Sponsoring the sweeping package of voting curbs in the Georgia Legislature has cost a Republican lawmaker his regular job.
Barry Fleming has been unopposed in four straight reelections to a state House seat covering a rural stretch between Atlanta and Augusta. And this month he used his chairmanship of the Committee on Election Integrity to win passage of restrictive election legislation that, among many provisions, would limit early voting on weekends in many counties — which could cripple "Souls to the Polls," the venerable get-out-the-vote drive to get Black voters to cast their ballots after church the Sundays before Election Day.
For nine years Fleming's main source of income has been as county attorney for one of the few solidly Democratic and overwhelmingly Black communities in his district, Hancock County. But on Wednesday the county Board of Commissioners responded to a wave of protests by voting 4-0 to ask for his resignation, which he then submitted.
Fleming's bill would also curb the use of drop boxes for mail ballots, add new proof-of-identity requirements when seeking an absentee ballot, advance the deadline for requesting such a ballot, and prohibit groups from giving water, food and blankets to people in line at polling places. The measure, which passed over united Democratic opposition, must now be reconciled with a different bill passed by the GOP-majority Senate, the main feature of which would be to eliminate no-excuse absentee voting across the state.
The twin bills are among the most prominent in a wave of 250 legislative proposals to restrict voting across the country, many of which are advancing in states that (like Georgia) have an all-GOP power structure. Republicans are reacting after a 2020 election that saw record turnout, record use of mail and early voting — and a record amount of baseless skepticism about election integrity fueled by former President Donald Trump's campaign of lies.
Three different counts in Georgia, for example, resulted in virtually identical results and no suspicions of meaningful cheating.
But Fleming said during the debate three weeks ago that his bill would "begin an effort to restore confidence in our election system," He wrote an op-ed likening absentee ballots to the "shady" part of town down by the docks where you could get "shanghaied."
Hancock's population is 71 percent Black, and President Biden carried the county by 44 points as he went on to become the first Democrat since 1992 to take Georgia's electoral votes. Both state's new Democratic senators, Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, also won lopsidedly in the county in January's runoff contests.
"Hancock County is a great place. There's a great board of commissioners there," Fleming told 11Alive News after he resigned. Asked if he objected to the political rationale for his dismissal, he said: "None whatsoever. They're good people. If I can ever do anything in the future to help them I'll be happy to."
The average county attorney's salary in Georgia last year was $76,500. Members of the state House are paid $17,300 on the assumption they will be in session no more than 100 days.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a“ Steel Across America” event ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11th attacks on the Ellipse near the White House on Sept. 8, 2026 in Washington, D.C. President Trump welcomed 9/ 11 first responders to the Tunnel to Towers Foundation’ s“ Steel Across America” event featuring a 16,900- pound, 21- foot steel beam recovered.
For Trump, even 9/11 is an opportunity
There was a reason organizers of the 9/11 ceremony in Manhattan told President Trump he could not speak at this year’s memorial service.
A good one, it turns out.
Because in a speech he gave on Tuesday in Washington, he did exactly what they were presumably worried about — he made it about himself.
According to The New York Times, Trump had wanted a speaking role at the service, but the National Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum, which oversees the site, said no, as they’ve maintained for the past decade-plus that the venue and event should be nonpartisan.
Trump has long used awful tragedies to either puff himself up, trash political opponents, or sell lies to the American people.
He blamed a deadly plane crash at Washington National Airport last year on diversity, equity and inclusion policies. He blamed Puerto Ricans for the devastation they endured after Hurricane Maria in 2017. He reportedly considered withholding disaster relief after the California wildfires based on the way affected regions voted. In an interview on Fox News meant to commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy, he used the occasion to slam former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi…with graves of the dead behind him.
And now, as we approach the 25th anniversary of what many New Yorkers consider the darkest day in modern history, Trump has done it again.
He told a rambling, nonsensical story — one he’s told before — about going to Ground Zero just after terrorists flew two commercial jets into the twin towers. In the story, which no one has been able to verify, despite multiple attempts, he says firefighters had to carry him out of One Liberty Plaza, also known as the U.S. Steel Building, because they thought it was about to collapse.
As CNN fact checker Daniel Dale notes, there’s no evidence Trump went into this building, especially at a time when NYPD and NYFD had locked down the area. There’s no evidence that building was collapsing — in fact, it was deemed structurally sound and reopened within two months of the attacks. There’s no evidence he was carried out of it by firefighters.
But the lie isn’t even the worst part. Pretend it was all true — why would the leader of our country, and a New Yorker, decide to make that tragic day about himself?
Because that’s who Donald Trump is. He’s a malignant narcissist.
He’s also, incidentally, a terrible and ineffectual president, who’s made ill-fated decisions that he has to keep defending, and there’s nothing he won’t do to make himself look and feel better.
Within the first two minutes of his speech, he was cravenly using 9/11 to justify and promote his dumb war in Iran — two events separated by 25 years and 6,000 miles.
“And I will tell you, we’re right now fighting because we have a certain nation that wanted a nuclear weapon, they were very close to getting it, and now they have no chance at getting it. They will never have a nuclear weapon. Iran will not have a nuclear weapon. And they’ve been punished greatly. As you know, we’ve really taken it to them.”
As a New Yorker who lived through 9/11, still one of the worst days of my life, I’m utterly sickened by Trump’s crass, political, and self-promotional framing of that awful day.
And I’m relieved he won’t be given a platform to do it again on Friday’s anniversary in lower Manhattan.
Because for Trump, everything is his for the taking, and absolutely nothing is sacred.
S.E. Cupp is the host of "S.E. Cupp Unfiltered" on CNN.