Trump is Peachy mean
Prez bashes Ga. gov over results before rally
President Trump jetted into Georgia on Saturday night for his first post-election #MAGA rally, just hours after he tried unsuccessfully to persuade the state’s Republican governor to take steps to overturn the the Peach State’s presidential vote.
The outgoing president was set to rally thousands of his faithful supporters who gathered outside the south Georgia city of Valdosta to support two Republican senators facing crucial run-off elections on Jan. 5.
Before heading to rally, Trump called Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, and pressed him to call a special session of the state Legislature with the aim of having legislators overturn the results of the Nov. 3 election and pick a proTrump slate of electors.
Kemp rebuffed Trump in what the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported was an “angry clash” that spurred the president to lash out at the governor on Twitter.
“Republicans will NEVER forget this,” Trump wrote.
Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler need a strong turnout in the GOP heartland of southern Georgia to turn aside the challenges of Democrats Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock, who will likely run up big margins in the Atlanta metro area.
Republicans already hold 50 Senate seats, so they need to hold onto one of the Georgia seats to keep control of the Senate. But GOP strategists worry that Trump’s claims of fraud in the presidential election could hurt Republican turnout in the Georgia runoff.
Trump has spent weeks relentlessly attacking Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger after losing to President-elect Joe Biden.
Just hours before the rally, Trump lobbed new attacks on the men, questioning if they are truly Republicans and demanding they launch a new crackdown on mail-in voting ahead of the Jan. 5 run-off votes.
“Why are these two ’Republicans’ saying no?” Trump asked. “If we win Georgia, everything else falls in place!”
Trump lost Georgia by more than 10,000 votes and the results have already been certified.
But the president continues to deride the Peach State’s voting system as flawed and subject to widespread fraud and abuse, which he says rigs the results in favor of Democrats.
Republicans worry that the angry attacks could dampen enthusiasm among Trump’s right-wing base to vote in the runoffs.
Loeffler and Warnock will face off in their first one-on-one debate on Sunday.
Perdue is ducking debates with Ossoff after the youthful challenger was widely declared the lopsided winner of their last contest before the November election, in which neither one won 50%.
Despite the GOP intramural sniping, the money is still on Republicans retaining one or both seats. Turnout will be lower in the run-offs and Democrats showed up in smaller numbers in similar past races.