Republican candidate for Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones faced tough questions from the media and his Democratic opponent about his role in efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia at a debate Tuesday in Atlanta.
In December 2020, Jones, a state senator, was part of an alternative slate of electors supporting former President Donald Trump, even though President Joe Biden had been certified as the winner in Georgia. Responding to a question from WABE’s Rahul Bali, Jones called his actions "procedural."
"We had court cases that were going on at the time, and it was a procedural move that we knew that we're not going to move forward if if those court cases did not move forward," Jones said.
A few minutes later, during an opportunity for candidates to question each other, Jones got a similar flavor of the same question from Democrat Charlie Bailey.
"My question to you is, are you finally ready to take responsibility for your actions and apologize to the people of Georgia for those undemocratic acts?" Bailey asked Jones.
In response, Jones accused Bailey of not wanting to talk about what Jones characterized as “the issues that are concerning Georgians,” and attacked Bailey on inflation through his support of President Joe Biden and questioned the former prosecutor’s stance on crime reduction and his support for eliminating cash bail.
"You know, as a former prosecutor, I've seen this a number of times with people that have done something that's wrong.," Bailey retorted. "They want to talk about anything other than what they did. And the truth is, Mr. Jones, what you did was un-American and unpatriotic."
Libertarian Ryan Graham also participated in the debate.
