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VALDOSTA, Georgia – Donald Trump released another litany of unsubstantiated claims that he had the US presidential election stolen from him at his first post-election rally on Saturday (December 5), telling the crowd that he would still end up winning.
“We are winning this election,” Trump said at the rally in Valdosta, Georgia, later adding that “we will still win it.”
“It’s rigged. It’s a fixed deal,” he said of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.
Despite increasing cases of Covid-19 across the country, few masks could be seen at the rally and many in the crowd failed to comply with social distancing measures.
Trump was joined by first lady Melania Trump, who delivered a short speech to the president.
The former reality TV star was campaigning in Georgia on behalf of two Republican Senate candidates facing a hugely important runoff on Jan.5.
Runoff races will decide which party controls the U.S. Senate, and Trump continued his bragging about rival Democrats.
“Georgia voters will determine which party leads which committee, writes each legislation, controls every taxpayer dollar,” he said.
“In a very simple way, you will decide if your children will grow up in a socialist country or if they will grow up in a free country.”
Some Republicans had expressed concern about whether Trump’s continued fraud allegations would reduce voter turnout among Republicans in the upcoming election, making his appearance a gamble.
LOST TO OFFER BY 12,000 VOTES IN GEORGIA
Trump made it clear that he was unwilling to give in to Biden or give up his baseless claims of fraud rejected by a long line of courts.
Biden won Georgia by just under 12,000 votes, becoming the first Democratic presidential candidate since Bill Clinton in 1992 to win the Republican stronghold.
That result, though narrow, has been confirmed by subsequent accounts, making a phone call Saturday from Trump to Georgia Governor Brian Kemp even more surprising, urging him to pressure state lawmakers to revoke the result.
Yet at a time when most defeated presidents would be working to polish his legacy, Trump, who has yet to give in to Biden, has barely left the White House, sending out a series of angry tweets challenging the outcome and demanding let Republicans across the country defend him. .
The stakes are high in the second round elections. Former President Barack Obama laid out them at a virtual rally Friday, saying “the special election in Georgia will ultimately determine the course of Biden’s presidency.”
If Democratic rivals Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff defeat Republican Senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, the Senate will be split evenly 50-50, meaning that Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris would cast any decisive vote, as dictated by the Constitution. .
The race has attracted enormous attention. One measure of intense interest: With donations pouring in from across the country, candidates have already spent more than $ 315 million, the AdImpact website reported, a staggering number for senatorial races.
And figures as prominent as Obama, Vice President Mike Pence and now Trump himself are fighting to boost voter turnout.
MIXED MESSAGING
But Trump has placed himself in a difficult situation. Since Biden won the November 3 election, the president has repeatedly and baselessly attacked the US electoral system for being riddled with “fraud.”
Despite an overwhelming series of setbacks in the courts, the president and his lawyers have proposed wild conspiracy theories (one involving long-deceased Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez) to explain Biden’s victory.
Now analysts say it could have created a political monster, having undermined Georgia voters’ faith in the electoral system just when it needs them by January 5.
A headline in the Valdosta Daily Times summed up conflicting sentiment among area voters: “Trump in Valdosta: S.Ga. Excited, Outraged by Presidential Visit.”
VIRUS REGISTRATION
Part of the “outrage” comes from the notion of another massive Trump rally to come one day when the banner headline in the Atlanta Journal Constitution reads: “State sets record for viruses in a single day.”
Masks will be required and temperatures will be taken at the airport rally, local media reported, although public health officials say such mass gatherings always carry risks.
Trump’s ability to enthuse his supporters remains powerful, and he thrives on the campaign trail.
Vice President Mike Pence addressed this December 4, 2020 rally in Savannah, Georgia, in support of two Republicans facing a runoff with national implications. (Photo: AFP / Spencer Platt)
But some voters, even in longtime conservative Georgia, are expressing weariness at the constant drama surrounding the president.
Analysts said it could make a crucial difference if Trump, in Valdosta, simply repeats his litany of electoral complaints or instead addresses the importance of maintaining control of the Senate.
“It will be good for the rally if it’s about Perdue and Kelley Loeffler and how we have to go vote,” Spud Bowen, a Republican businessman from Tifton, Georgia, told the Valdosta Daily Times, “but I’m certainly not in the mood to hear more. insults “.
THIN LINE
Loeffler and Perdue have moved cautiously, urging Georgians to vote without directly challenging Trump’s irate complaints.
But Trump hasn’t made it easy for Republicans in Georgia, angrily lashing out at his own party officials for his loss there, starting with Gov. Brian Kemp.
“I am ashamed to have supported him,” Trump said of Kemp, furious that the governor did not denounce Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, described by the president as an “enemy of the state,” for certifying the election.
The president telephoned Kemp early Saturday morning in what the Washington Post called a “blatant effort” to interfere with long-established elections.
The Post said Kemp, once a devoted Trump ally, had rejected the plea. His office confirmed the call, the Post said, if not its contents.
Kemp’s office previously said it would not attend Saturday’s rally, after a young Loeffler staff member and close friend of Kemp’s family, Harrison Deal, was killed in a car accident on Friday.
For Trump, 74, who is considering a new White House bid in 2024, the Georgia rally represents a gamble.
His performance there could increase his political chances, said conservative commentator Marc Thiessen.
But “if you let the Democrats take back the Senate because they were focused on stamping out some mythical communist conspiracy to steal the 2020 election, you will be disgraced,” Thiessen wrote in the Washington Post.
