voter fraud before January 6th."[317] Miller anticipated a budget of $5 million and asked for the messaging to follow an earlier round of advertisements, "but the endings need to be changed to include phone numbers and directions to call the local Governor or state legislature."[318] On December 22nd, Jason Miller texted Jared Kushner that "POTUS has approved the buy."[319]
References to anger and fighting were featured in some of the President's remarks during that period. After the Georgia Secretary of State's Chief Operating Officer, Gabriel Sterling, made an impassioned public plea and accurately warned that someone would die as a result of the threatening election-related rhetoric that President Trump failed to condemn, President Trump dismissively tweeted in response: "Rigged Election. Show signatures and envelopes. Expose the massive voter fraud in Georgia. What is Secretary of State and @BrianKempGA afraid of. They know what we'll find!!!"[320] The President also tweeted that, between Governor Ducey in Arizona and Governor Kemp in Georgia, "the Democrat Party could not be happier" because these Republicans "fight harder against us than do the Radical Left" and were singlehandedly responsible for losing him both States, something that "Republicans will NEVER forget[.]"[321] Regarding Kemp, he asked "What's wrong with this guy? What is he hiding?"[322] and he alleged that "RINOs" Governor Kemp, Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan, and Secretary Raffensperger "will be solely responsible" for Senators Loeffler and Perdue losing their senate runoff because they "[w]on't call a Special Session or check for Signature Verification! People are ANGRY!"[323]
President Trump's spoken remarks were not much different. After the President wrapped up a November 26th public phone call to wish U.S. service members a happy Thanksgiving, he answered a reporter's question about election integrity in Georgia by lashing out at Secretary Raffensperger in particular. President Trump made several baseless claims of election fraud in Georgia, declared that Raffensperger himself appeared to be complicit, and labeled the Georgia Secretary of State "an enemy of the people."[324]
President Trump and his team's practice of naming and viciously criticizing people had real consequences. Philadelphia City Commissioner Al Schmidt's story, recounted earlier, is just one of many examples. And the consequences weren't just limited to high-profile public figures. Schmidt's deputy, for example, Seth Bluestein faced threats after being demonized by a surrogate for President Trump, and many of the threats he received were anti-Semitic in nature. He received a Facebook message telling him that "EVERYONE WITH A GUN IS GOING TO BE AT YOUR HOUSE- AMERICANS LOOK AT THE NAME- ANOTHER JEW CAUGHT UP IN UNITED STATES
