Daily Beast: “According to a former senior administration official and another source close to the former president, Trump was repeatedly briefed in the White House on the deluge of death threats directed at Georgia’s Republican officials. The 45th U.S. president’s reactions were – predictably – lacking in empathy. ‘There was this one time I heard [Trump] suggest they might be exaggerating the kind of threats they were getting. But more often, he’d make fun of them and say they were bad people who were getting what they deserved,’ the ex-official recalled. The person close to Trump said that when the then-president was told about the flood of vulgar or violent threats against officials not cooperating with his anti-democratic efforts, Trump would sometimes remark that if they wanted the threats to stop, all they had to do was what Trump kept demanding of them. The then-president would also praise those issuing threats – ‘my people’ – for harassing and pushing Georgia GOP officials to overturn the state’s legitimate election results in Trump’s favor, this source said, citing firsthand experience.”

“Due to Trump’s continued popularity among GOP voters, many prominent conservatives who privately blame Trump for the loss of the crucial Senate runoffs in Georgia are publicly keeping their mouths shut about the former president’s ongoing crusade against Kemp, Raffensperger, and others. And others are openly supporting Trump’s charge to purge the GOP of the supposed backstabbers and squishes. ‘One of the lessons of Jan. 5th is that a divided party loses,’ Kingston said, referring to the Georgia Senate run-off election. ‘We do not need to go into the gubernatorial or a Senate race with a divided party.’ Although Raffensperger’s top lieutenants have tried to put the Trump fiasco behind them, several of them are still careful to avoid speaking publicly about the ordeal, citing a fear that it will once again incite violent Trump loyalists. One source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the FBI waited until August to follow up on the death threats and recently asked staff there to resend copies of threatening emails.”