Kenya, March 11 -- In a stunning revelation on MSNBC, Stacey Abrams, the former Georgia gubernatorial candidate and prominent Democratic figure, admitted that a $2 billion grant from Joe Biden's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was used to purchase new appliances for Georgia residents-a move she allegedly framed as an effort to secure votes.
The statement, made during an interview with host Chris Hayes, has ignited a firestorm of controversy, with critics accusing Abrams of orchestrating a massive vote-buying scheme under the guise of environmental initiatives.
Abrams, who served as senior counsel to Rewiring America-a nonprofit tied to the Power Forward Communities coalition that received the funds-defended the program as a legitimate effort to lower energy costs for struggling households.
"In 2023 and 2024, I led a program called Revitalising DeSoto," Abrams said, referencing a pilot project in South Georgia.
"We replaced energy-inefficient appliances with efficient ones, cutting electric bills-like one woman's from $180 to $98. That's what we delivered." She argued that the $2 billion grant, awarded in April 2024 as part of the Biden administration's Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, was intended to expand such benefits nationwide.
However, conservatives and watchdog groups seized on her comments as evidence of electoral malfeasance.
"This is vote-buying, plain and simple," said Steve Milloy, a former Trump EPA transition team member, in a post on X. "Democrats upgraded from Obama phones to Biden refrigerators."
The accusation stems from the timing and location of the initiative-Georgia, a pivotal battleground state in the 2024 election cycle-raising questions about whether the appliance handouts were strategically deployed to sway voters.
MSNBC's coverage attempted to downplay the scandal, with Hayes framing the program as a noble climate effort unfairly maligned by partisan critics.
Yet, even the network's sympathetic lens couldn't obscure the scale of the spending or Abrams' direct involvement. Power Forward Communities, a coalition including Rewiring America, reported just $100 in revenue in 2023 before securing the $2 billion grant, fuelling allegations of fraudulent financial manoeuvring.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, appointed by President Donald Trump, has called the allocation "throwing gold bars off the Titanic," vowing to claw back the funds as part of a broader probe into Biden-era spending.
The backlash has been swift. Georgia Republicans, including Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, are pushing for a state Senate investigation into Abrams' actions, citing both the EPA grant and prior ethics violations linked to her 2018 campaign.
Social media platforms like X have erupted with outrage, with users labelling the scheme "ridiculous theft" and demanding prosecutions. "When are these people going to be held accountable?" one user posted, tagging incoming Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Abrams' defenders, including a spokesperson for Power Forward Communities, insist there's no evidence of wrongdoing. "Stacey Abrams has not received a penny of this grant, nor was it ever the plan," said CEO Tim Mayopoulos, clarifying that her role was advisory and ended in December 2024.
Fact-checks from outlets like The Washington Post have disputed claims that Abrams personally "headed" the group or pocketed funds, awarding such assertions "four Pinocchios" for exaggeration.
Still, the optics of a $2 billion taxpayer-funded program tied to a high-profile Democrat in a swing state have proven impossible to whitewash entirely.
As investigations loom and public distrust extends, the fallout from Abrams' admission threatens to cast a long shadow over her political legacy and the Biden administration's environmental agenda.
With the Trump administration now in power, the push to unravel this "huge pile of fraudulent spending" is only beginning.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Bana Kenya.