AtGeorgia Senate rally, Trump can help his party or himself
ATLANTA— President Donald Trump’s first political rally since losing his reelection bid is ostensibly to urge support for the Republican incumbents in Georgia’s two runoffs that will decide which party controls the Senate at the startof JoeBiden’s administration.
But the question remains whetherTrumpwill reallytry to help his party or use the Saturday night event in Valdosta toamplifyhis conspiratorial and debunked theories of electoral fraud.
Republicans are worried that if Trump does the latter, their voters will think the systemis riggedanddecide tosit out the twoJan. 5 races. They want Trump to tell people directly and force fully to vote.
The president’s aides publicly scoff at the idea he mightdoanything other than encourage Republicans to back Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler as they try to withstand Democrats Jon Os so ff and Raphael Warnock, respectively.
“I believe it’s the start of these two senators crossing the finish line,” White House press secretary Kelly McEnany said on the eve of Trump’s visit. McEnany credited Trump with being his party’s biggest turnout driver, noting that Republicans narrowed House Democrats’ majority while several vulnerable Republican senators survived challenges by comfortable margins.
Trump’s base “is behind himall theway,” she toldFox Business Network. “He is the head of this movement, make no mistake, and that will not be changing.”
But after two pro-Trump lawyers this past week questioned whether voting again is evenworthit -- inechoesof the president’s baseless accusations of widespread voter fraud -- even Vice President Mike Pen ce betrayed concerns that theRepublican coalition could crack under the force of Trump’s grievances.
“I know we’ve all got our doubts about the last election, and I hear some of you saying, ‘Just don’t vote,’ ” Pence said Friday while campaigning withPerdue inSavannah. “If you don’t vote, they win.”
Republicans need one more seat for a Senate majority. Democrats need a Georgia sweep to force a 50-50 Senate and position Vice President-elect Kamala Harris as the tiebreaking majorityvote.
Few Republicans in Washington or Georgia believe wide swaths of the electorate in this newfound battle ground would opt out of voting 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 forth eGO Pis that it wouldn’ t take much of a dropoff to matter if the runoffs are as close as the presidential contest: Biden won Georgia by about 12,500 votesout of 5 million cast. There’s enough noise to explain why Pen ce felt the need to confront thematter head on after two Trump loyalists floated the idea of the president’s supporters bailing on Perdue and Loeffler.
“I would encourage all
Georgians to make it known that you will not vote at all until your vote is secure — and I mean that regardless of party,” lawyer SidneyPowell said this past week at a suburban Atlanta “Stop the Steal” rally.
Atlanta celebrity lawyer Lin Wood, who’s filed thus-far unsuccessful court challenges to Biden’s victory, insisted to Trump’s supporters that the state’s elections are “rigged.”
Trump’s teamhas recently tried to dissociate itself from the pair but only after they were given a prominent platform in the flailing effort to overturn the presidential election results. Moreover, Trumppersonal lawyerRudy Giuliani returned Thursday to the Georgia Capitol for a marathon hearing that featured yet another airing of disproved claims.
Trump has been the source of party angst with his recent declarations that Georgia Gov. BrianKempis “hapless” and Secretary of State Brad Ra ff ens per geri san“enemy of the people” because they didn’t block Bid en’ s Georgia victory. State law gives them no avenue to do so.
It’s resonated with voters such as Barry Mann, a61-yearold business owner who came to hear Pence in Savannah. Mann hasn’ t decided whether he’ll vote for his senators a second time.
“I think there’ s some issues with our election and more investigation needs to be done,” Mannsaid, addingthat he doesn’t think Perdue and Loef fl er have done enough to support Trump’s efforts to overturn the results.
Athirdvote count, thisone requested by the president’s reelection campaign, was nearing completion. Raffensperger could certify the election again as soon as Saturday; the result is not expected to change.