Georgia Witness Calls Trump ‘Worst Candidate’ in GOP’s History

After testifying before a Georgia grand jury, a witness in the probe of Donald Trump’s alleged efforts to overturn the state’s 2020 presidential election slammed the former president as the “worst candidate” in GOP history.

While leaving the courthouse in Fulton County, Georgia, on Monday evening, former Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan told reporters that if Republicans want to win in 2024, they need to dump Trump and find a new candidate.

Duncan, who was among a small number of Georgia Republicans to rebuff the MAGA leader’s election fraud claims in 2020, was one of two witnesses called to testify on Monday in connection to the probe of Trump and his allies over alleged efforts to reverse the 2020 presidential election outcome in Georgia. Hours later, a special grand jury indicted Trump on 13 felony charges stemming from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ years-long investigation. The indictment, Trump’s fourth this year, includes racketeering and conspiracy charges.

Newsweek reached out via Facebook on Monday to Duncan and via email to Trump’s representatives for comment.

The 23-member grand jury heard hours of testimony on Monday as part of Willis’ probe, which focused on a phone call where the former president allegedly pressured state and election officials to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory. In addition to Trump, 18 others were indicted later that night in the alleged plot to meddle with the election results.

Trump has maintained his innocence, arguing that he has done nothing wrong and that prosecutors are trying to interfere with the 2024 presidential election race, in which he’s the Republican front-runner.

In a post on his Truth Social platform Monday night, he called Willis a “radical Democrat,” saying she is “ripping a page from Crooked Joe Biden’s playbook.”

While speaking to a reporter of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) on Monday, Duncan said it’s time for the “country to do something more than just stew on the 2020 election cycle.”

Duncan, a Republican and vocal critic of Trump, said the former president is the “worst candidate,” adding that he’s “worse than” failed GOP Senate candidate Herschel Walker, whose campaign was marred by scandals and controversy.

“We’re either going to, as Republicans, take our medicine and realize the election wasn’t rigged,” Duncan said. “Donald Trump was the worst candidate ever in the history of the party, even worse than Herschel Walker.”

“We want to win an election in 2024,” Duncan continued. “It’s going to have to be somebody other than Donald Trump.”

In a video posted by AJC reporter Greg Bluestein on X, formerly Twitter, shows the interview with Duncan.

“I just caught up with Duncan for a quick interview,” Bluestein said in the post. “‘As Republicans we need to take our medicine and realize the election wasn’t rigged, Donald Trump was the worst candidate ever, in the history of our party … and now we are going to have to pivot from there.’ #gapol.”

Earlier in the day, before Duncan testified before the grand jury, Trump lashed out at the former lawmaker on Truth Social. In the Monday morning post, the former president railed against the Georgian, incorrectly spelling Duncan’s first name and calling him a “loser.” Trump, in the post, said Duncan should not testify.

“I am reading reports that failed former Lt. Governor of Georgia, Jeff Duncan, will be testifying before the Fulton County Grand Jury. He shouldn’t,” Trump said. “I barely know him but he was, right from the beginning of this Witch Hunt, a nasty disaster for those looking into the Election Fraud that took place in Georgia. He refused having a Special Session to find out what went on, became very unpopular with Republicans (I refused to endorse him!), and fought the TRUTH all the way. A loser, he went to FNCNN!”