Trump headed to Georgia as runoff boost, threat
ATLANTA » Some establishment Republicans are sounding alarms that President Donald Trump’s conspiratorial denials of his own defeat could threaten the party’s ability to win a Senate major i t y and counter President- elect Joe Biden’s adminis - tration.
The concerns come ahead of Trump’s planned Saturday visit to Georgia to campaign alongside Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, who face strong Democratic challengers in Jan. 5 runoffs that will determine which party controls the Senate at the outset of Biden’s presidency.
Republicans acknowledge Trump as the GOP’s biggest turnout driver, including inGeorgia, where Biden won by fewer than 13,000 votes out of about 5 million cast.
That means every bit of enthusiasm from one of Trump’s signature rallies could matter.
But some Republicans worry Trump will use the platform to amplify his baseless allegations of widespread voter fraud — arguments roundly rejected in state and federal courts across the country. That couldmake it harder for Perdue and Loeffler to keep a clear focus on the stakes in January and could even discourage Republicans from voting.
“The president has basically taken hostage this race,” said Brendan Buck, once a top adviser to former House Speaker Paul Ryan.
Especially fraught are Trump’s continued attacks on Georgia’s Republican state officials and the state’s election system, potentially taking away from his public praise of Loeffler and Perdue.
“Trump’s comments are damaging the Republican brand,” argued Republican donor Dan Eberhart, who added that the president is “acting in bad sportsmanship and bad faith” instead of emphasizing Republicans’ need to maintain Senate control.
The GOP needs one more seat for a majority. Democrats need Jon Ossoff to defeat Perdue and Raphael Warnock to defeat Loeff ler to force a 50- 50 Senate, positioning Vice President- elect Kamala Harris as the tiebreaking majority vote.
Trump on Monday blasted Gov. Brian Kemp as “hapless” for not intervening to “overrule” Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s certification of Biden’s win.
The president baselessly claimed in a Tuesday tweet that Kemp had allowed Georgia to be “scammed.”
On Sunday, Trump told Fox News he was “ashamed” he’d endorsed Kemp in his 2018 GOP primary for governor. Kemp’s office noted in response that state law gives Kemp no authority to overturn election results, despite Trump’s contention that Kemp could “easily” invoke “emergency powers.”
Meanwhile, Raffensperger, a Trump supporter like Kemp, has accused the president of throwing him “under the bus” for doing his job.