In an interview with The Georgia Star News on Friday, State Rep. David Clark (R-Buford), alleged that Georgia Speaker of the House David Ralston (R-Blue Ridge) has no intention to follow through on a promise he made to President Trump in a phone call earlier this month.
Clark alleged that in that phone conversation, Ralston promised President Trump he would use his power and influence to convene a special session of the Georgia General Assembly, for the purpose of reviewing the qualifications of Electors in the aftermath of the November 3rd election, fraught with allegations of voter fraud.
Clark further alleged Speaker Ralston lied to the president, telling him that he would collect enough signatures to convene a special session.
“But Ralston lied to Trump. He is always playing games. That is who he is. If you had 15 minutes with him he’ll say whatever you want him to say,” Clark said.
“I guarantee if he said ‘Okay, 91 state representatives [please] step up it’s on the line’ then they would do it. We would be in session tomorrow morning.”
Speaker Ralston and President Trump apparently spoke in a 15 minute phone call on December 7th.
In a December 8th interview with Brian K. Pritchard on Fetch Your News TV, Speaker Ralston said that he spoke with the president the previous day.
“Obviously, he [Trump] would like a special session of the Georgia General Assembly. He was clear on that. I shared with him my belief that based on the understanding I have of Georgia law that that was going to very much be an uphill battle,” Ralston said.
But Ralston also said that he would “absolutely” have a special session if there was a Constitutional way to do it.
[Watch the full interview and read the full transcript here.]
In that interview, Ralston went on to say that there are two ways that members of the Georgia General Assembly could have a special session.
“One is if the governor issues a call. I don’t think that’s going to happen,” Ralston said, giving no indication that he would attempt to persuade Gov. Kemp to hold a special session.
“The other way is if three-fifths of each chamber, the Senate and the House, petition for a call. The problem with that is that we appear to be at least two votes short in the House. I’m not sure what the count is in the Senate,” Ralston told Pritchard.
Article 5, Section 3, Paragraph 7 of the Georgia Constitution states that a special session of the Georgia General Assembly may be called either by the Governor or by a three-fifths majority of the members of each state house.
Governor Brian Kemp, a Republican, has refused to call a special session.
The Georgia State Senate has a total of 56 members, 35 of which are Republicans. The required three-fifths majority needed in the State Senate to join with the House Republicans to force the special session is 34.
The Georgia House of Representatives has a total of 180 members, 105 of which are Republicans. The required three-fifths majority in the House to force the special session is 108.
The Georgia Constitution states that “no laws shall be enacted at any such special session except those which relate to the purposes stated in the proclamation or in any amendment thereto.”
But more than two dozen state legislators believe that the Georgia Constitution requirement of the three-fifths majority of each house to call a special session is superseded by Article 2, Section 1, Clause 2 of the U.S. Constitution, which they say authorizes the Georgia General Assembly to convene a special session solely for the purpose of reviewing the qualifications of Electors with a simple majority of 50 percent-plus-1.
That clause says the following:
Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector.
The legislators who have prepared a petition argue that it authorizes each state to appoint Electors in such manner as the legislature — and not the governor — may direct. Essentially, legislators could appoint Electors in a self-convening special session called by 50 percent of the members in each chamber of the Georgia General Assembly plus one. That equals 91 State House members and 29 State Senate members.
The Chairman’s report of the Election Law Study Committee of the Standing Georgia State Senate Judiciary Committee Summary of Testimony from its December 3, 2020 hearing concluded:
For Rectifying the 2020 General Election Results The Legislature should carefully consider its obligations under the U.S. Constitution. If a majority of the General Assembly concurs with the findings of this report, the certification of the Election should be rescinded and the General Assembly should act to determine the proper Electors to be certified to the Electoral College in the 2020 presidential race. Since time is of the essence, the Chairman and Senators who concur with this report recommend that the leadership of the General Assembly and the Governor immediately convene to allow further consideration by the entire General Assembly.
Despite the vigorous support of many state lawmakers, this petition for a special session remains far short of the number needed – in either interpretation of what that number is – to convene a special session.
“We could not get but 30 house members and about a dozen senators to sign [a petition for the session],” State Rep. Jeff Jones (R-Brunswick) told The Star News.
Jones added that the November 2020 presidential election in Georgia was not a secure one.
Clark said resolving this problem through a special session depends on Ralston.
“If you put the pressure on the Speaker then he will call a special session,” Clark said.
“He has the power.”
When asked what Georgians who want a special session of the Georgia General Assembly should do, Clark said to contact Speaker Ralston.
“I would put out every bit of pressure. Call the Speaker and demand that he call for a special session himself. Call his office. Kemp has shown he will not budge, but I think if Ralston comes on board that would be the avenue for him,” Clark said.
“Also, his district is in Blue Ridge. It’s very conservative. That is where you need to put the heat. If anyone would budge then the Speaker would. He is in a very red district.”
Clark blamed Speaker Ralston’s lack of support of this petition as the reason it has not yet secured a sufficient number of signatures to call a special session.
Jones said that Ralston is the most powerful politician in Georgia, even more so than Kemp, and can influence how House members vote.
“Ralston will talk to President Trump and then he’ll get off the phone and tell members not to sign it [a petition calling for a special session] and then it never comes out,” Clark told The Star News; adding, “There are only 30 of us to date who have taken a stand for Trump and for a special session, and it just shows you who he [Ralston] is.”
Jones said, “The reality is that legislation does not move through the House of Representatives or the General Assembly that Ralston does not bless. And that includes the state’s budget. Even though the governor is charged with submitting a budget for which the House then evaluates and the Senate evaluates. If Speaker Ralston does not want the budget to move or wants items stricken from that budget, then he has the power to make that happen.”
“The legislation that we see move through the House is based upon Ralston’s personal legislative agenda. Not necessarily the legislative agenda of the elected members or of the people of Georgia. He can block anything he wants to, including the budget or any measures. He just kills them in committee.”
Jones went on to say that he “cannot rationally explain why Ralston [a Republican] will not respond to people of state and call a special session.”
“It makes no sense,” Jones said.
The Star News contacted Speaker Ralston and his top staff members on Friday to provide their side of the story, but they did not return our repeated requests for comment Friday or Saturday.
But three of Ralston’s political allies did contact The Star News on Saturday to defend Ralston.
State Rep. Jason Ridley (R-Chatsworth) told The Star News both State Rep. Clark and State Rep. Jones “are just trying to stir crap like always and that is their M.O.”
“It is to always look like they are trying to do something when they weren’t doing anything,” Ridley said Saturday.
Clark recently ran for the speaker position against Ralston — and lost.
Jones, meanwhile, described Ralston as someone who “exercises his authority over the Republican members of the Georgia General Assembly with an iron fist.”
“Ralston does so threatening the loss of committee chairmanships and other perks. The bottom line is a lot of the Republican House members are more interested in the brass ring than they are in doing the right thing for the citizens of the state of Georgia,” Jones said.
“Ralston and Lieutenant Governor [Geoff] Duncan attempted to and successfully intimidated both senators and representatives and said that they shall not and should not participate in the effort that we undertook to call a special session under the plenary powers of the U.S. Constitution. They said you will lose your positions of power if you don’t acquiesce to my wishes.”
State Rep. Jones has served in the Georgia General Assembly for six years. His biography on the Georgia General Assembly’s website describes him as a small businessman with prior corporate experience.
State Rep. Clark, a businessman and combat veteran who served in Afghanistan, took office in January 2015, according to Ballotpedia.
Speaker Ralston, according to the Georgia General Assembly’s website, has served as speaker since 2010. Voters in Fannin, Gilmore, and Dawson counties elected him to the Georgia House for the first time in 2002.
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star and the Star News Network. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
Background Photo “Georgia Capital” by andre m. CC BY-SA 3.0.
Looks like a weak speaker to me!
The only power any politician “leader” has over overs is that which the others give him. If enough members of the GA legislature really feel that the election needs to be remedied by a special session, then go for it. Pick someone among the Members who has the intestinal fortitude and in the next session vote him into the Speakership, but for now just get the special session opened and send a selected slate of elector votes to Congress and let Your Congressional representatives and Senators pick up the fight there.
Name names…who are the 30 patriots? We will do the rest.
Yes, name the names. How do we get this list?
[…] an interview with The Georgia Star News on Friday, State Representative David Clark (R-Buford) alleged that Georgia Speaker of the House […]
The constitution gives legislatures plenary power. Requiring a governor to initiate is a separation of powers issue.
Georgians, you do realize that the second most important election this year is being stolen right out from under your eyes, just like the most important election this year was. No changes to how the election is being run, fired all the whistleblowers, and it’s FAR EASIER to steal an election when only two people are on the ballot! WAKE UP!!!
All of these top politicians are being blackmailed by China, Ralston, too. He doesn’t want his flings being leaked by the Chinese.
It is Monday Morning, December 8th, 1941… and this puffy faced marshmallow wants to sue for peace with the Japanese. He and his cahootin’ ilk are forcing the President to enter a radical departure from his normal Mr Niceguy. The sooner August 6th and 9th, 1945 enter political history, the better.
Right on! Ralston better help to call a special session NOW if he wants to avoid a scandal (and losing his office).
Obviously some one needs a swat up side the head with a Lester Maddox persuader
[…] State Rep. Alleges Georgia House Speaker David Ralston 'Lied to Trump' About Following Through on Efforts to Convene a Special Session […]
Send the LIAR packing ! 10 Years for the speaker to show his true colors! See ya at the polls !
The Truth Will Set You Free!
So how can we the people of Georgia help get this session? What do you need from us? We are with you and Ralston will be the one who looses his position.
Call and email Ralston’s office to force him to get a special session done — he has the influence if he wants to make it happen. Let everyone you know in his part of Georgia (7th district) that he is the person blocking a special session on the Nov. 3 election.
Writing and e-mailing wont work you must be more direct go to his home and protest till he succumbs to our demands
Tell every Patriot you know in GA to email this man, and promise him political pain if he does not make a special session happen. Tell him you will max out contributions to the person running against him in the next primary, and will volunteer for that person’s campaign. Because if he can’t follow through on this, he WILL be primaried.
So, in other words, Ralston is a lying scumbag rejecting truth and honesty. Sounds about right as per the RINO creed — screw the People, line my pockets, ignore the fundamental principles of America!
Georgia has had an identity crisis since the 1964 DNC Convention. The Southern Blue Dog Democrats use to be America First, Marshal Plan, anti communist, war and budget hawks! At a point not too long ago, Georgia hosted more military bases then any other state in the union. But when Johnson shoved the Great society down their throats and after Senator Sam Nunn retired, the Georgia Democrat party was handed over to the Carter, Mondale, Humphreys socialist progressives of the party; so then Blue Dogs joined (took over) the Georgia Republican Party, creating a vacuum in the GA democrat party, by their departure, which was filled by the communist, big government, plantation state, central planning, race baiting, winners and loser picking minorities.
These Georgia Republican “RINOs” were/are not really Republicans, they are and always been Blue Dog Democrats with no real loyalty to the National Republican,; in truth, the Lincoln/Sherman/Grant Republicans were and are their enemy. They aren’t racist; on the contrary, they left the democrat party because democrats wished to exploit racism. They aren’t America First, they are Georgia First and like the 1860 resent being told they have to trade with the Yankees and aren’t allowed to play in the global market place like the corporate overlords do.
They like the threat of war because it keeps what is left if the post BRAC military in Georgia keep ticking… They like the cheap illegal farm labor planting their seedling and harvesting their melons. They love their federal farm subsidies, Crop Reduction Program and Land Conservation Grants and payments because they are the deep south land owners…. They like the big plantation government keeping the minorities in the cities like Atlanta and out of their back yard; so long as they can draw the district lines. They hate Yankees and why they don’t like New York Trump and love Texas Ted Cruz, but most of all, they love their power and being players in the RNC! They disliked Balance budget free market no subsidies Newt and flat tax Fair Tax John Linder; so much so, they redrew there districts, causing one to be firmly democrat held rather than allow freedom and free markets to reign! Why they sold their souls to big government spender Romney. Then they tried to steal Trump delegates in 2016 and flip them to Cruz and have been stabbing Trump in the back ever since; even after he appoint Sonny Perdue to his cabinet and Kemp thumbed his nose at Trump with his Loeffler appointment to the Senate.
Their problem is now, more then 90% of the Republican Party are Trump populous and Trump is drawing 20-30% of the forgotten Democrat Party, 10-15% of the betrayed minorities and half of the independents. The “New Trump” Republican party now is bigger then either the Republicans or the Democrats in Georgia, with rising stars like Democrat Vernon Jones, who will be Governor in 2022 if Doug Collins is too busy in a Trump Administration!
The Georgia Republicans and Democrats better hope Trump wins, because if he doesn’t, over the next four years there will be a giant sucking sound as he pulls together a third party to crush the establishment bureaucracy!
Great analysis. This makes a lot of sense.
ED knows Georgia! You said it all and we can sit and weep or get up and fight the black souls of politicians in Georgia. The south misleads with the drawl, making everyone believe they are slow-minded. Evil reigns in Georgia, and no slowing down either.
RALSTON is OVER, DOOMED, FINISHED – A VERY BAD MIGRAINE SOON TO BE OVER!
Here is our polite demand. RALSTON RESIGN NOW – we mean NOW! Get the heck back to your conservative part of Georgia before you are sent with a bright red Traitor sticker on your bum. You have NOT represented one person in your district fairly. You think your strong arm tactics still work? NO YOU ARE DONE BIG MAN!
1. Do not every LIE – especially to the President of the United States.
2. Do not dare to tell any other elected official how to vote or what to do.
3. Do not ever threaten anyone for voting their conscience & for their citizens.
4. We – WTP do not take kindly to your kind of politics. You smug, low-moral, zero character loser of a man, GET OUT of our Capitol – you do not belong any longer.
5. This was NEVER A GAME! We will investigate every one of your bills, all your expenses & donations from day one. You better hope that those you did wrong, those you stole from & those who are injured from your ways will have a bit of mercy on you. GO HOME NOW!
Awesome response! As a non-GA Southerner, this is very interesting to me. People outside of the South don’t really understand the remnants of the horror of Reconstruction in the hearts of the people, and how to this day, it colors everything.
GA is a great state, and deserves better 4han these prostitutes. Same with AZ. And we need a new party, a Trumpist Party. I say this as a CA Central Committee member, organizer extraordinaire, loyal 53-year Republican. Completely disgusted with my party.
Where is Doug Collins? He could make a lot of noise at the Washington hearings – but not now when we need it?
Thanks. Never seen it laid out so completely and accurately.
Ralston and his cronies are so full of hubris, you can smell em here in South Georgia, and my ‘rep’ is one of his suck ups.
The Republican party in this state is toast, they just don’t know it yet.
Disgusting Copperheads.