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US President Donald Trump voiced his own complaints about losing the presidential election at a rally in Georgia, rather than trying to help two Republican Senate candidates whose fate will decide the balance of power in Washington once the president-elect Joe Biden takes office next month.
Trump rallied thousands of mostly unmasked supporters in Valdosta on Saturday (local time), not long after the Republican governor of Georgia rejected him in his staggering call for a special legislative session to give him the state’s electoral votes despite that Biden won the most votes. .
Ben Gray / AP
President Donald Trump addresses the crowd at a rally for US Senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, who are facing a runoff election.
The latest futile attempt to subvert the presidential election results continued its unprecedented campaign to undermine confidence in the democratic process, but overshadowed its stated purpose: to power Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler.
Republicans need a victory to maintain their majority in the Senate. Democrats need a Georgia sweep to force a 50-50 Senate and position Vice President-elect Kamala Harris as the runoff majority vote. Party officials hoped the president would devote his energy to imploring his supporters to vote in the Jan. 5 elections, when Perdue and Loeffler try to hold off Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, respectively.
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Trump echoed the Republican rhetoric that the election represented “the most important second round of Congress, probably in the history of the United States.” That’s only true because he lost.
But after Air Force One landed, it quickly became clear that Trump’s goal was to air his own grievances and fan unfounded doubts about the conduct of last month’s voting, rather than to push his party forward.
“I want to stay in the presidency,” Trumps said minutes after his speech. “But I have to get to these two.” He praised Republican lawmakers, Perdue for his support of military spending and Loeffler for pushing for early coronavirus relief spending. But he quickly returned to his own defeat.
Trump pulled out a piece of paper and read a list of his electoral accomplishments, including the false claim that Georgia and the White House won. Biden won the state by 12,670 votes and won a record 81 million votes nationally. Trump continued to reiterate his unsubstantiated claims of fraud, despite his own administration assessing that the elections were conducted without major problems.
Chants of “fight for Trump” drowned out the two senators as they briefly spoke to the crowd.
Hours before the event, Trump asked Georgia Governor Brian Kemp in a 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. A person close to the White House who was briefed on the matter verified that account of the call.
Kemp, in a tweet, said that Trump also asked him to order an audit of the signatures on absentee ballot envelopes in his state, a step Kemp is not authorized to take because he has no authority to interfere in the electoral process on behalf. of Trump.
John Bazemore / AP
In this November 2018 photo, then-Republican candidate for Georgia gubernatorial Brian Kemp, left, walks with President Donald Trump as Trump arrives for a rally.
Trump, however, expressed his frustrations with Kemp on Twitter and at the rally.
“Your people refuse to do what you ask,” he complained in a tweet, as if speaking to Kemp. “What are they hiding? Request at least one Special Session of the Legislature immediately. That can be done easily and immediately. ”
At the rally, he once again took aim at Kemp, saying he could assure him of victory “if he knew what the hell he was doing.”
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 go 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 decide not to participate in both elections.
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 only legal votes are counted in Georgia. ”
While the governor does not have the authority to order a signature audit, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger initiated an audit and triggered a full tally that confirmed President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in Georgia. The race has been certified for Biden and affirmed by state Republican election officials as an impartially conducted and counted vote, without any of the systemic errors Trump alleges.
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 collapse 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.”
Brynn Anderson / AP
Georgia Democratic candidates for the United States Senate Raphael Warnock, left, and Jon Ossoff, right, gesture to a crowd during a campaign rally.
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.
First lady Melania Trump made a rare political appearance to introduce the president and encouraged Georgians to come out to vote.
“We must keep our seats in the Senate,” he said. “It is more important than ever that you exercise your rights as a citizen and vote.”
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 is enough noise to explain why Pence felt the need to confront the matter head-on after two Trump loyalists raised the idea that the president’s supporters abandoned Perdue and Loeffler.
Trump’s false claims have resonated with voters like Barry Mann, a 61-year-old business owner 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 does not believe that 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 vote recount, this one requested by the president’s re-election campaign, was nearing completion. Raffensperger could certify the election again as early as Saturday; the result is not expected to change.
Nadler reported from Atlanta and Miller from Wilmington, Delaware. Associated Press writers Bill Barrow in Atlanta and Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia, contributed to this report.
