‘Obviously Fake’: Georgia Republican Asks Elon Musk To Take Down Video Purporting to Show Immigrants Voting Illegally

Screenshot via CBS.

Two of Georgia’s top election officials, both Republicans, called out a video circulating social media this week as “fake” and an “obvious lie.”

“No responsible person would retweet this ridiculously obvious lie and disinformation. Those doing so are acting to further the efforts of America’s enemies and undermine the security of our nation. The judgment of those sharing this should be questioned in all things,” wrote Georgia election official Gabriel Sterling on Thursday.

Sterling shared a post from RNC national committeewoman Amy Kremer that spread the video which purported to show Haitian migrants claiming they voted illegally for Vice President Kamala Harris.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) also released a statement about the clip on Thursday. “Earlier today, our office became aware of a video purporting to show a Haitian immigrant with multiple Georgia IDs claiming to have voted multiple times. This is false and is an example of targeted disinformation we’ve seen in this and other elections,” Raffensperger wrote, adding:

It is likely foreign interference attempting to sow discord and chaos on the eve of the 2024 Presidential election. We are working to combat this and identify the origin of it with our state and federal partners. CISA is currently investigating. In the meantime, we ask Elon Musk and the leadership of other social media platforms to take this down. This is obviously fake and part of a disinformation effort. Likely it is a production of Russian troll farms. As Americans we can’t let our enemies use lies to divide us and undermine our faith in our institutions – or each other.

U.S. intelligence officials confirmed on Friday that the clip had originated in Russia. The FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said the intelligence community “assesses that Russian influence actors manufactured a recent video that falsely depicted individuals claiming to be from Haiti and voting illegally in multiple counties in Georgia.”

“This Russian activity is part of Moscow’s broader effort to raise unfounded questions about the integrity of the US election and stoke divisions among Americans,” the statement said.

Former President Donald Trump and his allies have long baselessly claimed that he lost the 2020 election due to voter fraud, despite dozens of court cases and election audits finding the election was fair. Trump has begun to claim the 2024 election will also be rigged against him should he lose.