Misdemeanant Capitol rioter Chuck Hand, husband of former Taylor County, Georgia GOP Chair Mandy Robinson-Hand, who along with his wife did 20 days in jail and paid $500 in restitution after they both pleaded guilty to a parading charge for entering the Capitol during the January 6th, 2021 insurrection and is now running in a primary to take on incumbent Dem Congressman Sanford Bishop, walked out of a televised debate Sunday before it even really started, the AP reports.
Now in a two-way runoff after neither received more than 50 percent of the vote on primary day, Hand accused rival Wayne Johnson of some sort of fuckery over third-placer Mike Nixon’s endorsement of Johnson at a press conference last month, saying “This is where I get back in my truck and go back to southwest Georgia because I’ve got two races to win” as he fucked off.
Johnson then told reporters he “would like to assume that Chuck Hand’s departure, the way in which he did it today, was his withdrawal from the race. But it certainly should cause people to pause and think about why he did it and what he was trying to get by doing it.” Nixon’s presser focused on Hand’s prior criminal trouble such as dismissed charges for DUI and trespass, as well as wife Mindy’s oxycodone selling rap. And of course, the insurrection guilty plea, hinting Hand was a bigger deal in it than his misdemeanor convictions and slap on the wrist sentence had let on.
Not sure how that’s supposed to be a liability to GOP primary voters, but given that Bishop’s been in the seat since 1993 it might help just a little bit to have a “moderate” run in the general.