded voter fraud claims to the point of urging Republicans to boycott the Georgia runoff election.
Attorney Lin Wood, member of President Donald Trump's legal team, speaks during a rally on ... [+]
Key Facts
The campaign's Trump War Room Twitter account posted an article by right-wing news outlet Breitbart accusing Wood, who has been filing voter fraud lawsuits in Georgia on Trump’s behalf, of having voted only in Democratic primaries and donated to Democratic politicians.
Wood, who along with former Trump legal team-member Sidney Powell has achieved cult-like status among Trump’s most conspiratorial supporters for pushing outlandish voter fraud claims, shot back, tweeting: “Historically, I am nonpartisan,” but that, “This year, I was partisan because I love [Donald Trump].”
Wood’s devotion to Trump’s baseless claims of victory led him to repeatedly urge Republicans to sit out the runoff due to unfounded assertions it will be “rigged” and to punish GOP Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue for allegedly not doing enough to back Trump’s efforts to overturn the election.
That presents a dilemma for Republicans and the Trump campaign, which has reportedly reaped over $170 million in donations by pushing voter fraud claims but which likely does not want to see Republicans lose the Georgia runoffs and, subsequently, control of the Senate.
Nonetheless, Trump – who himself was once a registered Democrat and a donor to Democratic politicians – sowed doubt about the integrity of the runoff in a 46-minute video posted to Facebook Wednesday but stopped short of telling supporters to boycott, claiming, “the difference is, it’s one state and we will have our eyes on it like nobody has watched anything before.”
Democrats, recognizing an opportunity, have gleefully adopted Wood’s rhetoric in an effort to depress GOP turnout, with Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) tweeting, “Lin Wood is right: If you still believe Georgia's election was rigged... you definitely shouldn't vote for Loeffler & Perdue next month!”
Key Background
Wood has been something of a Forrest Gump for Trump-aligned causes in recent years. He represented Covington Catholic High School student and RNC speaker Nicholas Sandmann in a defamation suit against the Washington Post, was hired by a doctor who was allegedly fired for her promotion of hydroxychloroquine – a coronavirus treatment frequently touted by Trump – and volunteered to defend Kyle Rittenhouse, a 17-year-old charged with homicide for allegedly shooting two men during a protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Crucial Quote
“A very important election that’s coming up will determine whether or not we hold the Senate,” Trump said of the Georgia runoff in his video. The comment is a tacit acknowledgement of his election loss, given that Republicans already hold 50 Senate seats and Democrats can only achieve a majority thanks to Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris’ soon-to-be tie breaking vote.
Chief Critic
“There is no evidence that Lin Wood and Sidney Powell are secretly working for the Democratic National Committee, but no one has definitively disproved it, either,” wrote Rich Lowry, the editor of the conservative National Review, in a Politico Magazine piece. “At best, Wood-Powell are distracting from the GOP message in the races, and at worst, they are convincing persuadable Georgians that it is the Republican Party that needs to be checked, not Joe Biden.”
Big Number
53%. That’s the share of Republican voters in a Politico/Morning Consult poll released two weeks after the election who said they believe the presidential election results in Georgia – which Biden won by about 12,500 votes – were somewhat or very unreliable. Just 7% of Democratic voters said the same.
Surprising Fact
The Trump campaign attack comes hours after Wood attended a Georgia news conference with Powell where he told supporters that Loeffler and Perdue – who have gone as far as calling on Georgia’s Republican secretary of state to resign for overseeing an election Trump lost – "have not earned your vote.” But Wood wasn’t the only person with a history in Democratic politics at the conference: Vernon Jones – a Democratic Georgia state lawmaker who endorsed Trump – also attended and, unlike Wood, urged supporters to vote Republican in the runoffs.
What To Watch For
The Trump campaign may begin to distance itself further from the more conspiratorial elements of its voter fraud coalition, something it proved willing to do by severing ties with Powell – who had appeared at a news conference alongside Trump attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis the same day she was ousted.
