Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger says Georgians should expect to wait in line on Election Day amidst record turnout. Georgia reporter Stephen Fowler was one of the first to debunk the theory that Brad is related to Ron Raffensperger, a random man with the same last name who serves as CTO for a subsidiary of the Huawei conglomerate. This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing: Morris, a notorious political operative, acknowledged in his interview with NewsMax host Greg Kelly that he had no evidence that this alleged connection had anything to do with voter fraud in Georgia: Dick Morris: There's something else that I do need to talk about, that's breaking, breaking news. Raffensperger also has another sister and a brother also not named Ron who are private civilians, and the official who fielded our query about the nonsensical claims last week said the secretary of state only discussed having two sisters inconversations with staff about his private life especially given the death threats and harassment he and his family members have faced in recent weeks and months. The president also criticized Raffensperger's brother, saying he works for China. More stories from theweek.com 5 inexcusably funny cartoons about Trump's disgraceful pardons America was always going to bungle the vaccine . Please select all the ways you would like to hear from Lead Stories LLC: You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. Stephen Fowler, a Georgia reporter, was the first to debunk the conspiracy theory Trump's tweets. APS ASSESSMENT: False. True, factual, contextual information is important now more than ever, when the President of the United States is leading a movement of misinformation. His office said he has three sisters and a brother. 'The secretary of states office has always been focused on calling balls and strikes in elections and, in this case, three strikes against the voter fraud claims and theyre out,' said Raffensperger. This esoteric bit of trivia could have provided pollster and pundit Dick Morris with useful context to consider before he proffered what he billed to be "breaking, breaking news" in an interview with Newsmax host Greg Kelly: You remember Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia Secretary of State who has been standing in the way of recounts and refused to verify signatures and kicked the Republican inspectors out of the vote and the counting? President Donald Trump has claimed that the brother of Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is working for China - despite the fact that the Republican politician does not have. A conspiracy theory linking Georgia's secretary of state to Ron Raffensperger and Chinese interference in the 2020 presidential election has made the rounds on social media in recent days. Hours after the Electoral College met to make President-elect Joe Biden's win official on December 15, Trumprevived claims of election fraud and forwarded a call to jail Georgia officials who refused to heed his demands to overturn the vote. Trump's latest series of tweets on Tuesday saw the President once again calling for the result in the state to be overturned, but it was the attack onRaffensperger that drew the most attention. Trump repeated the claim in a Wednesday tweet, implying the alleged relation compromised the secretary of state's election integrity. "I don . You remember Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary of state who has been standing in the way of recounts and refused to verify signatures and kicked the Republican inspectors out of the vote and the counting? Morris: Absolutely none. , updated Mr. Raffensperger became Georgia Secretary of State in 2019. IMPORTANT UPDATE: Georgias Secretary of State does have a brother who is a private citizen and not discussed much. Watch the video shared in this tweet that called its accuracy into question: That bullshit story Trump tweeted about the Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger's brother working for a Chinese company was spouted by Dick Morris on Newsmax last night (he doesn't have a brother). Spotted something? Duke closely covered domestic terrorism cases for CNN, including the Oklahoma City federal building bombing, the UNABOMBER and search for Southeast bomber Eric Robert Rudolph. Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger does not have a brother named Ron who works for a Chinese tech firm, regardless of what the president of the United States says. His office said he has three sisters and a brother. Except, that's not true. Brad Raffensperger is a conservative Republican who's come under fire since November 3 for criticizing claims that the presidential election was somehow rigged in Georgia. pic.twitter.com/kjFymyZWaw. Trump's continued conspiracy-mongering comes just days before Georgians return to the polls for a runoff election that will determine the balance of power in the Senate. (RELATED: Does This Image Show Two Georgia State Senators Found Counting Ballots? Click here, for more. The claim appeared earlier on Twitter on December 10, 2020: (Source: Twitter screenshot taken on Mon Jan 4 17:24:47 2021 UTC). Does Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger have a brother named Ron who is the chief technology officer for the China-based Huawei Corporation? Meet Ron Raffensperger Ron's brother Brad is GA Secretary of State. Brad Raffensperger, Georgia secretary of state, speaks onstage during 2020 Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemorative Service at Ebenezer Baptist Church on January 20, 2020 in Atlanta, Georgia.. #gapolhttps://t.co/ucUmXJ7xCj. Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger does not have a brother named Ron who works for a Chinese tech firm, regardless of what the president of the United States says. 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The Trump administration has repeatedly attacked China andHuawei during his four years as commander in chief, and on May 15 Trump signed an executive order placing Huawei on the Department of Commerce's Entity List as part of an on-going trade war with China. Born in Philadelphia, Barbara was married to Paul Jay Raffensperger on April 25, 1953. "I love the Great State of Georgia, but the people who run it, from the Governor, @BrianKempGA, to the Secretary of State, are a complete disaster and don't have a clue, or worse. Georgia's Secretary of State has got himself in a mess. According to Newsweek, this conspiracy theory about Raffensperger having links to China began to circulate on social media in recent days. 'They will soon be going to jail,' he added, in the tweet the president retweeted. The secretary of state has gone on Fox News . : This fact check is available at IFCN's 2020 US Elections #Chatbot on WhatsApp. Conspiracy theorist looking for support for claims that Joe Biden's win in Georgia was achieved through voter fraud have been attacking Secretary Raffensperger, a Republican who runs the state's elections. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served in the Georgia House of Representatives, representing District 50. LOGIN Subscribe for $1. See who is sharing it (it might even be your friends) and leave the link in the comments. Raffensperger does not have a brother named Ron, his office confirmed Wednesday. On Dec. 23, GPB News reported on the "Battleground" blog and on social mediathat Brad and Ron were not related, that Raffensperger had two sisters and no brother in debunking the claims made by the Gateway Pundit and other right-wing media outlets seeking to allege nefarious actions that somehow altered election results.
Here's what we know now:The secretary of state's office said at the time that Raffensperger did not have a brother named Ron and had two sisters. Daily Beast senior reporter Matt Wilstein countered on Twitter early Wednesday morning, linking to his article and declaring Raffensperger doesn't have a brother. It uses a yellow arrow to falsely claim the two men pictured are brothers, seemingly in an attempt to suggest a relationship between the Georgia secretary of state and Huawei, a Chinese company that, according to Reuters, was placed on the U.S.s entity list due to national security concerns in May 2019. But that hasn't stopped Trump from launching lawsuits and lies aimed at invalidating the election results there, including early Wednesday morning, when he tweeted a provably false claim about the state's Republican secretary of state. President Donald Trump has claimed that the brother ofGeorgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is working for China - despite the fact that the Republican politician does not have a brother.
Nobody can be this stupid. This is part of The Associated Press ongoing effort to fact-check misinformation that is shared widely online, including work with Facebook to identify and reduce the circulation of false stories on the platform. So disgusting!'. No, that's not true: While Huawei does have a Ron Raffensperger working as the CTO of its subsidiary Huawei Enterprise Storage Solutions, he is not the Georgia sercretary of state's brother. Georgia's secretary of state, who is a conservative Republican, refused then-President Donald . "Secretary Raffensperger does not have a brother named Ron," Walter Jones, spokesman for the secretary's office, said in an email to Lead Stories. Note: if reading this fact check makes you want to contact us to complain about bias, please check out our Red feed first. They stumbled upon what they thought was gold when they found a webpage listing Ron Raffensperger as the CTO for a subsidiary of Huawei, a Chinese tech company whose smartphone technology has been branded as a security risk and sanctioned by the U.S. government. Brad Raffensperger has three sisters and a brother, none of whom is named Ron, according to a 2018 family obituary and Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB). Between business relocations that took her family to New York, Maryland and Ontario, Barbara engaged in her. [on progressive groups trying to sign up new voters in advance of twin January elections that will determine control of the U.S. Senate] These third-party groups have a responsibility to not encourage illegal voting. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy practices here. However, commentators and conspiracy theory de-bunkers were quick to point out thatRon Raffensperger - who is the CTO for a subsidiary of the Huawei conglomerate - is not actually related to the Secretary of State. Trump's tweets followed the announcement - made by Brad Raffensperger on Tuesday evening - that a ballot signature match audit in Cobb County found'no fraudulent absentee ballots,' and confirmed the 'original outcome' of the November 2020 presidential race. @realDonaldTrump What if I told you Brad Raffensperger doesnt even have a brother? He was caught and he still won't allow a The brother of the guy who was, more than anyone else, influential in deciding what happens in Georgia and the Presidential and Senate race works for them and a top level position, and it has never been disclosed in the U.S. Not long after Newsmax "broke" this story, U.S. President Donald Trump referenced it in one of many tweets to Raffensperger on Dec. 29, 2020, broadly interpreting their reporting to mean that the Georgia secretary of state's brother "works for China": The thing is, Ron Raffensperger who was accurately described by Daily Beast as "a random man with the same last name who serves as CTO for a subsidiary of the Huawei conglomerate" is not Brad Raffensperger's brother. Newsweek regrets the mistake. As of the 2010 census, 380 people in the United States have the last name Raffensperger. 09:44, 30 Dec 2020 Georgia Public Broadcasting reported Wednesday "public documents and records [show] that Raffensperger does have four siblings, including a brother, but none of them are named Ron, none work for . GPB is committedto bringing you comprehensive news coverage from Georgia, across the country and around the world. It originated with the Gateway Pundit, and that link has been broken for a while - yet still there's people sharing https://t.co/wFR2VqNX91. In a late-night tweet, President Donald Trump attacked Gov. inaccurate stories, videos or images going viral on the internet. Stephen Fowler is an award-winning reporter for GPB News covering state and local politics and host of the Battleground: Ballot Boxpodcast. inaccurate stories, videos or images going viral on the internet. The company has been at the center of rising tensions between the U.S. and Chinese over technology security. Just allow us to find the crime, and turn the state Republican the president tweeted before turning his attention to Raffensperger. Gateway Pundit published an now-unavailablearticle making the false claim on Dec. 22. Brad Raffensperger and Ron Raffensperger are not related, despite their shared surname 'The secretary of state's office has always been focused on calling balls and strikes in elections. Heres more information on Facebooks fact-checking program: https://www.facebook.com/help/1952307158131536, Connect with the definitive source for global and local news, Social media posts making the false claim suggest that the relationship should. "He's toast," said Jay Williams, a Georgia-based Republican strategist. Facebook. Lead Stories is a U.S. based fact checking website that is always looking for the latest false, misleading, deceptive or Lawyer Lin Wood, who filed Trump-backing 'Kraken' lawsuits that have been hammered in court, tagged the two men and wrote that Trump gave them 'every chance to get it right.'. SGT Report is the corporate propaganda antidote. This audit disproves the only credible allegations the Trump campaign had against the strength of Georgias signature match processes.'. T o many Americans, Brad Raffensperger is one of the heroes of the 2020 election. #GeorgiaHearings. President Donald Trump took to Twitter on Tuesday night to criticize Republican officials in Georgia, including Governor Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger for failing to investigate unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud in the state. It will certify Stacey Abrams (D) as their Governor on Dec. 15th. Raffensperger has endorsed these efforts, calling for an end to no-excuse absentee voting, which 1.3 million Georgians used in November, and for voter ID requirements to be extended to mail ballots. GPB News has confirmed via public documents and records that Raffensperger does have four siblings, including a brother, but none of them are named Ron, none work for Chinese technology companies nor have any ties to voting machine vendors used by Georgia to conduct its elections or to count five million votes three separate times to confirm that Joe Biden won the state's electoral votes. Among the many problems with those tweets, as CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale pointed out, is that Brad Raffensperger does not have a brother. None of them are named Ron, work for China or have to do with voting machine vendors.More details below. Brad Raffensperger, of course, doesn't have a brother. 0. 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