Donald Trump’s defiance ‘could cost Republicans the senate’

Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn Joe Biden’s election victory are harming the Republicans’ chances of retaining control of the Senate.

‘If you don’t vote, the socialists and the communists win’: US President Donald Trump. Picture: AFP

President Trump’s efforts to discredit the integrity of the election and overturn Joe Biden’s victory are harming Republicans’ chances of retaining control of the Senate, senior figures in the party have warned.

Both parties are pouring huge resources into Georgia for a pair of knife-edge run-off elections in less than a month that will decide the balance of power in Congress for Mr Biden’s first two years.

Republicans were hoping that Mr Trump’s Saturday night rally in the state would stoke enthusiasm for the party’s two candidates among his base, which remains by far the largest and most fervent constituency among potential conservative voters.

Instead, while Mr Trump did urge the crowd at Valdosta regional airport to turn out and vote to keep its senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue in office, he devoted the bulk of his hour and 40 minute address to his own election grievances and continued to undermine his supporters’ faith in the democratic process.

He claimed once again, without evidence, that the Democrats “cheated and they rigged our presidential election”, and added that “they’re gonna try to rig this election too”.

He also railed against the supposed weakness of Georgia’s Republican state leadership for not being “tougher” in pushing back against the results of last month’s presidential election, where Mr Biden prevailed by fewer than 13,000 votes, becoming the first Democrat to win Georgia since Bill Clinton in 1992.

U.S. President-elect Joe Biden at the Queen theater on Friday in Wilmington, Delaware. Picture: AFP

One of those Republican leaders, Geoff Duncan, the state lieutenant governor, said that Mr Trump’s unproven allegations about the election’s integrity were “concerning to me”.

“I worry that this continuous fanning of the flames around misinformation puts us in a negative position with regards to the January 5 run-off,” Mr Duncan, the second highest ranking official in Georgia, told CNN’s State of the Union.

“The mountains of misinformation are not helping the process – they’re only hurting it,” he said. “I worry that we’re handing off a playbook to the Democrats for January 5, and certainly I can’t think of a worse playbook to hand off over the last four to five weeks.”

Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s secretary of state, said he had no doubt that Mr Biden had won the state fairly. As a Republican, he said he was disappointed that “my guy”, the president, did not win “but those are the election results”.

He added that he wanted Ms Loeffler and Mr Perdue to do well in their elections even though they have both called for him to be removed from office, echoing Mr Trump.

However, asked on ABC’s This Week if Mr Trump’s approach was hurting the two Republican candidates’ chances he said: “These distractions, this disunity, it does make it more difficult.”

He added that he had received death threats and his wife had been sent “sexualised texts” since Mr Trump called him an “enemy of the people” last month. Poll workers have been followed. “You’re seeing just irrational, angry behaviour. It’s unpatriotic. People shouldn’t be doing that.”

With Mr Biden established as the president in waiting and Democrats in the majority in the House of Representatives, Republicans need to win one of the two Senate run-offs next month to retain control of the Senate and exert authority over the legislative agenda in Washington for the next two years.

Ms Loeffler is being challenged by Raphael Warnock, a Democratic pastor who she was due to debate with last night (Sunday). Mr Perdue is facing a challenge from Jon Ossoff, a former investigative journalist.

The run-offs are required under Georgia state law because none of the candidates reached 50 per cent in November. Mr Perdue fell just short of defeating Mr Ossoff because a Libertarian candidate won a small slice of the vote, while Mr Warnock led Ms Loeffler in a 20-way field in which no candidate came close to 50 per cent.

Republicans hold a 50-48 advantage in the Senate but if Democrats win both races, the vice-president-elect, Kamala Harris, would cast any tiebreaking votes.

Hours before his appearance in Georgia, Mr Trump phoned the state’s governor, Brian Kemp, to put pressure on him to overturn the election result, according to media reports yesterday (Sunday).

On stage he accused Mr Kemp, who was not present, and Mr Raffensperger, of running scared of Stacey Abrams, a popular Democratic politician and organiser in the state who was narrowly defeated by Mr Kemp in the race for governor in 2018.

“You know we won Georgia, just so you understand,” Mr Trump said. “We didn’t lose.” He repeated unsubstantiated theories about widespread fraud to a crowd that chanted repeatedly “Stop the steal” and nodded towards a campaign, spearheaded by two Trump-supporting lawyers, to boycott the Senate run-off elections in protest. “Friends of mine say we are not going to vote because we are angry about the presidential election,” Mr Trump said. “Don’t listen to my friends.”

“You have to get out and you have to vote,” he added. “If you don’t vote, the socialists and the communists win.”

Despite his defeat, most leading Republican politicians remain extremely wary of alienating Mr Trump’s supporters. In a survey for The Washington Post, published at the weekend, only 27 of the 249 Republicans in Congress would publicly acknowledge Mr Biden as president-elect. Some 220 refused to answer.

Asked if they would accept Mr Biden as the legitimately elected president if he won a majority in the electoral college on December 14, 32 said yes while 215 declined to answer. Even more – 232 – declined to say whether they supported Mr Trump’s efforts to claim victory.

However, concerns are growing in the party that the president’s focus on election fraud will deflate Republican turnout in Georgia enough to hand victory to Democrats in both races.

Both parties are heavily investing in the two contests, with more than dollars 300 million booked in television, radio and digital adverts in the opening days of the campaigns, according to data from AdImpact, an ad-tracking firm.

The Times