Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan (R) slammed Donald Trump in a scathing CNN opinion piece, equating the former president to the devil, who is “looking for a party’s soul to steal.”
Duncan made a reference to the late Southern rocker Charlie Daniels’ song “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” in advance of Trump’s rally in the state this weekend.
Duncan is a staunch supporter of the conservative agenda and is dissatisfied with the Biden administration. A legislative agenda delayed by a disagreement over the infrastructure package, a “genuine crisis” at the southern border, and a perplexing federal reaction to the COVID-19 epidemic were among the issues raised by the Republican state official.
Duncan claimed that the GOP might make significant gains in the 2022 midterm elections, but he also conceded that “my Republican Party is not out of the woods.”
“This weekend, former President Trump is hosting a rally in my neck of the woods,” Duncan wrote. Then, evoking Satan, he added: “If the legendary Southern rocker Charlie Daniels were still with us today, his hit song could be re-written as, ‘A president went down to Georgia; he was looking for a party’s soul to steal.’”
Daniels’ song depicts the narrative of a demon on the prowl for souls in Georgia. But, in a bargain with a fantastic musician, Satan loses a fiddle-playing contest and does not get his soul.
As for Trump, he “continues to be painfully comfortable peddling his baseless conspiracy theories of widespread election fraud. Last week, he fired off a disjointed and juvenile letter to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger asking him to ‘decertify’ the results of the election,” Duncan wrote.
If “we are all being honest with one another, Trump did not lose because of voter fraud or his conservative policies. Biden is sitting in the White House today because voters grew tired of Trump’s erratic behavior, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic,” he added.
When Trump “comes to Georgia this weekend, expect him to re-package his ‘greatest hits,’ and once again hijack our great state for his own selfish agenda,” Duncan warned. “It might make for good theater, but it is setting back the conservative movement.”
There are, however, so many evangelical Christians who believe quite the opposite, feeling that Trump is the second coming.
Rep. Adam Kinzinger gave the world a glimpse of what it is like to be one of 10 House Republicans to vote to impeach Donald Trump.
While appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Kinzinger stated that his family and friends turned on him and he was told that he was “possessed by the Devil.”
“Look it’s really difficult. I mean, all of a sudden imagine everybody that supported you, or so it seems that way, your friends, your family, has turned against you. They think you’re shelling out,” Kinzinger stated.
“I’ve gotten a letter, a certified letter, twice from the same people, disowning me and claiming I’m possessed by the devil.”
After the January 6 insurrection, it appeared that Republican leaders were going to take a stand against Trump especially after House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy stated that Trump bore “responsibility” and that he must accept blame for the riot.
However, over the past week, Republican members appear to be headed back towards supporting Trump. McCarthy traveled to Trump’s private resort Mar-a-Lago on Thursday to meet with Trump.
“I was disappointed over the last few weeks to see what seemed like the Republican Party waking up and then kind of falling asleep again and saying, ‘Well, you know, what matters if we can win in two years and we don’t want to tick off the base,’” Kinzinger said.
He then added that the “The photo shows that the former president is desperate to continue looking like he’s leading the party.”
Kinzinger also shared that he has launched a website, Country1st.com, he hopes that it will help to refocus the Republican Party’s “conservative principles.”
“I think the Republican Party has lost its moral authority in a lot of areas,” he said. “How many people think that conservative principles are things like building the wall, and you know, charge the Capitol and have an insurrection? That’s what Country1st … is all about — is just going back and saying, ‘Here’s what conservative principles are.'”
Kinzinger also touched on Rep. Matt Gaetz’s recent attacks on Rep. Liz Cheney.
“If you look at Matt Gaetz going to Wyoming because, what, a tough woman has an independent view and he doesn’t want to have to go out and explain why he didn’t vote for impeachment, that’s totally GOP cancel culture,” Kinzinger said. “What we’re standing for, and I think what, frankly, a significant part of the base wants, is to say, ‘Look, we can have a diversity of opinion.’”
There is also another battle going on within the GOP. Republicans are now butting heads over the behavior of one of their own.
Many House Republicans are doing all that they can to distance themselves from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. Greene is receiving major backlash and calls to step down after videos surfaced of her using racist, Islamophobic and anti-Semitic views. Old Facebook posts also surfaced of her supporting posts that stated that Democrats should be executed.
Kinzinger stated that the people do have the right to choose their representatives and that he isn’t sure he supports evicting the congresswoman. But he said he would vote her off committees to “take a stand.”
Greene, who is a QAnon conspiracy supporter, also suggested that Ruth Bader Ginsburg had been replaced by a body double years before her death.
During an interview with America First that was posted to Facebook in 2019, a caller asked Greene about photos of Ginsburg walking through Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
Greene responded, “All of a sudden she’s walking straight upright like it’s a whole new person. Do you believe that is Ruth?”
Ginsburg, who passed away in September of 2020, more than a year and a half after the footage was filmed.
According to QAnon conspiracy theory, Ginsberg had died years earlier but her death was covered up, and in public appearances was replaced by a body double, to hold onto the Supreme Court seat until after Donald Trump had left the White House.
During the interview host, Will Johnson interjected that the person seen in the photo was “almost like a body double like Hillary Clinton.”
Greene replied: “I do not believe that was Ruth. No. I don’t think so.
These past revelations have many lawmakers calling for Greene to be expelled from the House.
On Friday Greene stated that she had raised $1.6m in small campaign donations as a result of the publicity. At the same time, she appeared to acknowledge the expectations of criticisms over her past comments. She stated that she knew the criticism would come it was just a matter of time. However many don’t believe Greene saw it coming because since the videos surfaced she has been deleting 2018 and 2019 social media posts and if she saw it coming she would have deleted them before they became an issue for her.
“Every attack. Every lie. Every smear strengthens my base of support at home and across the country because people know the truth and are fed up with the lies,” she said in the statement.
“If Republicans cower to the mob, and let the Democrats and the Fake News media take me out, they’re opening the door to come after every single Republican until there’s none left,” she added.
