Election in the United States: Trump pressures the governor of Georgia to help annul the result of the elections

US President Donald Trump unsuccessfully lobbied the governor of Georgia on Saturday to call a special legislative session aimed at overturning the results of the presidential elections in that state, as Trump’s obsession with his defeat overshadowed the campaign. of his party to save his majority in the Senate.

Trump and Georgia Governor Brian Kemp spoke by phone hours before Trump appeared at a rally in Valdosta, Georgia, where Republicans hoped the president would devote his energy to imploring supporters to vote in two second-round elections. On January 5.

But the question remained whether his first post-election political rally would be a mission to help his party or himself.

Hours before the event, Trump asked Kemp in the phone call to order the legislative session; the governor refused, according to a senior Georgia government official with knowledge of the call who was not authorized to discuss the private conversation and spoke on condition of anonymity.

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A person close to the White House who was briefed on the matter verified that account of the call.

Trump’s request was first reported by The Washington Post.

According to a tweet from the governor, Trump also asked him to order an audit of absent ballots from the presidential race in his state, a step that Kemp is not authorized to take because he has no authority to interfere in the electoral process on Trump’s behalf.

Trump’s personal contact with the governor showed that he intends to amplify his discredited conspiracy theories of voter fraud even as Georgia Republicans want him to focus on the January 5 runoff election and encourage his supporters to come out. and vote.

They are concerned that Trump is raising so much suspicion about the Georgia election that voters will think the system is rigged and will decide not to participate in the two Jan.5 elections, where Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler are trying to resist Democrats. Jon Ossoff and Raphael. Warnock, respectively, and keep the Senate under Republican control.

In his tweet, Kemp said: “As I told the President this morning, I have publicly requested a signature audit three times (11/20, 11/24, 12/3) to restore confidence in our electoral process and ensure that in Georgia only legal votes are counted. “

But a recommendation is all you can do about the electoral process.

The governor does not have the authority to order an audit in the race. Additionally, the Georgia race was certified for President-elect Joe Biden and affirmed by the state’s Republican election officials as a fair and counted vote, without any of the systemic errors that Trump alleges.

Aides to the president publicly scoffed at the idea that Trump could do anything at the Valdosta evening rally other than encourage Republicans to back Perdue and Loeffler.

“I think it’s the beginning of these two senators crossing the finish line,” said White House press secretary Kelly McEnany on the eve of Trump’s visit.

McEnany credited Trump with being his party’s biggest turnout driver, noting that Republicans cut the majority of House Democrats, while several vulnerable Republican senators survived the challenges by comfortable margins.

But after two pro-Trump lawyers questioned last week whether voting again is worth it, echoing the president’s unfounded allegations of widespread voter fraud, even Vice President Mike Pence betrayed concerns that the Republican coalition could crack under the strength of Trump’s complaints. .

“I know we all have our doubts about the last election, and I heard some of you say, ‘Just don’t vote,’” Pence said Friday while campaigning with Perdue in Savannah. “If you don’t vote, they win.”

Republicans need one more majority seat in the Senate. Democrats need a sweep in Georgia to force a 50-50 Senate and position Vice President-elect Kamala Harris as the runoff majority vote.

Few Republicans in Washington or Georgia believe that broad swaths of the electorate on this new battlefield would choose not to vote because of Trump’s false claims or his denigration of the Georgia governor and secretary of state for certifying Biden’s victory in the state.

The risk for the Republican Party is that it wouldn’t matter much if the runoff is as close as the presidential race: Biden won Georgia by about 12,500 votes out of 5 million cast. There’s enough noise to explain why Pence felt the need to face the matter head-on after two Trump loyalists raised the idea of ​​the president’s supporters abandoning Perdue and Loeffler.

“I would encourage all Georgians to let it be known that they will not vote at all until their vote is secure, and I mean that regardless of party,” attorney Sidney Powell said last week at a suburban Atlanta “Stop the Steal” rally. .

Lin Wood, a noted Atlanta attorney who has so far filed unsuccessful legal challenges to Biden’s victory, insisted to Trump supporters that the state election is “rigged.”

Trump’s team has recently attempted to dissociate itself from the pair, but only after they were given a prominent platform in the shaky effort to overturn the results of the presidential election. Additionally, Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, returned to the Georgia Capitol Thursday for a marathon hearing that featured another broadcast of disproven claims.

Trump has been the source of the party’s anguish with his recent statements that Kemp is “hapless” and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is an “enemy of the people” because they did not block Biden’s victory in Georgia. State law gives them no chance to do so.

It resonates with voters like Barry Mann, a 61-year-old businessman who came to hear Pence in Savannah. Mann has not decided whether he will vote for his senators a second time.

“I think there are some issues with our election and more research needs to be done,” Mann said, adding that he doesn’t think Perdue and Loeffler have done enough to support Trump’s efforts to overturn the results. “I want to see what happens between now and January,” Mann said.

A third recount of votes, this one requested by the president’s reelection campaign, was nearing completion. Raffensperger could certify the election again as early as Saturday; the result is not expected to change.

Tim Phillips, president of the conservative Americans for Prosperity, played down the idea that there are enough voters like Mann to cost Perdue and Loeffler. Phillips’ group has about 200 field workers throughout Georgia.

After his own turn knocking on the door on Friday, Phillips described the pool of potential GOP voters, especially in rural and small-town areas, as largely “voters who are not so much Republican or even conservative, but who love to Trump. ” That loyalty, he said, allows them to “hear two different messages” from Trump.

“He may say some things about the governor or other people, but the overriding message is that he is here for Perdue and Loeffler,” Phillips said. That should be “hugely beneficial.”