A defiant Georgia official vowed to fight back against the Trump administration on Thursday after the FBI raided an elections center in Fulton County.
President Donald Trump has continued to claim that election fraud in Fulton County cost him the 2020 presidential election. Fulton County Chair Rob Pitts spoke during a press conference in Atlanta and pushed back on the unfounded claim.
"Fulton County elections are fair and lawful. And the outcome of the 2020 election will not change. Period," Pitts said. "Let me talk about voter protections. Now, we do not know where our election records have been taken or what will happen to them now that they are out of our control. While they were here, they were safe and they secure. Once they left Fulton County, our election center, I don't know where they are. I don't know who has them. I don't know what they're doing with them. We can no longer be held responsible for those ballots and other data that was seized yesterday. But what I'm hoping that we will stand together to ensure that no data is ever weaponized."
Pitts also talked about protections for poll workers and described how it was difficult to find people willing to be poll workers in elections based on the treatment of those workers in the 2020 elections.
"After the 2020 elections, Fulton County poll workers endured brutal and targeted harassment, and it is imperative that data from the 2020 election not be used to further harass our poll workers, who have already endured so much," Pitts added.
Pitts called out the Trump administration for its attacks on poll workers in the county — and even challenged the attacks on him.
"Fast forward this year, 2026 elections," he said. "This week's activities show that Fulton County is still much a target, and I'm told that I am personally a target. I'm a big boy now. While we've grown accustomed to name calling and rhetoric, we will not give one inch to those who seek to take control of our elections. Now, hear what I just said. We will not give one inch to those who seek to take control of elections in Fulton County. Not today, not tomorrow, not ever."
