Trump inciting violence, says election official

President Donald Trump will bear responsibility for any violence that results from unsubstantiated election fraud claims he has stoked, a US state of Georgia election official said.

Gabriel Sterling said in a statement, “It’s all gone too far! All of it! It has to stop!”

Mr. Sterling, a Republican, criticized his fellow Republicans, including Trump. 

He said a 20-year-old contractor in Gwinnett County for Dominion Voting Systems, which has become the subject of baseless right-wing conspiracy theories, had received death threats. The worker’s family was also getting harassed, Mr. Sterling added.

Mr. Sterling said, after transferring a report on ballot batches to a county computer so he could read it.

He also said that he himself has a police guard outside his home, while the wife of Georgia’s Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, was “getting sexualized threats through her cell phone”.

“Mr. President, you have not condemned these actions or this language,” added Mr. Sterling. “Senators, you have not condemned these actions or this language.

“We need you to step up and if you’re going to take a position of leadership, show some!”

He added: “Death threats, physical threats, intimidation, it’s too much, it’s not right, they’ve lost the moral high ground to claim that it is.”

Apart from that, he directly referred to Mr. Trump, “You have the right to go to the courts. What you can’t do, and you need to step up and say this, is stop inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence.

“Someone’s going to get hurt, someone’s going to get shot, someone’s going to get killed, and it’s not right.”

He added: “Be the bigger man here, and stop, step in, tell your supporters, don’t be violent, don’t intimidate. All that’s wrong, it’s un-American.”

How did Trump respond?

President Trump retweeted a video of Mr. Sterling’s speech. He wrote, “Rigged election. Show signatures and envelopes. Expose the massive voter fraud in Georgia.”

Georgia is conducting a second recount of votes in the state at the Trump campaign’s request.