Santa Cruz Sentinel

Biden tells Georgia that GOP Senate would block his agenda

- By Bill Barrow and Aamer Madhani

ATLANTA >> President- elect Joe Biden told Georgia voters on Tuesday that they must deliver two Democratic Senate runoff victories in January so his administra­tion can forcefully confront the coronaviru­s pandemic and other national challenges.

Fresh off the Electoral College affirming his victory, Biden campaigned alongside Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock as they try to unseat Republican Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler in Jan. 5 runoff elections that will determine which party controls the Senate. The presidente­lect warned that Republican victories would leave him to face the kind of GOP obstructio­n that hampered former President Barack Obama for most of his two terms.

“I need two senators from this state who want to get something done,” Biden said at a drive-in rally near downtown Atlanta, criticizin­g Perdue and Loeffler for not supporting a sweeping new economic aid pack

age as the coronaviru­s pandemic surges.

“Are you ready to vote for two United States senators who know how to say the word ‘yes’ and not just ‘no’?” Biden said.

Hours earlier in Washington, Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell acknowledg­ed for the first time that Biden had defeated President Don

ald Trump after spending weeks muted about the president’s false claims that Biden stole the election through widespread voter fraud. In fact, elections officials across the country, including some Georgia Republican­s, vouched for the integrity of the voting process and tabulation­s.

Biden even won Georgia, becoming the first Demo

cratic presidenti­al candidate to achieve victory in the state since Bill Clinton in 1992.

Perdue and Loeff ler have not yet publicly acknowledg­ed Biden is president-elect, though Loeffler tweeted midday Tuesday: “I will never stop fighting for @realDonald­Trump because he has never stopped fighting for us!”

 ?? PATRICK SEMANSKY — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ?? President-elect Joe Biden speaks at a drive-in rally for Georgia Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff on Tuesday in Atlanta.
PATRICK SEMANSKY — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS President-elect Joe Biden speaks at a drive-in rally for Georgia Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff on Tuesday in Atlanta.

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