The choice of former President Donald Trump to be the next chairman of the Republican National Party linked the last election cycle to a voter fraud watchdog organization heavily connected to Cleta Mitchell, the conservative lawyer who played a key role in Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 vote.
Trump endorses Michael Whatley, chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party, as the next chairman of the Republican National Committee, the New York Times reported on February 6. Ronna McDaniel, who most recently held the position, told Trump that she would resign later. this year. months, to the Times.
GET YOUR MORNING PAPERS DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Whatley, a veteran GOP campaign operative who served in the administration of President George W. Bush, is reported to have won Trump’s support because he backs Trump’s baseless claim that the 2020 election was stolen through widespread voter fraud. Last year, Trump endorsed Whatley, who is currently the RNC’s general counsel, to be the organization’s co-chair.
Whatley spoke at a 2022 convention aimed at eliminating voter fraud and organized through the North Carolina Election Integrity Team, the group’s founder, Jim Womack, told the state’s newsroom.
“We took them to our summit,” Womack said. I gave Whatley the opportunity to deal with our people and he explained to me what a wonderful team effort it was going to be. “
At the time, Whatley also allowed Womack to brief NCEIT on a convention of borough presidents, said Womack, who chairs the Lee County Republican Party.
NCEIT is a spinoff of the Election Integrity Network, which Mitchell founded in 2021 to exercise poll watchers to aggressively track voter fraud. Womack Mitchell “our mentor. “
Mitchell, who is based in North Carolina, has been very concerned about Trump’s efforts to overturn the outcome of the 2020 election, adding in the December 2020 phone call in which Trump suggested Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger “find” the votes he needed. Win the state.
A special grand jury in Fulton County, Georgia, asked that Mitchell be indicted, but she was not charged.
The North Carolina Republican Party declined to comment on Whatley’s work with NCEIT.
Womack, who ran unsuccessfully against Whatley for state presidency in 2019, said that after Whatley’s appearance at the summit, the appointments fell apart, as Whatley kept NCEIT at arm’s length.
Womack said Whatley’s had dissuaded Republican volunteers from worrying about NCEIT.
“They were telling a lot of counties to use their reporting system, to attend their training, to attend our training,” Womack said.
In fact, Womack complained that Whatley hadn’t done enough in the fight against fraud.
However, under Whatley, the state inaugurated a 16-member “Election Integrity Committee” in 2021 to push for stricter election regulations and recruit poll watchers.
At a convention that year hosted by the conservative organization CPAC, Whatley warned that under the party’s legal approach to election integrity, Democrats would have stolen the 2020 state Supreme Court election, which the Republican nominee won with 401 votes.
“You can’t tell me in 100 North Carolina counties, they couldn’t have come up with four votes (in each) if I didn’t have lawyers and attorneys in every single one of those counties,” Whatley said.
“It’s going to have to be part of the Republican status quo going forward,” Whatley added, referring to intensifying legal efforts. “It’s going to be trial after trial after trial. “
SUPPORT THE NEWS YOU TRUST.
by Zachary Roth, Colorado Newsline February 13, 2024
The choice of former President Donald Trump to be the next chairman of the Republican National Party linked the last election cycle to a voter fraud watchdog organization heavily connected to Cleta Mitchell, the conservative lawyer who played a key role in Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 vote.
Trump endorses Michael Whatley, chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party, as the next chairman of the Republican National Committee, the New York Times reported on Feb. 6. Ronna McDaniel, who has recently been in office, told Trump she would resign later. this year. months, to the Times.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Whatley, a veteran of the Republican crusade who served in the administration of President George W. Bush allegedly won Trump’s because it’s Trump’s baseless claim that the 2020 election was stolen through widespread voter fraud. Last year, Trump endorsed Whatley, who was most recently the RNC’s general counsel, as the organization’s co-chair.
Whatley spoke at a 2022 convention aimed at eliminating voter fraud and organized through the North Carolina Election Integrity Team, the group’s founder, Jim Womack, told the state’s newsroom.
“We took them to our summit,” Womack said. I gave Whatley the opportunity to deal with our people and he explained to me what a wonderful team effort it was going to be. “
Around that time, Whatley also let Womack briefly plug NCEIT on a conference call of county chairs, said Womack, who chairs the Lee County GOP.
NCEIT is a bankruptcy of the Election Integrity Network, which Mitchell founded in 2021 to exercise poll watchers to aggressively track voter fraud. Womack Mitchell “our mentor”.
Mitchell, who is based in North Carolina, has been very concerned about Trump’s efforts to overturn the outcome of the 2020 election, adding in the December 2020 phone call in which Trump suggested Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger “find” the votes he needed. Win the state.
A special grand jury in Fulton County, Georgia, asked that Mitchell be indicted, but she was not charged.
The North Carolina Republican Party declined to comment about Whatley’s work with NCEIT.
Womack, who ran unsuccessfully against Whatley for state presidency in 2019, said that after Whatley’s appearance at the summit, the appointments fell apart, as Whatley kept NCEIT at arm’s length.
Womack said Whatley’s had discouraged Republican volunteers from worrying about the NCEIT.
“They were telling a lot of counties to use their reporting system, to attend their training, to attend our training,” Womack said.
In fact, Womack complained that Whatley hadn’t done enough in the fight against fraud.
However, under Whatley, the state inaugurated a 16-member “Election Integrity Committee” in 2021 to push for stricter election regulations and recruit poll watchers.
At a convention that year hosted by the conservative organization CPAC, Whatley warned that under the party’s legal approach to election integrity, Democrats would have stolen the 2020 state Supreme Court election, which the Republican nominee won with 401 votes.
“You can’t tell me in 100 North Carolina counties, they couldn’t have come up with four votes (in each) if I didn’t have lawyers and attorneys in every single one of those counties,” Whatley said.
“It’s going to have to be part of the Republican status quo going forward,” Whatley added, referring to intensified legal efforts. “It will be trial after trial after trial. “
SUPPORT NEWS YOU TRUST.
Colorado Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a network of grant-backed news bureaus and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Colorado Newsline maintains its editorial independence. Please contact Editor Quentin Young if you have any questions: info@coloradonewsline. com. Follow Colorado Newsline on Facebook and Twitter.
Zachary Roth is the democracy reporter for States Newsroom.
TOOLS FOR DEMOCRACY
Colorado Newsline provides fair and accurate reporting on politics, policy and other stories of interest to Coloradans. Newsline is based in Denver, and coverage of activities at the Capitol are central to its mission, but its reporters are devoted to providing reliable information about topics that concern readers in all parts of the state, from Lamar to Dinosaur, from Durango to Sterling.
Our stories may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. We ask that you edit only for style or to shorten, provide proper attribution and link to our web site.