Trump heads to Georgia, but fraud allegations may hurt Senate Republicans | US News



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Donald Trump will return to the electoral campaign on Saturday, not, at least theoretically, in his quixotic and doomed attempt to deny the defeat of Joe Biden, but in support of two Republicans who face the second round of January that will decide the control of the United States Senate. .

The President and First Lady Melania Trump will appear in Valdosta, Georgia at 7 p.m. local time.

“See you tomorrow night!” Triumph tweeted on Friday, as Vice President Mike Pence said in the southern state.

But the president couldn’t help but link the Senate race to his baseless allegations of electoral fraud in key states that he lost to Biden.

“The best way to ensure [sic] a victory “, wrote, “It is allowing signature checks in the presidential race, which will ensure [sic] a Georgia presidential victory (very few votes needed, many to be found).

“The spirits will soar and everyone will rush to VOTE!”

On the contrary, many observers posit that Trump’s incessant unsubstantiated claims that the elections were rigged could depress turnout among supporters in Georgia, giving a vital lead to Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, Democratic rivals Senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue.

If Ossoff and Warnock win, the Senate will split 50-50, and Kamala Harris’ vote as vice president will give Democrats control. Voting in both races is tight.

Republicans in Congress encourage Trump’s stubbornness. On Saturday, the Washington Post reported that only 25 of the 247 Republican representatives and senators have acknowledged Biden’s victory.

Biden won the electoral college 306-232, the same result that Trump said was a landslide when he landed in his favor on Hillary Clinton. The Democrat has more than 7 million votes ahead in the national popular vote, having drawn the support of more than 81 million Americans, the most of any presidential candidate.

However, Democrats underperformed in the Senate, House, and state elections, making the Georgia election vital to the balance of power in Washington as leaders seek a deal on stimulus measures and much needed public health to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic and its concomitant. economic downturn.

Earlier this week, Lin Wood and Sidney Powell, two attorneys who have been involved in legal challenges to Biden’s victory and smuggled in outlandish conspiracy theories, told Trump supporters not to vote in Georgia unless leaders Republicans act more aggressively to overturn the presidential result.

“We are not voting on January 5 on another machine made by China,” Wood said. said wednesday. “You will not fool the Georgians again. If Kelly Loeffler wants your vote, if David Perdue wants your vote, they have to earn it. They have to publicly, repeatedly, consistently demand, “Brian Kemp: Call a special session of the Georgia legislature.”

“And if they don’t, if Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue don’t, they haven’t earned their vote. Don’t give it to him. Why would you go back and vote in another rigged election? “

After a spate of defeats on Friday, Trump won an election-related lawsuit and lost 46. But he continues to attack, in Georgia criticizing Governor Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger for overseeing a race in which the state became a Democrat for the first time since 1992.

Matt Towery, a former Georgia Republican legislator now an analyst and pollster, told Reuters that Trump could help the state “if he spends most of his time talking about the two candidates, how wonderful they are, what they have accomplished.

“If you talk about them for 10 minutes and spend the rest of the time telling everyone how terrible Brian Kemp is, it will only make things worse.”

Gabriel Sterling, the Republican administrator of Georgia’s voting systems, this week blamed the president and his allies for threats of violence against workers and election officials. On Friday, he said: “I think the rhetoric that they are engaged in now is literally stifling the vote.”

At a rally in Savannah, the vice president was greeted with chants of “stop the robbery.”

“I know we all have our doubts about the last election,” Pence said, “and I actually hear some people say, ‘Just don’t vote.’ My compatriots, if they don’t vote, they win. “

Kemp and Loeffler missed campaign events Friday after a young aide to the senator was killed in a car accident.

Former President Barack Obama held a virtual event in support of Warnock and Ossoff. From Wilmington, Delaware, where he continues preparations to take power on January 20, Biden said he would travel to Georgia at some point to campaign with Democratic candidates.



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