Wednesday on Political Rewind: While the impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump continues, leaders in Georgia attempt to respond to the ongoing pandemic and its resulting economic burden.

In DeKalb County, local leaders announce plans to protect renters and landlords hit hard by the pandemic. They seek to use a $21 million federal grant to secure housing for thousands of residents at risk of eviction in the middle of a winter rife with illness and economic uncertainty.

Michael Thurmond, DeKalb County CEO, joins our panel to discuss the latest.

Leaders across the state are also grappling with the vaccine rollout. Recent data from the Centers for Disease Control shows distribution hindered by social inequity and limited supply.

Meanwhile in the state Capitol, Republican legislators released a list of recommendations they say are designed to assure future elections will be free of fraud. Among the changes, ending automatic registration and removing voting software from Dominion Voting Systems. The proposal also includes a call to take oversight of elections away from Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.

"This is the theme we have seen in the legislature and in Georgia politics since the early 2000s," Jim Galloway said on the show. "There is a portion of the Republican Party that think voting is so important that you ought to have the energy to meet a certain amount of obstacles to cast the ballot."

Democrats plan to fight the recommended changes, which they insist are efforts at voter suppression. But the proposals are also sparking further division among Republicans.

"There are probably about two recommendation there I think are a good idea," former Georgia attorney general Sam Olens said. "There is a bunch in the document that me and Mike Thurmond would respond in the same way to. This is Jim Crow. There is a bunch in the document that is 2021 Jim Crow."

In news from the U.S. Capitol, Trump’s Atlanta-based impeachment lawyer David Schoen warned senators their decision to try the president was dividing the country like no other moment in history since the Civil War.

Panelists:

Michael Thurmond — CEO DeKalb County

Sam Olens — former Georgia attorney general

Jim Galloway — former Political Writer at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution