Failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams has said at least a dozen times since her loss in November that she was cheated out of a victory and the result was rigged by Republican Governor Brian Kemp when he was secretary of state.
Abrams has called Kemp's 2018 win "tainted" and "an erosion of our democracy," said "we don't know what really happened" because of voter suppression, and even declared "we won" a race she lost by more than 54,000 votes.
She has gone on a national media tour since her defeat and never been pressed on her claims, but Democrats and liberal media members thrashed Donald Trump when he questioned the integrity of the 2016 race before it was over. He infamously remarked at his third debate with Hillary Clinton that he would "keep you in suspense" over respecting the election's results.
Clinton and running mate Tim Kaine (D., Va.) said Trump was acting like a "sore loser," and Clinton said Trump's potential lack of respect for the result was a "direct threat to our democracy."
Clinton has since said Abrams should have won the election because she was "deprived of the votes" she "otherwise would have gotten."
Then-President Barack Obama said Trump's rhetoric was dangerous, telling one rally, "When you try to sow the seeds of doubt in people's minds about the legitimacy of our elections, that undermines our democracy." His former senior adviser David Axelrod feared Trump's supporters wouldn't accept a loss and called it "frightening for our democracy."
Then-Republican strategist Steve Schmidt, who predicted Clinton would receive more than 400 electoral votes at one point, said in 2016 it was a "moment of clear and present danger to our constitutional order." Schmidt has since left the Republican Party.
Abrams's claims that her defeat was unfair have not been fact-checked by mainstream media outlets—several have simply called the race "marred" by voter suppression charges—although the Free Beacon, National Review, the Weekly Standard, and the Washington Examiner have shown such extreme charges are unsubstantiated.