WASHINGTON – NAACP President and CEO, Derrick Johnson, released the following statement after President Trump pressured Georgia secretary of state to recalculate votes in his favor:

“This is a racist attack on Black voters. President Trump’s desperate and futile attempts to invalidate and falsify votes cast by Georgia voters add to a growing list of criminal acts that must be addressed. His blatant disregard of the election’s accurate results is harmful to the American people and democracy itself. 

The NAACP calls on the Fulton County District Attorney to investigate the state law violations committed by President Trump after he pressured Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary of state, to overturn Georgia’s election results. 

We’ve repeatedly seen attempts to delegitimize democracy by trying to disenfranchise voters, specifically Black voters. In December, we witnessed the Trump campaign and a Trump elector file a lawsuit in the Superior Court of Fulton County, challenging the state’s presidential election results and asking for a new presidential election or for the court to prohibit the appointment of the slate of presidential electors. On December 10, 2020, the NAACP-Georgia State Conference filed a motion to intervene as a defendant in the lawsuit because of their interests in ensuring their members’ votes are counted. 

Once again, if the NAACP must intervene to protect our community, we will do so swiftly and assuredly. 

This post was originally published on Radio Free.