motherjones--2020-10-20--“It’s Going to Be Hell”: How Pennsylvania Is on Track for Election Chaos

With a record of nearly 30 million Americans already having cast votes as of Monday morning , the 2020 election is well underway—and problems are already popping up in key swing states .
Perhaps nowhere worries experts more than Pennsylvania .
As a perennial presidential battleground , its 20 electoral college votes—decided by just 44,292 votes in 2016—always attract the spotlight .
But this year , the state is grappling with a number of unprecedented conditions and challenges that could complicate the smooth administration of November ’ s election , including a recent overhaul of state election law predating the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ voting prompted by the coronavirus , and a growing sense that President Donald Trump ’ s campaign and supporters will ignore democratic norms to ensure victory in a state that he must win .
It ’ s a brew that in a close election could send the state in the direction of high stakes , drawn out , and hard fought post-election challenges that could determine the fate of the nation .
“ If the election comes down to electoral college votes in Pennsylvania , I think it ’ s going to be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a UCLA law professor and expert on election administration and voting rights .
“ That ’ s one of the worst possible outcomes.
” For Hasen , the state ’ s inexperience with mail ballots is a key concern .
In 2019 , Pennsylvania ’ s Republican controlled legislature passed a bill with largely bipartisan support that allowed voters , as part of a growing national trend , to cast ballots by mail under any circumstance .
This fall ’ s general election would have been the first conducted under the new rules @ @ @ @ @ @ @ would push an unforeseeable number of the state ’ s 8.8 million voters to opt for mail balloting .
The flood could swamp little-tested mailing , handling , and processing procedures .
Already , issues are flaring up : On October 14 , election officials in Allegheny County , home to Pittsburgh , announced that nearly 29,000 ballots went to voters with the wrong contests , a mistake noticed by attentive voters .
Officials intervened to prevent another 19,000 faulty ballots from being sent , and have pledged to re-issue correct ballots .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ a state law that bans substantial processing of mail ballots until Election Day .
The provision is almost certain to result in a delay between the release of results collected at in-person polling places and those that came by mail ballots , hindering the quick designation of a clear winner .
Trump supporters have outlined plans to exploit the delay .
Last week , the Associated Press reported that Trump allies think “ their best bet ” at holding the White House is to “ hope results look close on election night , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ counted , allowing Trump to declare victory and have the results thrown to the courts.
” Pennsylvania ’ s Democratic secretary of state , Kathy Boockvar , told reporters at a press conference last week that she thought there was “ still…hope for a legislative deal that would allow counties to do more pre-processing of mail ballots , but that absent one , local officials are prepared to do their best to get a quick count .
By Monday , the legislature ’ s Republicans , who had put forth a package that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pre-processing while banning all drop boxes , said any chance of a legislative deal was dead .
During the press event , Boockvar rebuffed the broader idea that Pennsylvania is the year ’ s most worrisome swing state , citing longstanding work by her staff and others to safeguard voting .
She added that her office is also working to “ expand preparedness for on-the-ground issues , ” such as voter intimidation .
“ We look at election security across the board in every realm , ” she said , “ and I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that we work with at the federal , state , and local level to make sure that every voter in Pennsylvania can have tremendous confidence that their vote will be counted securely and safely , and counted accurately.
” It ’ s Boockvar ’ s job to make sure that happens , and as part of the effort , her office has been involved in several federal and lawsuits pushing for interpretations of election rules that would make voting easier .
While Pennsylvania Republicans have failed to convince judges overseeing the election to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to discard ballots over disputed signatures , they did win a portion of a state supreme court case upholding a requirement that ballots must be returned inside two envelopes .
Last month , Lisa Deeley , Philadelphia ’ s top election official and a Democrat , wrote the legislature ’ s Republican leaders asking them to end the rule , saying it could lead to up to 100,000 rejected ballots while providing no substantial privacy benefit .
Deeley ’ s letter warned the rule puts the state on course to be “ the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the likes of which we have not seen since Florida 2000.
” The same state supreme court ruling will allow local officials to count ballots that arrive up to three days after the election , in some cases even if they lack a postmark .
While that will benefit voters who mail ballots close to the election or whose ballots encounter postal delays , it will push back finalization of results , and potentially create time-consuming debates over late-arriving , unpostmarked ballots .
The state ’ s Republican legislative leadership asked the US @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the ruling , and on Monday the court split 4-4 on the question , a tie that leaves the state supreme court ’ s greater allowance for late-arriving ballots in place .
Mike Straub , communications director for the Republican House majority , insisted that even though the body has failed to pass a bill expanding ballot pre-processing , GOP lawmakers “ share concerns over the election , and ensuring accurate and secure results in a timely manner.
” He assailed the state ’ s supreme court ruling as an “ openly partisan @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Pennsylvania in the middle of a disastrous national crisis as the world awaits the Commonwealth to tally election results days or weeks after Election Day.
” While observers expect misinformation about voting and results to run rampant in any time between polls closing and results being certified , Pennsylvania has already become an epicenter of White House-fueled disinformation on mail ballots and election integrity .
In September , the Justice Department issued an unusual press release on an investigation into how one Republican-controlled Pennsylvania county threw away nine mail ballots .
The release @ @ @ @ @ @ @ votes for Trump , prompting a flood of messaging attacking the absentee ballot process from the president , his attorney general , and campaign allies .
( A county official later said the incident had been an inadvertent mistake by a temp worker . )
The drumbeat continued during the September 29 presidential debate , when Trump alleged that “ bad things happen in Philadelphia , ” falsely claiming that Republican poll watchers had been barred from a satellite early voting office .
Chris Deluzio , a voting rights expert at the University @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Law , Policy , and Security , said conditions in the state , combined with Trump ’ s attacks on the integrity of voting by mail , suggest that the pitched battles the state has already seen could stretch beyond the election .
“ When I think about the rhetoric coming out of the White House , and the things Donald Trump is saying about delayed results , I think it sets up Pennsylvania to be an obvious place for campaigns and candidates to fight , ” he said .
Deluzio says an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ people who go to polling places in most of the state ’ s 67 counties will use equipment acquired since the last major election .
“ Many voters have not used these new machines , ” he said , which could potentially cause lines on Election Day .
Meanwhile , Trump has called upon his supporters “ to go into the polls and watch very carefully ” for signs of fraud .
Deluzio worries such instructions could lead to indiscriminate challenges from GOP poll watchers that could “ gum up the works ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to participate , slowing voting in Democrat-heavy urban centers like Philadelphia and Pittsburgh .
He ’ s also concerned armed supporters of the president could show up outside polls and intimidate voters .
“ The risks are real , ” he warned .
“ It merits folks paying extra special attention to what ’ s happening here.
” Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro , a Democrat , told Mother Jones that his office is active across several areas to address voter concerns .
“ When every eligible ballot is counted , the voice @ @ @ @ @ @ @ threats , attacks , lawsuits , and disinformation directed at the Commonwealth , ” Shapiro said in a statement .
“ My office and the PA Dept .
of State are working hard to bring an end to the distracting litigation , educate voters on how to properly cast their ballot , and stop the misinformation that improperly undermines faith in our election.
” He added that his office is “ working closely with law enforcement colleagues at the local , state and federal levels to prevent fraud , intimidation , and interference @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s voting process.
” A proposal from Republicans in the legislature would have stood up a GOP-controlled commission with investigatory powers to review the 2020 election and file legal claims , potentially even while voting was still taking place .
The broad language in the resolution creating the commission had an eerie echo to the explosive reporting from The Atlantic ‘ s Barton Gellman , who spoke with senior Pennsylvania Republicans who said they were weighing ways to “ bypass ” election results and have the legislature select Trump-friendly electors if they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
A scenario like that , Hasen said , “ would inspire national rioting.
” While the commission seemed ready-made to help provide Pennsylvania Republicans with claims of election malfeasance , after stiff opposition from Democrats and even some fellow Republican members of the legislature , the proposal was withdrawn from the legislative calendar earlier this month—suggesting that as messy as things get , there could be a limit to how far Pennsylvania Republicans can or will go to protect the reign of an unpopular present .

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With a record of nearly 30 million Americans already having cast votes as of Monday morning, the 2020 election is well underway—and problems are already popping up in key swing states.
Philadelphia’s top election official has warned of “post-election legal controversy, the likes of which we have not seen since Florida 2000.”
Perhaps nowhere worries experts more than Pennsylvania. As a perennial presidential battleground, its 20 electoral college votes—decided by just 44,292 votes in 2016—always attract the spotlight. But this year, the state is grappling with a number of unprecedented conditions and challenges that could complicate the smooth administration of November’s election, including a recent overhaul of state election law predating the pandemic, continuing fights over changes to voting prompted by the coronavirus, and a growing sense that President Donald Trump’s campaign and supporters will ignore democratic norms to ensure victory in a state that he must win. It’s a brew that in a close election could send the state in the direction of high stakes, drawn out, and hard fought post-election challenges that could determine the fate of the nation.
“If the election comes down to electoral college votes in Pennsylvania, I think it’s going to be hell,” says Rick Hasen, a UC Irvine law professor and expert on election administration and voting rights.* “That’s one of the worst possible outcomes.”
For Hasen, the state’s inexperience with mail ballots is a key concern. In 2019, Pennsylvania’s Republican controlled legislature passed a bill with largely bipartisan support that allowed voters, as part of a growing national trend, to cast ballots by mail under any circumstance. This fall’s general election would have been the first conducted under the new rules, but no one expected a pandemic would push an unforeseeable number of the state’s 8.8 million voters to opt for mail balloting. The flood could swamp little-tested mailing, handling, and processing procedures. Already, issues are flaring up: On October 14, election officials in Allegheny County, home to Pittsburgh, announced that nearly 29,000 ballots went to voters with the wrong contests, a mistake noticed by attentive voters. Officials intervened to prevent another 19,000 faulty ballots from being sent, and have pledged to re-issue correct ballots.
Adding to Hasen’s worries is a state law that bans substantial processing of mail ballots until Election Day. The provision is almost certain to result in a delay between the release of results collected at in-person polling places and those that came by mail ballots, hindering the quick designation of a clear winner. Trump supporters have outlined plans to exploit the delay. Last week, the Associated Press reported that Trump allies think “their best bet” at holding the White House is to “hope results look close on election night, before some of the mail-in ballots are counted, allowing Trump to declare victory and have the results thrown to the courts.”
“If the election comes down to electoral college votes in Pennsylvania, I think it’s going to be hell.”
Pennsylvania’s Democratic secretary of state, Kathy Boockvar, told reporters at a press conference last week that she thought there was “still…hope for a legislative deal that would allow counties to do more pre-processing of mail ballots, but that absent one, local officials are prepared to do their best to get a quick count. By Monday, the legislature’s Republicans, who had put forth a package that would have allowed just three days of pre-processing while banning all drop boxes, said any chance of a legislative deal was dead.
During the press event, Boockvar rebuffed the broader idea that Pennsylvania is the year’s most worrisome swing state, citing longstanding work by her staff and others to safeguard voting. She added that her office is also working to “expand preparedness for on-the-ground issues,” such as voter intimidation.
“We look at election security across the board in every realm,” she said, “and I’m so proud of the partners that we work with at the federal, state, and local level to make sure that every voter in Pennsylvania can have tremendous confidence that their vote will be counted securely and safely, and counted accurately.”
It’s Boockvar’s job to make sure that happens, and as part of the effort, her office has been involved in several federal and lawsuits pushing for interpretations of election rules that would make voting easier. While Pennsylvania Republicans have failed to convince judges overseeing the election to limit drop boxes or make it easier to discard ballots over disputed signatures, they did win a portion of a state supreme court case upholding a requirement that ballots must be returned inside two envelopes. Last month, Lisa Deeley, Philadelphia’s top election official and a Democrat, wrote the legislature’s Republican leaders asking them to end the rule, saying it could lead to up to 100,000 rejected ballots while providing no substantial privacy benefit. Deeley’s letter warned the rule puts the state on course to be “the subject of significant post-election legal controversy, the likes of which we have not seen since Florida 2000.”
The same state supreme court ruling will allow local officials to count ballots that arrive up to three days after the election, in some cases even if they lack a postmark. While that will benefit voters who mail ballots close to the election or whose ballots encounter postal delays, it will push back finalization of results, and potentially create time-consuming debates over late-arriving, unpostmarked ballots. The state’s Republican legislative leadership asked the US Supreme Court to reverse that aspect of the ruling, and on Monday the court split 4-4 on the question, a tie that leaves the state supreme court’s greater allowance for late-arriving ballots in place.
Mike Straub, communications director for the Republican House majority, insisted that even though the body has failed to pass a bill expanding ballot pre-processing, GOP lawmakers “share concerns over the election, and ensuring accurate and secure results in a timely manner.” He assailed the state’s supreme court ruling as an “openly partisan decision” that “will potentially put Pennsylvania in the middle of a disastrous national crisis as the world awaits the Commonwealth to tally election results days or weeks after Election Day.”
A GOP spokesman said judicial rulings had set up “a disastrous national crisis as the world awaits the Commonwealth to tally election results.”
While observers expect misinformation about voting and results to run rampant in any time between polls closing and results being certified, Pennsylvania has already become an epicenter of White House-fueled disinformation on mail ballots and election integrity. In September, the Justice Department issued an unusual press release on an investigation into how one Republican-controlled Pennsylvania county threw away nine mail ballots. The release disclosed that some of the ballots contained votes for Trump, prompting a flood of messaging attacking the absentee ballot process from the president, his attorney general, and campaign allies. (A county official later said the incident had been an inadvertent mistake by a temp worker.) The drumbeat continued during the September 29 presidential debate, when Trump alleged that “bad things happen in Philadelphia,” falsely claiming that Republican poll watchers had been barred from a satellite early voting office.
Chris Deluzio, a voting rights expert at the University of Pittsburgh’s Institute for Cyber Law, Policy, and Security, said conditions in the state, combined with Trump’s attacks on the integrity of voting by mail, suggest that the pitched battles the state has already seen could stretch beyond the election.
“When I think about the rhetoric coming out of the White House, and the things Donald Trump is saying about delayed results, I think it sets up Pennsylvania to be an obvious place for campaigns and candidates to fight,” he said.
Deluzio says an additional wrinkle facing the state is that people who go to polling places in most of the state’s 67 counties will use equipment acquired since the last major election. “Many voters have not used these new machines,” he said, which could potentially cause lines on Election Day. Meanwhile, Trump has called upon his supporters “to go into the polls and watch very carefully” for signs of fraud. Deluzio worries such instructions could lead to indiscriminate challenges from GOP poll watchers that could “gum up the works” by contesting legitimate in-person voters’ ability to participate, slowing voting in Democrat-heavy urban centers like Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. He’s also concerned armed supporters of the president could show up outside polls and intimidate voters. “The risks are real,” he warned. “It merits folks paying extra special attention to what’s happening here.”
“Many voters have not used these new machines…the risks are real.”
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, told Mother Jones that his office is active across several areas to address voter concerns.
“When every eligible ballot is counted, the voice of Pennsylvania voters will drown out the threats, attacks, lawsuits, and disinformation directed at the Commonwealth,” Shapiro said in a statement. “My office and the PA Dept. of State are working hard to bring an end to the distracting litigation, educate voters on how to properly cast their ballot, and stop the misinformation that improperly undermines faith in our election.” He added that his office is “working closely with law enforcement colleagues at the local, state and federal levels to prevent fraud, intimidation, and interference so everyone can have confidence in Pennsylvania’s voting process.”
A proposal from Republicans in the legislature would have stood up a GOP-controlled commission with investigatory powers to review the 2020 election and file legal claims, potentially even while voting was still taking place. The broad language in the resolution creating the commission had an eerie echo to the explosive reporting from The Atlantic‘s Barton Gellman, who spoke with senior Pennsylvania Republicans who said they were weighing ways to “bypass” election results and have the legislature select Trump-friendly electors if they could point to problems with the election. A scenario like that, Hasen said, “would inspire national rioting.”
While the commission seemed ready-made to help provide Pennsylvania Republicans with claims of election malfeasance, after stiff opposition from Democrats and even some fellow Republican members of the legislature, the proposal was withdrawn from the legislative calendar earlier this month—suggesting that as messy as things get, there could be a limit to how far Pennsylvania Republicans can or will go to protect the reign of an unpopular president.
Correction: This article originally misstated Rick Hasen’s professional affiliation.


motherjones--2020-10-21--How the Most Toxic, Notorious Pro-Trump Online Community Tricked Reddit and Got Back Online

By the time Reddit banned r/The_Donald in June , the community had become one of the most notorious in the platform ’ s history .
The pro-Trump message board , home to a noxious group of his supporters , wasn ’ t necessarily the most toxic community on a site that , at points , has hosted subreddits for white nationalist groups and sharing suggestive photos of children .
But , of the site ’ s toxic communities , it arguably had the most reach and impact .
Over the last several years , hundreds of thousands of posts by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the web ’ s information environment , as they ’ ve pumped out scores of Pro-Trump memes each week that sometimes made their way into the social media feeds of Donald Trump Jr. and the president himself , contributing to a flood of seemingly grassroots content boosting his political efforts .
In 2016 , a “ war room ” at the campaign ’ s Trump Tower headquarters monitored the subreddit for memes worth elevating ; Brad Parscale , Trump ’ s former campaign manager , once wrote that he checked the message board @ @ @ @ @ @ @ moderation policies publicly wondered for years why r/The_Donald hadn ’ t been banned , despite consistently breaking the company ’ s rules on racism , bigotry and spreading disinformation .
In June , after its track record of had already earned it a long period in quarantine—Reddit ’ s term for a state of restricted access imposed on problematic communities—the site banned it completely .
But by the time that happened , members had already decamped months earlier for a homemade forum designed to mimic Reddit called TheDonald.win , which had been in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , as well as to servers hosted by Discord , an internet chat service .
Even though their subreddit has been banned from Reddit for over four months , The_Donald ’ s former members continue to wreak havoc on the site .
Mother Jones has gained access to two servers hosted by Discord where former members of the banned subreddit gather , including a private server that requires members to be vetted .
Chat messages posted there show how former members of The_Donald have found new homes on Reddit and continue to coordinate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ vitriol and disinformation on the site and in other venues , despite the company ’ s ban .
With over 3,000 members “ The_Donald Est .
2017 ” , which was listed as r/The_Donald ’ s official Discord before the subreddit was taken down , is the smaller of the two Discord servers .
Unlike a separate “ The Donald ” Discord server , which is partially open to all and has over 21,000 members , The_Donald Est .
2017 server claims to tightly vet its members , restricting users that have not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ where they can not post .
Before r/The_Donald was banned , admittance to the subreddit ’ s official Discord required two months of posting history in the subreddit .
Nowadays , the requirements listed in its “ extreme_vetting ” channel , where new applicants to the Discord are investigated , specify having a history of “ pro-MAGA tweeting/retweeting.
” The moderators of this private Discord channel appear to be former moderators of r/The_Donald subreddit , based on their own claims and an analysis of their social media accounts .
They purport to be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The_Donald until they lost control of the board to another faction at some point in the past year .
Those moderators regularly use the private channel to organize its users , many of whom came directly from r/The_Donald .
While moderators have encouraged members to flout Reddit ’ s ban and join subreddits including r/trumpteam and r/donald_trump , they most frequently push r/donaldtrump as the group ’ s new subreddit .
Members use the Discord to disseminate memes , boost pro-Trump posts on Reddit and other social media platforms , go after their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ Shortly after this mod team was removed from r/The_Donald , we began a journey of making sure that we did our best to serve President Trump and help him get reelected , ” one moderator wrote on the Discord ’ s announcement ’ s channel , explaining that they had “ [ f ] ound a way to reach new voters on Reddit with https : //www.reddit.com/r/donaldtrump ” and claiming that a former r/The_Donald moderator had helped establish that new subreddit .
In another early announcement in the chat , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ partnering with r/DonaldTrump exclusively on Reddit ” and boasted of the group ’ s close relationship with the subreddit .
“ [ W ] e have all of the mods that are there in here and it is IMPORTANT to expand the base for Trump , ” the moderator explained , outlining a hope that the new forum could reprise their banned subreddit ’ s role in reaching new supporters .
“ The real success of r/The_Donald was how fast and how many normies it reached and you win elections not by just @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it.
” Users of the original r/The_Donald were extremely effective at gaming Reddit ’ s algorithms to get its content on to the company ’ s algorithmically aggregated frontpage .
That prominence helped the subreddit expand its base and expose more people to bigotry and disinformation .
Robert Peck in Wired outlined how moderators of r/The_Donald harnessed the site ’ s “ sticky ” feature , intended to pin informational or welcome posts to the top of a subreddit , to harness upvotes from the subreddit and boost its content .
With r/donaldtrump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ messages , they hope to replicate the success they had bringing r/The_Donald into the mainstream .
“ We are regularly making it to r/all and r/popular rising on a frequent basis , sometimes multiple times daily , ” a moderator wrote about the new board on July 25 .
“ The chat there is up to 10k also , making it one of the largest chats on Reddit .
Keep it up !
” There ’ s nothing necessarily wrong about trying to raise the profile of a subreddit dedicated to a presidential @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that r/The_Donald engaged in to do so violate the site ’ s policies : Reddit bans vote manipulation through coordinating upvotes on posts , on or off-platform .
But r/The_Donald was punished because it became a stomping ground for noxious trolls to test out avant-garde racial slurs , justify or call for violence against groups of people based on their politics or race , and spread a never-ending stream of disinformation .
Before it was banned from Reddit , r/The_Donald put in place a notice telling members that “ No Racism/Anti-Semitism ” posts @ @ @ @ @ @ @ remove violating items .
But their efforts amounted to little—just chewing gum shoved into the crevices of a dam crumbling under a torrent of bigotry .
In 2017 , after a terrorist drove into pedestrians in London , killing five , the subreddit erupted into Islamophobic hate .
After the 2019 Christchurch , New Zealand mosque shootings and the 2017 terrorist attack on London ’ s Westminster Bridge , users again flooded the subreddit with Islamophobic posts .
When Republican members of the Oregon state legislature staged a walkout to avoid voting on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ violently threatened Democratic officials and the state police tasked with retrieving the lawmakers .
On r/donaldtrump and the The_Donald Est .
2017 private Discord channel , that hate has continued .
Posters on the subreddit have used the term “ jogger , ” a stand-in for the n-word that was born on 4chan after Ahmaud Arbery , an African-American man , was killed by white men in Georgia while exercising .
In other instances , they ’ ve shared memes about “ rooftop Koreans ” —a thinly veiled call to wield arms against @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Korean-American store owners who took to their business ’ s roofs during protests after Los Angeles police beat Rodney King in 1992 .
In other posts on r/donaldtrump , users have justified killing innocent children caught in the crossfire of America ’ s Middle Eastern military interventions , praised ICE for allegedly serving pork to Muslim detainees , posted content lauding Kyle Rittenhouse ’ s killing of protestors , called for “ ending the riots with excessive force , ” and spread baseless conspiracies about Antifa starting wildfires in Oregon .
While Reddit @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from making posts that “ incite violence or that promote hate based on identity or vulnerability , ” Sierra Gamelgaard , a Reddit spokesperson , declined to comment on the hate posts found on the subreddit or on indications the company ’ s ban was being circumvented .
Instead , she pointed to the site ’ s content policies , writing that they “ explicitly prohibit users from cheating or engaging in content manipulation , including ban evasion.
” On the closed Discord server that has promoted r/donaldtrump , members spread less guarded @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , disinformation , and incitements of violence they share on Reddit—posts that ostensibly also violate Discord ’ s terms of service .
Moderators have repeatedly pleaded with members to stop using the “ jogger ” slur , and users have created a vast library of lewd , sexist memes attacking Kamala Harris and depicting her inviting and engaging in various sex acts .
One user offered tips on how to kill protestors and get away with it , citing the case of a Nebraska bar owner who was indicted for manslaughter after shooting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ justice protestor , in Omaha in late May .
“ If you have shot someone and make the ( incorrect ) decision to fire a warning shot don ’ t admit to it being a warning shot , ” he wrote , “ because when you have time to fire warning shots and shout obscenities at the attack it isn ’ t hard to bring charges against you that indicate it wasn ’ t purely in self defense.
” Instead , he suggested to readers in such a situation that they should say @ @ @ @ @ @ @ argued the killing was justified .
The larger , open Discord hosts even more content likely in violation of Discord ’ s policies .
In September one user of the The Donald posted that “ we should shoot all BLM.
” After demonstrators rallied in the streets of Louisville following a grand jury ’ s decision to not to charge police officers in the killing of Breonna Taylor , another member suggested local law enforcement “ need to use live rounds.
” When the same user later repeated that call to violence , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ Run over BLM protestors with my Tesla , ” another joked .
Unsurprisingly , religious bigotry and overt racism targeting a range of groups are easy to find on the larger Discord server .
At beginning of September , one user posted an anti-Jewish slur , and wrote “ jew=filthy trickster.
” Others frequently post Islamophobic messages , including iterations of “ remove kebab , ” racist internet shorthand for the ethnic cleansing of Muslims .
In late September , another user joked about marrying a Muslim woman and then killing them @ @ @ @ @ @ @ out .
Others pine for the days of the anti-Muslim Crusades , a common refrain among white nationalists .
In the midst of one Islamophobic back and forth on the Discord , a user posted a GIF of what appears to be aerial footage of several men , possibly in the Middle East , being killed by an airstrike .
Unlike the private discord , the moderators of the larger The Donald Discord server don ’ t appear to have formal links to any message boards hosted back on Reddit .
However , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ users of the server and the r/donaldtrump subreddit , another indication that former members of r/The_Donald are getting around Reddit ’ s ban of their old community .
Members of the Discord make occasional references and post links to the subreddit .
Discord ’ s rules bans users who “ organize , promote , or coordinate servers around hate speech ” and say it is “ unacceptable to attack a person or a community based on attributes such as their race , ethnicity , national origin , sex , gender , sexual orientation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ They also bar making “ threats of violence or…harm ” including “ indirect threats.
” After Mother Jones asked Discord to comment on activity taking place in the two chats , the company said it took steps to remove users violating its rules .
“ Our Trust & Safety team investigated these servers , identified the bad actors / users , and subsequently took the appropriate action of banning them , ” Paul Cafiero , a company spokesperson , wrote in an email .
He said the company had “ warned the server @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not be tolerated on our service.
” Discord ’ s actions , taken late last week , appear to have had some impact .
But they could also serve as a heads up allowing the people behind the pro-Trump chat servers to plot their next move .
After receiving a warning from Discord , the moderators of the larger of the two chat servers , The Donald , responded directly by closing all of its public chat servers .
It will now only let its vetted members use its private chats “ at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ If you were banned prior to today , 16 October 2020 , you will not be unbanned prior to the election .
Contact us after November 3rd , ” a moderator posted in another channel , addressing the individual users banned after Mother Jones ’ s inquiry .
On The_Donald Est .
2017 , following a warning from Discord , moderators encouraged users to join a backup chat on a different platform , where they could reorganize in the face of any possible full Discord ban .
The fallout of Discord ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it may have been inevitable that Reddit ’ s ban on The_Donald would be so easily circumvented by the board ’ s users .
Rishab Nithyanand , a computer science professor at the University of Iowa , published a paper last year analyzing Reddit ’ s moderation practices across 3,000 subreddits .
His research found that Reddit seemed to inconsistently enforce its own rules , which allowed members of banned subreddits to simply migrate to still-operating toxic communities with similar ideologies .
Reddit ’ s decision to quarantine r/The_Donald all but ensured that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ subreddits often end up getting banned , and members of the subreddit took the step as a warning sign that r/The_Donald would eventually meet the same fate .
Accordingly , members of r/The_Donald started planning , funneling their members into other social media channels , including Discord , so that they could receive instructions on where to migrate to when the ban finally came down .
“ A sudden ban would have been much more effective to keep them from setting up a new community , ” says Jacob Silver , a senior @ @ @ @ @ @ @ consultancy Memetica .
“ They ’ re anonymous , so if they don ’ t have a community , it ’ s hard for them to coordinate.
” Silver , like Nithyanand ’ s research suggests , argues that it was only a matter of time before The_Donald would figure out how to re-manifest itself on Reddit .
“ It ’ s almost like a game to them , ” says Silver , who has been analyzing Reddit communities since 2017 .
“ They ’ re always going to be plotting in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more public-facing and subvert platforms ’ rules.
” Reddit ’ s mistake , according to Silver said , is in treating dangerous communities as one-off instances that can be banned for a quick PR boost .
Instead , he says they should focus on the comprehensive networks of users who power and frequent them .
Doing otherwise , he says , amounts to trimming weeds instead of ripping out roots .
“ If you have one side in dark corners of the internet always plotting how they can gain more influence , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the basis of notching public wins with occasional , piecemeal bans , ” Silver warns , “ one side is going to keep winning .
”

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By the time Reddit banned r/The_Donald in June, the community had become one of the most notorious in the platform’s history. The pro-Trump message board, home to a noxious group of his supporters, wasn’t necessarily the most toxic community on a site that, at points, has hosted subreddits for white nationalist groups and sharing suggestive photos of children. But, of the site’s toxic communities, it arguably had the most reach and impact.
Even though The_Donald has been banned for over four months, its former members continue to wreak havoc on Reddit.
Over the last several years, hundreds of thousands of posts by members of the group have helped shape the web’s information environment, as they’ve pumped out scores of Pro-Trump memes each week that sometimes made their way into the social media feeds of Donald Trump Jr. and the president himself, contributing to a flood of seemingly grassroots content boosting his political efforts. In 2016, a “war room” at the campaign’s Trump Tower headquarters monitored the subreddit for memes worth elevating; Brad Parscale, Trump’s former campaign manager, once wrote that he checked the message board daily.
Critics of Reddit’s moderation policies publicly wondered for years why r/The_Donald hadn’t been banned, despite consistently breaking the company’s rules on racism, bigotry, and the spread of disinformation. In June, after its track record had already earned it a long period in quarantine—Reddit’s term for a state of restricted access imposed on problematic communities—the site banned it completely. But by the time that happened, members had already decamped months earlier for a homemade forum designed to mimic Reddit called TheDonald.win, which had been in the works since the quarantine was introduced, as well as to servers hosted by Discord, an internet chat service.
Even though their subreddit has been banned from Reddit for over four months, The_Donald’s former members continue to wreak havoc on the site. Mother Jones has gained access to two servers hosted by Discord where former members of the banned subreddit gather, including a private server that requires members to be vetted. Chat messages posted there show how former members of The_Donald have found new homes on Reddit and continue to coordinate and plan the spread of hate, vitriol, and disinformation on the site and in other venues, despite the company’s ban.
With more than 3,000 members, The_Donald Est. 2017, which was listed as r/The_Donald’s official Discord before the subreddit was taken down, is the smaller of the two Discord servers. Unlike a separate “The Donald” Discord server, which is partially open to all and has over 21,000 members, The_Donald Est. 2017 server claims to tightly vet its members, restricting users that have not cleared its process to a waiting room where they cannot post. Before r/The_Donald was banned, admittance to the subreddit’s official Discord required two months of posting history in the subreddit. Nowadays, the requirements listed in its “extreme_vetting” channel, where new applicants to the Discord are investigated, specify having a history of “pro-MAGA tweeting/retweeting.”
Moderators use the channel to organize its users, many of whom came directly from r/The_Donald.
The moderators of this private Discord channel appear to be former moderators of r/The_Donald subreddit, based on their own claims and an analysis of their social media accounts. They purport to be a group of Trump supporters who moderated The_Donald until they lost control of the board to another faction at some point in the past year.
Those moderators regularly use the private channel to organize its users, many of whom came directly from r/The_Donald. While moderators have encouraged members to flout Reddit’s ban and join subreddits including r/trumpteam and r/donald_trump, they most frequently push r/donaldtrump as the group’s new subreddit. Members use the Discord to disseminate memes, boost pro-Trump posts on Reddit and other social media platforms, go after their political opponents online, and spread disinformation.
“Shortly after this mod team was removed from r/The_Donald, we began a journey of making sure that we did our best to serve President Trump and help him get reelected,” one moderator wrote on the Discord’s announcement’s channel, explaining that they had “[f]ound a way to reach new voters on Reddit with https://www.reddit.com/r/donaldtrump” and claiming that a former r/The_Donald moderator had helped establish that new subreddit. In another early announcement in the chat, the same moderator explained that “we are partnering with r/DonaldTrump exclusively on Reddit” and boasted of the group’s close relationship with the subreddit.
“[W]e have all of the mods that are there in here and it is IMPORTANT to expand the base for Trump,” the moderator explained, outlining a hope that the new forum could reprise their banned subreddit’s role in reaching new supporters. “The real success of r/The_Donald was how fast and how many normies it reached and you win elections not by just retaining your base, but by expanding it.”
Users of the original r/The_Donald were extremely effective at gaming Reddit’s algorithms to get its content on to the company’s algorithmically aggregated front page. That prominence helped the subreddit expand its base and expose more people to bigotry and disinformation. Robert Peck in Wired outlined how moderators of r/The_Donald harnessed the site’s “sticky” feature, intended to pin informational or welcome posts to the top of a subreddit, to harness upvotes from the subreddit and boost its content.
With r/donaldtrump, according to its moderators’ Discord messages, they hope to replicate the success they had bringing r/The_Donald into the mainstream. “We are regularly making it to r/all and r/popular rising on a frequent basis, sometimes multiple times daily,” a moderator wrote about the new board on July 25. “The chat there is up to 10k also, making it one of the largest chats on Reddit. Keep it up!”
There’s nothing necessarily wrong about trying to raise the profile of a subreddit dedicated to a presidential candidate, however, the specific tactics that r/The_Donald engaged in to do so violate the site’s policies: Reddit bans vote manipulation through coordinating upvotes on posts, on or off-platform. But r/The_Donald was punished because it became a stomping ground for noxious trolls to test out avant-garde racial slurs, justify or call for violence against groups of people based on their politics or race, and spread a never-ending stream of disinformation.
“The real success of r/The_Donald was how fast and how many normies it reached.”
Before it was banned from Reddit, r/The_Donald put in place a notice telling members that “No Racism/Anti-Semitism” posts were welcome, and moderators worked to remove violating items. But their efforts amounted to little—just chewing gum shoved into the crevices of a dam crumbling under a torrent of bigotry. In 2017, after a terrorist drove into pedestrians in London, killing five, the subreddit erupted into Islamophobic hate. After the 2019 Christchurch, New Zealand mosque shootings and the 2017 terrorist attack on London’s Westminster Bridge, users again flooded the subreddit with Islamophobic posts. When Republican members of the Oregon state legislature staged a walkout to avoid voting on environmental legislation, members of the subreddit violently threatened Democratic officials and the state police tasked with retrieving the lawmakers.
On r/donaldtrump and the The_Donald Est. 2017 private Discord channel, that hate has continued. Posters on the subreddit have used the term “jogger,” a stand-in for the n-word that was born on 4chan after Ahmaud Arbery, a Black American man, was killed by white men in Georgia while exercising. In other instances, they’ve shared memes about “rooftop Koreans”—a thinly veiled call to wield arms against Black protesters that references armed Korean and Korean American store owners who took to their business’s roofs during protests after Los Angeles police beat Rodney King in 1992.
In other posts on r/donaldtrump, users have justified killing innocent children caught in the crossfire of America’s Middle Eastern military interventions, praised ICE for allegedly serving pork to Muslim detainees, posted content lauding Kyle Rittenhouse’s killing of protesters, called for “ending the riots with excessive force,” and spread baseless conspiracies about antifa starting wildfires in Oregon.
While Reddit says it bans communities and users from making posts that “incite violence or that promote hate based on identity or vulnerability,” Sierra Gamelgaard, a Reddit spokesperson, declined to comment on the hate posts found on the subreddit or on indications the company’s ban was being circumvented. Instead, she pointed to the site’s content policies, writing that they “explicitly prohibit users from cheating or engaging in content manipulation, including ban evasion.”
On the closed Discord server that has promoted r/donaldtrump, members spread less guarded versions of the same kind of bigotry, disinformation, and incitements of violence they share on Reddit—posts that ostensibly also violate Discord’s terms of service. Moderators have repeatedly pleaded with members to stop using the “jogger” slur, and users have created a vast library of lewd, sexist memes attacking Kamala Harris and depicting her inviting and engaging in various sex acts.
Posts on r/donaldtrump have justified killing innocent children and lauded Kyle Rittenhouse’s shooting.
One user offered tips on how to kill protesters and get away with it, citing the case of a Nebraska bar owner who was indicted for manslaughter after shooting and killing James Scurlock, a racial justice protester, in Omaha in late May. “If you have shot someone and make the (incorrect) decision to fire a warning shot don’t admit to it being a warning shot,” he wrote, “because when you have time to fire warning shots and shout obscenities at the attack it isn’t hard to bring charges against you that indicate it wasn’t purely in self defense.” Instead, he suggested to readers in such a situation that they should say “you simply missed twice.” Others argued the killing was justified.
The larger, open Discord hosts even more content likely in violation of Discord’s policies. In September one user of the The Donald posted that “we should shoot all BLM.” After demonstrators rallied in the streets of Louisville following a grand jury’s decision to not to charge police officers in the killing of Breonna Taylor, another member suggested local law enforcement “need to use live rounds.” When the same user later repeated that call to violence, several people reacted with approving emojis. “Run over BLM protesters with my Tesla,” another joked.
Unsurprisingly, religious bigotry and overt racism targeting a range of groups are easy to find on the larger Discord server. At beginning of September, one user posted an anti-Jewish slur, and wrote “jew=filthy trickster.” Others frequently post Islamophobic messages, including iterations of “remove kebab,” racist internet shorthand for the ethnic cleansing of Muslims. In late September, another user joked about marrying a Muslim woman and then killing them if the relationship didn’t work out. Others pine for the days of the anti-Muslim Crusades, a common refrain among white nationalists. In the midst of one Islamophobic back and forth on Discord, a user posted a GIF of what appears to be aerial footage of several men, possibly in the Middle East, being killed by an airstrike.
Unlike the private discord, the moderators of the larger The Donald Discord server don’t appear to have formal links to any message boards hosted back on Reddit. However, there does seem to be crossover between users of the server and the r/donaldtrump subreddit, another indication that former members of r/The_Donald are getting around Reddit’s ban of their old community. Members of the Discord make occasional references and post links to the subreddit.
Religious bigotry and overt racism are easy to find on the larger Discord.
Discord’s rules bans users who “organize, promote, or coordinate servers around hate speech” and say it is “unacceptable to attack a person or a community based on attributes such as their race, ethnicity, national origin, sex, gender, sexual orientation, religious affiliation, or disabilities.” They also bar making “threats of violence or…harm” including “indirect threats.” After Mother Jones asked Discord to comment on activity taking place in the two chats, the company said it took steps to remove users violating its rules. “Our Trust & Safety team investigated these servers, identified the bad actors / users, and subsequently took the appropriate action of banning them,” Paul Cafiero, a company spokesperson, wrote in an email. He said the company had “warned the server moderators that this type of activity cannot be tolerated on our service.”
Discord’s actions, taken late last week, appear to have had some impact. But they could also serve as a heads up allowing the people behind the pro-Trump chat servers to plot their next move. After receiving a warning from Discord, the moderators of the larger of the two chat servers, The Donald, responded directly by closing all of its public chat servers. It will now only let its vetted members use its private chats “at least until after the election.”
“If you were banned prior to today, 16 October 2020, you will not be unbanned prior to the election. Contact us after November 3rd,” a moderator posted in another channel, addressing the individual users banned after Mother Jones’ inquiry.
On The_Donald Est. 2017, following a warning from Discord, moderators encouraged users to join a backup chat on a different platform, where they could reorganize in the face of any possible full Discord ban.
The fallout of Discord’s actions illustrate a dynamic that shows how it may have been inevitable that Reddit’s ban on The_Donald would be so easily circumvented by the board’s users. Rishab Nithyanand, a computer science professor at the University of Iowa, published a paper last year analyzing Reddit’s moderation practices across 3,000 subreddits. His research found that Reddit seemed to inconsistently enforce its own rules, which allowed members of banned subreddits to simply migrate to still-operating toxic communities with similar ideologies.
“A sudden ban would have been much more effective.”
Reddit’s decision to quarantine r/The_Donald all but ensured that it would crop up elsewhere. Quarantined subreddits often end up getting banned, and members of the subreddit took the step as a warning sign that r/The_Donald would eventually meet the same fate. Accordingly, members of r/The_Donald started planning, funneling their members into other social media channels, including Discord, so that they could receive instructions on where to migrate to when the ban finally came down.
“A sudden ban would have been much more effective to keep them from setting up a new community,” says Jacob Silver, a senior researcher at the media and tech investigations consultancy Memetica. “They’re anonymous, so if they don’t have a community, it’s hard for them to coordinate.”
Silver, like Nithyanand’s research suggests, argues that it was only a matter of time before The_Donald would figure out how to re-manifest itself on Reddit. “It’s almost like a game to them,” says Silver, who has been analyzing Reddit communities since 2017. “They’re always going to be plotting in the background as to how they can be more public-facing and subvert platforms’ rules.”
Reddit’s mistake, according to Silver said, is in treating dangerous communities as one-off instances that can be banned for a quick PR boost. Instead, he says they should focus on the comprehensive networks of users who power and frequent them. Doing otherwise, he says, amounts to trimming weeds instead of ripping out roots.
“If you have one side in dark corners of the internet always plotting how they can gain more influence, and another side who is effectively operating on the basis of notching public wins with occasional, piecemeal bans,” Silver warns, “one side is going to keep winning.”


motherjones--2020-10-21--“We Shall Overcome”: Raphael Warnock’s (Not-So-Long-Shot) Bid to Be Georgia’s First Black Senator

“ This is the day that the Lord has made .
We have come to rejoice and be glad in it , ” says the Reverend Raphael Warnock during his October 4 sermon at Ebenezer Baptist Church .
It ’ s a normal Sunday , with Warnock ’ s usual opening line , but it ’ s not really normal .
Call it the new normal .
The sermon is prerecorded ; it plays on the church ’ s website .
Any affirmations of “ amen ” and “ yes , Lord ” only emerge within individual living rooms , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ collective voices with silence .
Warnock ’ s sermons now regularly ask his flock to find connection and community wherever they can , perhaps through church small groups on Zoom , and to continue filling themselves with the satiating word of God .
This particular Sunday , the pastor is also celebrating 15 years of preaching at Ebenezer , the historic Black church in Atlanta that was once home to Martin Luther King Jr. “ I wouldn ’ t give nothin ’ , as our folks used to say , for the journey @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Where ordinarily there would have been a physical celebration in the church to mark the occasion , there is instead a six-minute video montage of the past decade and a half .
In one scene , surrounded by people , the reverend declares with conviction , “ Guns are not allowed in the state Capitol .
But they want them in our churches and in our schools .
Have you lost your mind.
” ( It is definitively not a question ; in Warnock ’ s view , state lawmakers had lost @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , a photo of Emmett Till fills the frame , captioned “ Hoodie Sunday , ” transitioning to footage of the congregation , pastor included , their faces framed by soft cotton .
“ We ’ ve been here before—Emmett Till , Trayvon Martin ” —he cries , enunciating each syllable of the names of the deceased— “ profiled , hunted down , and killed for crossing some cultural arbitrary line.
” It ’ s clear from watching that church events blend easily with social justice ones ; there are barbecues and voting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of mass incarceration , an issue particularly dear to Warnock , as his older brother was recently released from 22 years in prison for a nonviolent drug-related offense .
In another frame , the late Rep. John Lewis , who was a congregant , sits beside Warnock in what looks like the Ebenezer sanctuary and they run swabs along the inside of their mouths to encourage Black men to get tested for AIDS ; in another , Warnock is getting arrested at the Georgia Capitol building for protesting the legislature ’ s refusal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not the point of the video , it has something of an inadvertent dual purpose—putting into striking relief why Warnock is celebrating his time at Ebenezer and simultaneously trying to become the first Black senator to represent Georgia .
In many ways , he aims to do in the US Senate precisely what he has done at Ebenezer : live out his faith by serving and connecting with his community .
“ I see politics as…one tool in the toolkit for the creation of a more blessed and beloved community that embraces everybody…for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the gospel , and a mandate that comes clearly from my faith , ” Warnock tells me recently .
“ It ’ s a faith that does not allow me to hide behind stained glass windows , but to actually go beyond stained glass windows and the doors of the church and into the broader community—and yes , in this case , even engage in the swampy waters of partisan politics.
” But like his sermon that Sunday , nothing in this campaign is quite like what Warnock expected .
While Warnock typically @ @ @ @ @ @ @ camera in his sermons , as if he ’ s willing his words to make meaningful contact , it ’ s just not the same as the in-person connection that ’ s long been a signature of his public service .
And whether or not his message hits home is a crucial question not only for his flock and his individual campaign , but also for the Democratic Party writ large and for the entire country , as the party battles to take the Senate and the White House during a pandemic that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The obstacles facing Warnock have not been small .
First , there ’ s the history : Georgia voters have never elevated a Black person to represent them in the US Senate or the governor ’ s mansion , and even rising party stars like Stacey Abrams have failed ( or , perhaps more accurately , have been injudiciously halted by a vote-suppressing state apparatus ) .
Then there ’ s the pandemic : It poses an unprecedented challenge in getting people registered and to the polls—issues that Warnock worked on for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ connecting with voters on the campaign trail , which now more often means through Zoom or Facebook Live .
Another sobering consideration is that the demographic Warnock is best primed to naturally capture—Black voters—are among the people who are suffering and dying at the highest rate from the coronavirus .
Warnock must also navigate the mounting complexities of actual voting , thanks to the current governor ’ s long history of voter suppression and recent messy battle over the state ’ s voting machines .
On top of all that—yes , there ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ itself : Warnock is competing in a jam-packed special election to replace former Sen. Johnny Isakson that features more than 20 candidates .
This includes two prominent Republicans , Rep. Doug Collins and Sen. Kelly Loeffler , who was appointed to the seat in December—as well as Democrat Matt Lieberman , who is polling just high enough to possibly play spoiler and block Warnock from earning a majority and outright victory on Election Day and force a January runoff .
And then , there ’ s getting out the vote in January when @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the ballot—and , well , that ’ s a horse of a different color .
But unlike almost everything else in 2020 , things are actually looking up for Warnock : Over the past couple months , partly due to grim circumstances , Warnock has cultivated a national profile .
He delivered a stirring eulogy for Lewis when the civil rights icon passed away from cancer this summer .
And following the police killing of George Floyd in May , VOTE WARNOCK began appearing organically on national TV screens—via T-shirts worn by WNBA @ @ @ @ @ @ @ co-owner of a WNBA team and who made odious comments about Black Lives Matter .
More recently , after the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg , money started pouring in from terrified , grieving Democrats to Warnock ’ s war chest , placing him ahead of all his opponents in fundraising .
This was followed by endorsements from former presidents Barack Obama and Jimmy Carter , as well as Abrams .
All of this has boosted Warnock to lead the crowded field in many polls this fall , and for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a toss-up .
“ The character of our country , the soul of the nation hangs in the balance , ” Warnock tells me .
But , he adds , “ the best saints actually get their hands dirty .
John Lewis embodied that—it ’ s not a kind of saintliness that stays out of the fray , it gets in the fray , it gets in good trouble.
” Do not mistake Raphael Warnock for a born-and-bred Atlanta Democrat .
As he likes to remind people , he ’ s from Savannah @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the deep blue metropolitan , from Georgia proper .
His ads and campaign materials emphasize his mother ’ s deep Georgia roots—she grew up in a small town in the rural southeastern part of the state , where she picked cotton and tobacco during the summer months ; his father is from rural Screven County .
Campaign materials also highlight Warnock ’ s journey from a childhood in public housing , to Morehouse College , thanks to low-interest student loans and Pell grants , to Ebenezer , where 15 years ago he became @ @ @ @ @ @ @ where Martin Luther King Jr. once stood .
There is a clear line from this pulpit , from loving your neighbor as yourself , to the core values of democracy .
So it makes sense that many of Warnock ’ s energies , particularly over the past several years , have been channeled into helping people exercise their right to vote .
“ The meaning of our covenant with one another is played out , and public policy seems to give more and more to the richest of the rich and less and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” he tells me .
“ After a while , that begins to cause the fabric of democracy to begin to fray , and if we don ’ t defend it , the voices of ordinary people will get crowded out of the process and become more and more disconnected from the process itself.
” In the summer of 2017 , Warnock began working with the New Georgia Project , a nonpartisan voting rights organization founded by Abrams in 2014 that has registered some 400,000 new voters .
( The group ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ colleague Jamilah King was reporting on Abrams ’ historic run for governor back in April 2018 . )
Billy Honor , the New Georgia Project ’ s director of faith organizing , tells me that “ when there ’ s a moral case to be made , there ’ s a consistency of voice from Black communities and Black faith leaders that becomes the conscience of the nation ” —reaching back from Frederick Douglass to Fannie Lou Hamer to the Reverend William Barber of the Poor People ’ s Campaign .
Warnock , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
During the 2018 election cycle , Warnock and Honor together created a vote-by-mail initiative specifically geared toward Black churchgoers .
The effort resulted , according to Honor , in the biggest vote-by-mail turnout in state history : More than 2 million votes were cast overall , with 184,925 of them by mail—more than double prior elections .
This year , the New Georgia Project is investing even more in digital outreach—training its volunteers to rally potential voters through social media , text , phone banking , and email .
Ebenezer has also @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the pandemic , with registration reminders during online services , informational sessions about the state ’ s new voting machines , and , recently , a drive-thru picnic , where motorists were handed food and Icees through their car windows before they end up at a voter registration station .
For his part , Honor says he ’ s been continuing to focus on the “ resiliency ” of Black faith communities , working with pastors around the state to figure out the best way to reach out to congregations and get their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ election monitoring is not just about giving out water [ this year ] , it ’ s not just about making sure people are ok , ” Honor says .
“ It ’ s now also , ‘ Do you have a mask ?
’ ” Warnock , of course , is enmeshed in his own campaign , though it is similarly focused on these ideas and building wide appeal on health care—rural health care in particular .
Beyond the failed coronavirus response , the campaign has been zeroing in on how the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Medicaid has led to a crisis and widespread loss of life , specifically among rural Georgians .
Warnock is prone to mention his 2014 arrest at the governor ’ s office , where he was protesting the decision , as extra credibility : “ My running for Senate is an effort to get escorted again by the Capitol Police , this time not to the central booking but to my new office as a US Senate senator , where I can do the work that I ’ ve been talking about all these @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Dr. Karen Kinsell , the only medical provider in Clay County , where about 30 percent of residents live below the poverty line .
Kinsell has watched as smaller hospitals across the state have shuttered—three of them over the last decade within 60 miles of her practice—and now another in the county next to her is set to close before the election .
She met Warnock over Zoom in September and was struck by his understanding of how challenging it can be for rural residents to get basic health care , let @ @ @ @ @ @ @ [ Warnock ] truly appears to understand some of the real problems facing everyday Georgians , and to have both reasonable solutions and a commitment to making these things happen , ” she tells Mother Jones .
But really reaching those voters still poses a significant challenge .
As Kinsell says , “ People who aren ’ t into politics have no idea who most of these people are ” —particularly in this crowded race .
And , again , stump speeches and meet-and-greets and town halls just aren ’ t as effective @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has tried to expand its reach by teaming up regularly with the Democratic candidate in this year ’ s other Georgia Senate race , Jon Ossoff .
Warnock also began venturing out last month for socially distanced events with constituents , but it ’ s a tall order to navigate the entire state less than a month before Election Day .
There ’ s that saying in Southern politics that goes something like , if you scratch the surface of any political issue in the South , you ’ ll find that it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ came as no surprise to Warnock that he would encounter racism in his bid to fill Isakson ’ s seat—he ’ s a Black man in Georgia—but that doesn ’ t make it any less egregious or any less trying .
In August , Warnock was in a Zoom meeting of the Hall County Democrats for less than a minute when the onslaught began .
In the comments , vulgarities multiplied faster than Kim Copeland , chair of the Hall County Democrats , could delete them .
The n-word was prevalent , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the chat .
It escalated into videos featuring swastikas and a Nazi flag , faceless masturbation , and other atrocities .
Copeland and Warnock decided to cut off the event and reschedule ; many people had logged off in horror , anyway .
In a screenshot sent to Mother Jones , Warnock looks profoundly sad ; his mouth is slightly ajar , his eyes betray pain .
Politics may be somewhat new territory , though the racism is all too familiar .
Even before the Zoom attack , I noticed the Ebenezer Facebook @ @ @ @ @ @ @ poisonous , racist attacks from people who are angry that Warnock is running for office .
Years ago , a few weeks after a white supremacist killed nine congregants at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in 2015 , a couple of white boys left Confederate flags strewn across the campus of Ebenezer Baptist Church .
“ It was an attempt to intimidate , to clearly send a message just weeks after Mother Emanuel , but we won ’ t be intimidated or turned around by that kind of thing .
It just demonstrates @ @ @ @ @ @ @ voices around unity , inclusion , and a love that is courageous enough to embrace everybody , ” he says .
Similarly , the Zoom incident , Warnock says , “ really underscores the importance of our work and our movement…It won ’ t stop us from going everywhere to speak to everyone.
” This , for better or worse , has made Warnock the perfect foil for his top opponent , Loeffler .
While she began her tenure in the Senate with a reputation for being a moderate Republican , an educated @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pivoted hard to Trumpism , recently claiming in a campaign ad to be more conservative than Attila the Hun , who , incidentally , was also known as “ the Scourge of God.
” Just last week , she accepted the endorsement of Marjorie Taylor Greene , who is the favorite to represent Georgia ’ s 14th District in the House come November and a far-right conspiracy theorist .
As part owner of the WNBA ’ s Atlanta Dream , at one point Loeffler was reportedly deeply involved with the team , building @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hunkering down with the head coach after games to review plays and stats .
When Floyd was killed by a police officer this summer and the WNBA dedicated its season to the Black Lives Matter cause , Loeffler publicly opposed the move , writing a letter to WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert expressing her displeasure .
“ The truth is , we need less—not more politics in sports .
In a time when polarizing politics is as divisive as ever , sports has the power to be a unifying antidote , ” she wrote @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s union was furious—particularly Elizabeth Williams , a forward for the Dream , and Sue Bird , the 11-time all-star guard for the Seattle Storm , both of whom occupy leadership positions .
What quickly became clear , Bird told me during a recent press conference , was that the louder they were , the more Loeffler benefited politically : “ What better way to rile up your base than to show you ’ re against a league full of Black women who are standing here saying ‘ Say Her Name ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ while simultaneously being able to say , ‘ Oh , but look , I ’ m helping women and women ’ s sports by owning a team.
’ ” The players began researching candidates in the crowded primary , and Bird suggested they publicly back Warnock .
“ We did a lot of vetting , having conversations directly with Rev .
Warnock on Zoom calls to make sure our values aligned , ” Bird says .
“ This wasn ’ t just , ‘ Oh , we ’ re going to support whoever @ @ @ @ @ @ @ This was a deep dive into whether this was a candidate we connect with.
” Starting on August 4 , Dream players sported black T-shirts with VOTE WARNOCK emblazoned across the front to their nationally televised game against the Phoenix Mercury .
Many others in the league soon followed .
The move boosted Warnock ’ s profile substantially ; two days later , his campaign reported that it had gained 3,500 new donors .
From there , the numbers kept climbing until Warnock had the biggest donation numbers of anyone in the race @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the women of the WNBA who stood up , refused to allow their voices to be silenced , ” Warnock tells me .
“ I think they saw me as a kindred spirit—it was a very proud , powerful moment for me.
” Despite all these trials and tribulations , or maybe because of them , it actually makes deep sense that a man of faith like Warnock is running for office in this moment .
One of my first conversations with Warnock took place on August 25—not two full days after @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , was shot several times in the back by a police officer in Kenosha , Wisconsin .
Warnock tells me that the cycle of Black people being shot by police , and then searching for ways to comfort and guide his congregation through their grief and fear , is “ exhausting.
” Considering the toll the pandemic has taken on Black communities , paired with the inability to gather and process the trauma of police violence , is excruciating , he says .
But , he also insists , it ’ s never @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on the collective psyche of the nation to see Black lives hunted down and killed like wild prey on American streets , ” he says .
“ Some communities get so demoralized that their people may get into a sort of nihilism that says , ‘ Well , what do I have to lose after all ?
’ I don ’ t know what other politicians mean when they speak about the soul of America , but that ’ s what I ’ m talking about—the spiritual health that enables you to keep @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the midst of the worst.
” Just a month and a half later , he ’ d be celebrating his anniversary at Ebenezer , looking back at the reel of activity , of pain , of joy .
Toward the end of that video , Warnock addresses his congregation on the subject of the pandemic .
“ We ’ ve never seen anything like this.
” A new threat , which now exists alongside all the old ones .
Still , Warnock concludes , “ We shall overcome…someday .
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“This is the day that the Lord has made. We have come to rejoice and be glad in it,” says the Reverend Raphael Warnock during his October 4 sermon at Ebenezer Baptist Church. It’s a normal Sunday, with Warnock’s usual opening line, but it’s not really normal.
Call it the new normal. The sermon is prerecorded; it plays on the church’s website. Any affirmations of “amen” and “yes, Lord” only emerge within individual living rooms, replacing what was once the underpinning of collective voices with silence. Warnock’s sermons now regularly ask his flock to find connection and community wherever they can, perhaps through church small groups on Zoom, and to continue filling themselves with the satiating word of God.
Any affirmations of “amen” and “yes, Lord” only emerge within individual living rooms, replacing what was once the underpinning of collective voices with silence.
This particular Sunday, the pastor is also celebrating 15 years of preaching at Ebenezer, the historic Black church in Atlanta that was once home to Martin Luther King Jr. “I wouldn’t give nothin’, as our folks used to say, for the journey,” the reverend tells his congregation.
Where ordinarily there would have been a physical celebration in the church to mark the occasion, there is instead a six-minute video montage of the past decade and a half. In one scene, surrounded by people, the reverend declares with conviction, “Guns are not allowed in the state Capitol. But they want them in our churches and in our schools. Have you lost your mind.” (It is definitively not a question; in Warnock’s view, state lawmakers had lost their damn minds.) Minutes later, a photo of Emmett Till fills the frame, captioned “Hoodie Sunday,” transitioning to footage of the congregation, pastor included, their faces framed by soft cotton. “We’ve been here before—Emmett Till, Trayvon Martin”—he cries, enunciating each syllable of the names of the deceased—“profiled, hunted down, and killed for crossing some cultural arbitrary line.”
It’s clear from watching that church events blend easily with social justice ones; there are barbecues and voting rights events and speeches on the ills of mass incarceration, an issue particularly dear to Warnock, as his older brother was recently released from 22 years in prison for a nonviolent drug-related offense.
In another frame, the late Rep. John Lewis, who was a congregant, sits beside Warnock in what looks like the Ebenezer sanctuary and they run swabs along the inside of their mouths to encourage Black men to get tested for AIDS; in another, Warnock is getting arrested at the Georgia Capitol building for protesting the legislature’s refusal to expand Medicaid.
Though it is not the point of the video, it has something of an inadvertent dual purpose—putting into striking relief why Warnock is celebrating his time at Ebenezer and simultaneously trying to become the first Black senator to represent Georgia. In many ways, he aims to do in the US Senate precisely what he has done at Ebenezer: live out his faith by serving and connecting with his community.
“I see politics as…one tool in the toolkit for the creation of a more blessed and beloved community that embraces everybody…for me, that is the work of the gospel, and a mandate that comes clearly from my faith,” Warnock tells me recently. “It’s a faith that does not allow me to hide behind stained glass windows, but to actually go beyond stained glass windows and the doors of the church and into the broader community—and yes, in this case, even engage in the swampy waters of partisan politics.”
But like his sermon that Sunday, nothing in this campaign is quite like what Warnock expected.
While Warnock typically keeps his eyes intently trained on the camera in his sermons, as if he’s willing his words to make meaningful contact, it’s just not the same as the in-person connection that’s long been a signature of his public service. And whether or not his message hits home is a crucial question not only for his flock and his individual campaign, but also for the Democratic Party writ large and for the entire country, as the party battles to take the Senate and the White House during a pandemic that’s killed more than 219,000 Americans.
“It’s a faith that does not allow me to hide behind stained glass windows.”
The obstacles facing Warnock have not been small. First, there’s the history: Georgia voters have never elevated a Black person to represent them in the US Senate or the governor’s mansion, and even rising party stars like Stacey Abrams have failed (or, perhaps more accurately, have been injudiciously halted by a vote-suppressing state apparatus). Then there’s the pandemic: It poses an unprecedented challenge in getting people registered and to the polls—issues that Warnock worked on for many years in the Before Times—and in connecting with voters on the campaign trail, which now more often means through Zoom or Facebook Live. Another sobering consideration is that the demographic Warnock is best primed to naturally capture—Black voters—are among the people who are suffering and dying at the highest rate from the coronavirus. Warnock must also navigate the mounting complexities of actual voting, thanks to the current governor’s long history of voter suppression and recent messy battle over the state’s voting machines.
On top of all that—yes, there’s more—is the shape of the race itself: Warnock is competing in a jam-packed special election to replace former Sen. Johnny Isakson that features more than 20 candidates. This includes two prominent Republicans, Rep. Doug Collins and Sen. Kelly Loeffler, who was appointed to the seat in December—as well as Democrat Matt Lieberman, who is polling just high enough to possibly play spoiler and block Warnock from earning a majority and outright victory on Election Day and force a January runoff. And then, there’s getting out the vote in January when there’s no national draw to the ballot—and, well, that’s a horse of a different color.
It’s all a lot.
But unlike almost everything else in 2020, things are actually looking up for Warnock: Over the past couple months, partly due to grim circumstances, Warnock has cultivated a national profile. He delivered a stirring eulogy for Lewis when the civil rights icon passed away from cancer this summer. And following the police killing of George Floyd in May, VOTE WARNOCK began appearing organically on national TV screens—via T-shirts worn by WNBA players protesting Loeffler, who is also co-owner of a WNBA team and who made odious comments about Black Lives Matter. More recently, after the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, money started pouring in from terrified, grieving Democrats to Warnock’s war chest, placing him ahead of all his opponents in fundraising. This was followed by endorsements from former presidents Barack Obama and Jimmy Carter, as well as Abrams. All of this has boosted Warnock to lead the crowded field in many polls this fall, and for his once long-shot bid to be considered a toss-up.
“The character of our country, the soul of the nation hangs in the balance,” Warnock tells me. But, he adds, “the best saints actually get their hands dirty. John Lewis embodied that—it’s not a kind of saintliness that stays out of the fray, it gets in the fray, it gets in good trouble.”
Do not mistake Raphael Warnock for a born-and-bred Atlanta Democrat. As he likes to remind people, he’s from Savannah, a product of the land beyond the deep blue metropolitan, from Georgia proper. His ads and campaign materials emphasize his mother’s deep Georgia roots—she grew up in a small town in the rural southeastern part of the state, where she picked cotton and tobacco during the summer months; his father is from rural Screven County. Campaign materials also highlight Warnock’s journey from a childhood in public housing, to Morehouse College, thanks to low-interest student loans and Pell grants, to Ebenezer, where 15 years ago he became the youngest preacher to take the place where Martin Luther King Jr. once stood.
There is a clear line from this pulpit, from loving your neighbor as yourself, to the core values of democracy. So it makes sense that many of Warnock’s energies, particularly over the past several years, have been channeled into helping people exercise their right to vote.
“The meaning of our covenant with one another is played out, and public policy seems to give more and more to the richest of the rich and less and less to the poorest of the poor,” he tells me. “After a while, that begins to cause the fabric of democracy to begin to fray, and if we don’t defend it, the voices of ordinary people will get crowded out of the process and become more and more disconnected from the process itself.”
Since its inception, Warnock has worked with the New Georgia Project, a nonpartisan voting rights organization founded by Abrams in 2014 that has registered some 400,000 new voters. (The group’s work also came up when my colleague Jamilah King was reporting on Abrams’ historic run for governor back in April 2018.) Billy Honor, the New Georgia Project’s director of faith organizing, tells me that “when there’s a moral case to be made, there’s a consistency of voice from Black communities and Black faith leaders that becomes the conscience of the nation”—reaching back from Frederick Douglass to Fannie Lou Hamer to the Reverend William Barber of the Poor People’s Campaign. Warnock, Honor notes, is of that tradition.
During the 2018 election cycle, Warnock and Honor together created a vote-by-mail initiative specifically geared toward Black churchgoers. The effort resulted, according to Honor, in the biggest vote-by-mail turnout in state history: More than 2 million votes were cast overall, with 184,925 of them by mail—more than double prior elections.
“When there’s a moral case to be made, there’s a consistency of voice from Black communities and Black faith leaders that becomes the conscience of the nation.”
This year, the New Georgia Project is investing even more in digital outreach—training its volunteers to rally potential voters through social media, text, phone banking, and email. Ebenezer has also continued to finesse voter registration outreach during the pandemic, with registration reminders during online services, informational sessions about the state’s new voting machines, and, recently, a drive-thru picnic, where motorists were handed food and Icees through their car windows before they end up at a voter registration station.
For his part, Honor says he’s been continuing to focus on the “resiliency” of Black faith communities, working with pastors around the state to figure out the best way to reach out to congregations and get their voters to the polls. “Our election monitoring is not just about giving out water [this year], it’s not just about making sure people are ok,” Honor says. “It’s now also, ‘Do you have a mask?’”
Warnock, of course, is enmeshed in his own campaign, though it is similarly focused on these ideas and building wide appeal on health care—rural health care in particular. Beyond the failed coronavirus response, the campaign has been zeroing in on how the state’s decision not to expand Medicaid has led to a crisis and widespread loss of life, specifically among rural Georgians. Warnock is prone to mention his 2014 arrest at the governor’s office, where he was protesting the decision, as extra credibility: “My running for Senate is an effort to get escorted again by the Capitol Police, this time not to the central booking but to my new office as a US Senate senator, where I can do the work that I’ve been talking about all these years.”
This outreach caught the attention of Dr. Karen Kinsell, the only medical provider in Clay County, where about 30 percent of residents live below the poverty line. Kinsell has watched as smaller hospitals across the state have shuttered—three of them over the last decade within 60 miles of her practice—and now another in the county next to her is set to close before the election. She met Warnock over Zoom in September and was struck by his understanding of how challenging it can be for rural residents to get basic health care, let alone access to specialized medicine. “[Warnock] truly appears to understand some of the real problems facing everyday Georgians, and to have both reasonable solutions and a commitment to making these things happen,” she tells Mother Jones.
But really reaching those voters still poses a significant challenge. As Kinsell says, “People who aren’t into politics have no idea who most of these people are”—particularly in this crowded race. And, again, stump speeches and meet-and-greets and town halls just aren’t as effective over Zoom. Warnock’s campaign has tried to expand its reach by teaming up regularly with the Democratic candidate in this year’s other Georgia Senate race, Jon Ossoff. Warnock also began venturing out last month for socially distanced events with constituents, but it’s a tall order to navigate the entire state less than a month before Election Day.
There’s that saying in Southern politics that goes something like, if you scratch the surface of any political issue in the South, you’ll find that it’s about race. It certainly came as no surprise to Warnock that he would encounter racism in his bid to fill Isakson’s seat—he’s a Black man in Georgia—but that doesn’t make it any less egregious or any less trying.
The racist Zoom incident “really underscores the importance of our work and our movement.” Politics may be somewhat new territory, though the racism is all too familiar.
In August, Warnock was in a Zoom meeting of the Hall County Democrats for less than a minute when the onslaught began. In the comments, vulgarities multiplied faster than Kim Copeland, chair of the Hall County Democrats, could delete them. The n-word was prevalent, the racist slurs endlessly copied and pasted into the chat. It escalated into videos featuring swastikas and a Nazi flag, faceless masturbation, and other atrocities. Copeland and Warnock decided to cut off the event and reschedule; many people had logged off in horror, anyway.
In a screenshot sent to Mother Jones, Warnock looks profoundly sad; his mouth is slightly ajar, his eyes betray pain. Politics may be somewhat new territory, though the racism is all too familiar. Even before the Zoom attack, I noticed the Ebenezer Facebook page was on the receiving end of poisonous, racist attacks from people who are angry that Warnock is running for office. Years ago, a few weeks after a white supremacist killed nine congregants at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in 2015, a couple of white boys left Confederate flags strewn across the campus of Ebenezer Baptist Church. “It was an attempt to intimidate, to clearly send a message just weeks after Mother Emanuel, but we won’t be intimidated or turned around by that kind of thing. It just demonstrates the need for us to amplify our voices around unity, inclusion, and a love that is courageous enough to embrace everybody,” he says.
Similarly, the Zoom incident, Warnock says, “really underscores the importance of our work and our movement…It won’t stop us from going everywhere to speak to everyone.”
This, for better or worse, has made Warnock the perfect foil for his top opponent, Loeffler. While she began her tenure in the Senate with a reputation for being a moderate Republican, an educated, elite Atlantan, she’s pivoted hard to Trumpism, recently claiming in a campaign ad to be more conservative than Attila the Hun, who, incidentally, was also known as “the Scourge of God.” Just last week, she accepted the endorsement of Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is the favorite to represent Georgia’s 14th District in the House come November and a far-right conspiracy theorist.
As part owner of the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream, at one point Loeffler was reportedly deeply involved with the team, building her work travel schedule around games and hunkering down with the head coach after games to review plays and stats. When Floyd was killed by a police officer this summer and the WNBA dedicated its season to the Black Lives Matter cause, Loeffler publicly opposed the move, writing a letter to WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert expressing her displeasure. “The truth is, we need less—not more politics in sports. In a time when polarizing politics is as divisive as ever, sports has the power to be a unifying antidote,” she wrote.
The team and the entire player’s union was furious—particularly Elizabeth Williams, a forward for the Dream, and Sue Bird, the 11-time all-star guard for the Seattle Storm, both of whom occupy leadership positions. What quickly became clear, Bird told me during a recent press conference, was that the louder they were, the more Loeffler benefited politically: “What better way to rile up your base than to show you’re against a league full of Black women who are standing here saying ‘Say Her Name’ and ‘Black Lives Matter,’ while simultaneously being able to say, ‘Oh, but look, I’m helping women and women’s sports by owning a team.’”
“We did a lot of vetting,” the WNBA’s Sue Bird says. “This wasn’t just, ‘Oh, we’re going to support whoever’s on the other side.’ This was a deep dive into whether this was a candidate we connect with.”
The players began researching candidates in the crowded primary, and Bird suggested they publicly back Warnock. “We did a lot of vetting, having conversations directly with Rev. Warnock on Zoom calls to make sure our values aligned,” Bird says. “This wasn’t just, ‘Oh, we’re going to support whoever’s on the other side.’ This was a deep dive into whether this was a candidate we connect with.”
Starting on August 4, Dream players sported black T-shirts with VOTE WARNOCK emblazoned across the front to their nationally televised game against the Phoenix Mercury. Many others in the league soon followed. The move boosted Warnock’s profile substantially; two days later, his campaign reported that it had gained 3,500 new donors. From there, the numbers kept climbing until Warnock had the biggest donation numbers of anyone in the race.
“I’m very proud of the women of the WNBA who stood up, refused to allow their voices to be silenced,” Warnock tells me. “I think they saw me as a kindred spirit—it was a very proud, powerful moment for me.”
Despite all these trials and tribulations, or maybe because of them, it actually makes deep sense that a man of faith like Warnock is running for office in this moment. One of my first conversations with Warnock took place on August 25—not two full days after another Black man, 29-year-old Jacob Blake, was shot several times in the back by a police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Warnock tells me that the cycle of Black people being shot by police, and then searching for ways to comfort and guide his congregation through their grief and fear, is “exhausting.” Considering the toll the pandemic has taken on Black communities, paired with the inability to gather and process the trauma of police violence, is excruciating, he says. But, he also insists, it’s never defeating.
“It takes a toll on the collective psyche of the nation to see Black lives hunted down and killed like wild prey on American streets,” he says. “Some communities get so demoralized that their people may get into a sort of nihilism that says, ‘Well, what do I have to lose after all?’ I don’t know what other politicians mean when they speak about the soul of America, but that’s what I’m talking about—the spiritual health that enables you to keep fighting for the best, even in the midst of the worst.”
Just a month and a half later, he’d be celebrating his anniversary at Ebenezer, looking back at the reel of activity, of pain, of joy. Toward the end of that video, Warnock addresses his congregation on the subject of the pandemic. “We’ve never seen anything like this.” A new threat, which now exists alongside all the old ones. Still, Warnock concludes, “We shall overcome…someday.”
Images from left: Curtis Compton/TNS/Zuma; Alyssa Pointer-Pool/Getty; Elijah Nouvelage/Getty, Barry Williams/Getty, Julio Aguilar/Getty
This article has been updated with a correction: Rev. Warnock began working with the New Georgia Project at its inception in 2014.