Advertisement
Supported by
At Rally for Georgia Senators, Trump Focuses on His Own Grievances
President Trump falsely claimed the election was rigged and that he had won. Earlier, he urged Georgia’s governor to call a special legislative session to overturn Joe Biden’s win in the state.
By Jonathan Martin and
VALDOSTA, Ga. — One month before a pair of Georgia runoffs that will determine the Senate majority, President Trump used a rally for the two Republican senators on Saturday to complain about his own loss last month, insisting he would still prevail and, with notably less ardor, encouraging voters here to elect the Republicans.
Taking the stage for his first rally as a lame duck president, Mr. Trump immediately, and falsely, claimed victory in the presidential race. “You know we won Georgia, just so you understand,” he said.
Mr. Trump lost this state by just under 12,000 voters to President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr., who won the White House with 306 electoral votes. But the president has persisted in his baseless claims that the final outcome remains in doubt.
“They cheated and rigged our presidential election, but we’ll still win,” Mr. Trump said, offering no evidence but nonetheless prompting about 10,000 supporters gathered on the tarmac at a regional airport to chant, “Stop the Steal!”
Before he arrived here, the president made no attempt to disguise his central priority as it relates to Georgia: overturning his loss in the state. He began the day with a telephone call with Gov. Brian Kemp, ostensibly to offer his condolences to the governor about the death in a car accident of a young man who was close to Mr. Kemp’s family.
But in truth, Mr. Trump used the call to urge Mr. Kemp, a Republican, to call the state legislature into session so the G.O.P. majorities could appoint new electors who would subvert the will of the state’s voters when the Electoral College meets on Dec. 14. He has also called on Mr. Kemp to order an audit of signatures on ballots, complaining since the election that the governor has not done enough to root out what Mr. Trump claims is rampant fraud.
At the rally, Mr. Trump sharpened his critique of Mr. Kemp, all but demanding the governor overturn the will of the voters for him (without mentioning that he would still fall well short of winning re-election even with Georgia’s 16 electoral votes). “Your governor could stop it very easily if he knew what the hell he was doing,” said the president. “Stop it very easily.”
Mr. Trump did read a series of scripted lines about the two Republican senators, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, whose fate will decide whether Democrats have full control of Washington next year. He called the January races “the most important congressional runoff probably in American history” and lashed the Democratic nominees, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, as “far-left liberals.”
Yet his lament about what he repeatedly described as the “rigged” election illustrated the quandary for Republicans.
With Mr. Trump sowing distrust in Georgia’s voting system, railing against the vote-counting machines the state used and falsely asserting that mail-in ballots were rife with fraud, he’s giving Republicans in Georgia reason to question both voting by mail and in-person voting.
If even a modest number of Republicans in the state sit out the Senate runoffs, especially in rural areas where Mr. Trump’s support is strongest, it could be enough to alter the electoral math in this evenly divided state and tip the two races to the Democrats.
In Valdosta, 250 miles south of suburban Atlanta, supporters of the president began arriving by noon for the president’s evening rally.
The music, the red-white-and-blue stagecraft and Mr. Trump’s heavily anticipated arrival were all familiar. But he showed little joy, and much of his speech was dedicated to nursing his grievances and was often reminiscent of the misinformation-filled, 45-minute video he delivered from the White House earlier in the week.
“I got more votes than any sitting president in history,” Mr. Trump said.
The president’s willingness to campaign Saturday night in heavily conservative South Georgia heartened Republican officials, who have been lobbying him to intervene in the runoffs. But aides worried in the days leading to the appearance that he would go off script and attack Mr. Kemp, who has become the target of Mr. Trump’s Twitter vitriol.
Hoping to pacify Mr. Trump after Saturday’s phone call, Mr. Kemp acknowledged on Twitter and noted that he had already called for an audit of the signatures on mail ballots “to restore confidence in our election process.” Mr. Kemp’s office has said the governor does not have the power to unilaterally order a signature audit.
The governor did not mention that he and other state officials had certified the Georgia results last month. Mr. Kemp told the president that he would not attend the rally Saturday night because of the death of the family friend.
The phone call to Mr. Kemp and a series of tweets on Saturday that denounced the governor for failing to order a signature audit were the latest attempts by the president to subvert an election he lost by more than seven million votes nationwide and by about 12,000 in Georgia.
Though Mr. Trump has largely offered up falsehoods and conspiracy theories to rationalize his loss, many in the rank and file in his party who are similarly convinced that he was cheated from victory, polls show.
Because of the grip he maintains on conservative voters, Mr. Trump has the opportunity to play a decisive role in the Georgia Senate races. Making an emphatic case for Mr. Perdue and Ms. Loeffler could rally enough conservatives to ensure two Republican wins next month.
“The best thing they can do, those who supported Trump, is to support his legacy by having the Senate come back with a Republican majority,” said Senator Thom Tillis, Republican of North Carolina, articulating the message G.O.P. lawmakers hope Mr. Trump delivers.
Yet Mr. Trump is refusing to even acknowledge he lost and every day is sowing distrust in Georgia’s voting system as he takes to Twitter to cry falsely that the election was “rigged.”
“The senators’ best argument is that Georgia needs to elect them to be a check and balance on President Biden,” said Whit Ayres, a veteran Republican pollster. “The problem is, President Trump won’t let them make that message. And it puts the Senate candidates in a real bind.”
Compounding the challenge for Republicans, and to the great joy of Democrats, the president has been joined in his promotion of conspiracy theories by a pair of far-right lawyers, Sidney Powell and L. Lin Wood. But Ms. Powell, who until recently was part of Mr. Trump’s legal team, and Mr. Wood have gone even further, arguing that Georgia Republicans should punish the party by boycotting the Jan. 5 runoffs.
If even a modest number of Republicans sit out the election, especially in rural areas where Mr. Trump’s support is strongest, it could be enough to alter the electoral math in this evenly divided state and tip the two races to the Democrats.
Democrats are hoping Mr. Trump’s appearance will serve as motivation for their base. Just as Republicans are depending on the president to energize their voters, Democrats believe that making the runoffs a referendum on the president will rally both liberals and moderates.
This week, at campaign events throughout the Atlanta metropolitan area, Mr. Ossoff said Republicans were seeking to invalidate the will of Georgia voters, and drew a direct connection with the attempts to subvert the election and historic efforts at voter suppression directed at Black residents.
Gondra Crumbley, a 53-year-old supporter of Mr. Trump who lives in nearby Adel, Ga., said he has stopped watching Fox News in favor of Newsmax, which he said was more supportive of Mr. Trump and his claims of election fraud.
Mr. Crumbley said he planned to vote in the January runoff elections, but understands the hesitation from others considering what he feels has been inadequate action from the governor and secretary of state.
“This just ain’t right,” he said. “There’s all this corruption that you see on TV and they’re finding out. And everyone needs to step up when we see this type of corruption.”
Michael D. Shear contributed reporting from Washington.
Advertisement
"time" - Google News
December 06, 2020 at 08:34AM
https://ift.tt/3oqgXDf
At Rally for Georgia Senators, Trump Focuses on His Own Grievances - The New York Times
"time" - Google News
https://ift.tt/3f5iuuC
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
Bagikan Berita Ini
Related Posts :
Time is money: the armchair traders of lockdown - Reuters- Time's Up for Toxic Workplaces - Harvard Business Review
- The Last of Us Part II Is a Dark Game for a Dark Time - The New York Times
- Malala Yousafzai finishes Oxford University, says now is time for 'Netflix, reading and sleep' - CNN
- How Do the Police Actually Spend Their Time? - The New York Times
0 Response to "At Rally for Georgia Senators, Trump Focuses on His Own Grievances - The New York Times"
Post a Comment