Coronavirus: New blow for Donald Trump as Rudy Giuliani tests positive

Giuliani’s positive test means other team members may have to quarantine, as Georgia rebuffs calls to challenge the election.

Donald Trump’s longshot legal campaign to overturn the election result has suffered new blows after his lawyer Rudy Giuliani tested positive for COVID-19 and Georgia rebuffed his calls to challenge the outcome.

The news that the 76-year-old Giuliani had been infected with the coronavirus turned Mr Trump’s legal campaign upside down with the possibility that other members of the president’s legal team will also have to quarantine.

The former New York mayor has been leading the unlikely legal effort to challenge Joe Biden’s election victory, and has been travelling across the country appearing in courts, mostly without wearing a mask.

This week, the Trump team was set to make more claims of election fraud across various states despite the fact that no court has yet been persuaded that the election outcome was tainted by fraud.

“@RudyGiuliani, by far the greatest mayor in the history of NYC, and who has been working tirelessly exposing the most corrupt election (be far) in the history of the USA, has tested positive for the China Virus. Get better soon Rudy, we will carry on!!!” Mr Trump tweeted.

.@RudyGiuliani, by far the greatest mayor in the history of NYC, and who has been working tirelessly exposing the most corrupt election (by far!) in the history of the USA, has tested positive for the China Virus. Get better soon Rudy, we will carry on!!!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 6, 2020

The president also suffered a setback in Georgia in his attempts to overturn the 12,000 vote victory for Mr Biden in that state. Mr Trump held his first post-election rally in Georgia at the weekend where he called on the state’s Republican Governor Brian Kemp to call a special session of the state’s legislature to encourage Republicans to appoint pro-Trump electors to swing the state’s electoral college vote in his favour.

“The governor is not going to call us into a special session,” Georgia’s Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan, a Republican, said on Monday (AEDT). “We’re certainly not going to move the goal posts at this point in the election. We are going to continue to follow the letter of the law.”

Georgia, a traditionally Republican state which voted for Mr Biden, has already held a recount which confirmed the victory of the 78-year-old president-elect.

Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who has been criticised by Mr Trump for not fighting to overturn the result, said “I don’t believe that there’s the will in the general assembly for a special session.’’

Mr Trump used his rally to claim that the election was rigged and that he won Georgia as well as the overall election.

“You know we won Georgia, just so you understand,” he told the crowd. “We’re winning this election … we will still win it.”

“It’s rigged. It’s a fixed deal,” he said of Mr Biden’s victory.

Although the six states where Mr Trump has challenged the results have each certified Mr Biden as the winner, the president is expected to keep challenging the outcome until the Electoral College formally casts its votes on December 14.

Some Republicans are concerned that the president’s claims of massive election fraud in Georgia will undermine the willingness of Republicans to vote in two crucial Senate run-offs in the state on January 5.

Even so, the president used his rally to urge Georgians to vote as two Republican incumbent Senators – David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler – fight to retain their seats against Democrat challengers Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock.

The contest will decide who controls the Senate, with Democrats needing to win both races to gain a 50-50 split in the Senate which would amount to a Democrat majority because in that circumstance Vice President Kamala Harris would have the deciding vote.

Mr Trump has warned that if Democrats control the Senate the progressive left of the party would have a major influence over US political life.

“The voters of Georgia will determine which party runs every committee, writes every piece of legislation, controls every single taxpayer dollar,” he said.

“Very simply, you will decide whether your children will grow up in a socialist country or whether they will grow up in a free country.”

(Cameron Stewart is also US Contributor for Sky News Australia)