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- Most of the GOP establishment since the election has either remained silent or supported President Donald Trump as he made unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud and rigging.
- Now he’s coming back to bite Republicans as the party sheds its weight behind two crucial Georgia polls next month that will decide who controls the Senate.
- At the center of the controversy are pro-Trump lawyers Lin Wood and Sidney Powell, who said the second round was “rigged” and urged Republican voters to boycott them.
- RNC President Ronna McDaniel also faced a messaging crisis when, after repeatedly supporting Trump’s fraud allegations, she struggled to persuade Georgian voters who believed in the allegations to participate in the second. tower.
- Trump is due to hold a rally this weekend for Republican Senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue. But many Republicans fear that if he uses the stage to voice his personal grievances, it may further deter his supporters from surrendering.
- Visit the Business Insider homepage for more stories.
President Donald Trump spent months before the general election crusading against postal voting and claiming that the election would be “rigged” against him.
After losing the race to President-elect Joe Biden, Trump has stepped up a gear, citing vague and false conspiracy theories about Democrats working with the “mainstream media” and Communist dictators who have died to steal an election.
Alongside the president are Republican lawyers Sidney Powell and Lin Wood, who have launched a series of lawsuits in recent weeks in an attempt to overturn the 2020 results while making allegations of election fraud without evidence. Throughout this time, the mainstream Republican establishment has been largely silent or actively supported these claims.
Now that complicity returns to bite the GOP ahead of two crucial second-round elections in Georgia that will decide which party controls the Senate.
“Why would you come back and vote in another rigged election, for God’s sake?”
In a race, Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler faces a Democratic challenger, Raphael Warnock. In the other, Republican Senator David Perdue tries to push back Democrat Jon Ossoff. Both parties are waging huge election campaigns to increase turnout in the January 5 runoff election.
But Republicans face a roadblock as Wood and Powell urge Georgian voters to boycott the elections because, they say, they are already “rigged.”
At a “Stop the Steal” rally in the state earlier this week, Wood told a crowd of Trump supporters not to vote for Loeffler and Perdue.
“Don’t give it to them,” he said. “Why would you come back and vote in another rigged election, for God’s sake? Fix it! You have to fix it!”
“I 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 the party,” said Powell. “We cannot live in a republic, a free republic, unless we know our votes are legal and secure.”
Checking the facts:
- As Business Insider reported, the 2020 election was the safest and most secure in recent history due to the use of paper ballots and voting machines with verifiable paper traces. The Trump campaign and Republican officials have filed more than two dozen lawsuits challenging the election results and have won none. The six states that decided the election also certified their results as of this week, confirming Biden’s victory.
A journalist joked that Wood and Powell’s comments “may be in-kind contributions for Georgia Democrats.”
Republican lawmakers also appeared to recognize the risk their statements could pose to GOP participation.
“I don’t know who this clown is, but anyone who says America would be better off with Chuck Schumer as the leader of the majority – producing huge tax increases, the Green New Deal, a massive amnesty and a court? supreme crowded destroying Bill of Rights – trying to deceive the Georgian people, ”said Senator Ted Cruz of Texas tweeted.
The Trump campaign distanced itself from Powell after she gave a bizarre press conference on the election. But Trump and his allies have repeatedly praised her since she began representing retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser who was trapped in the investigation. on Russia and recently pardoned by Trump.
The president also defended Powell and Wood in a series of retweets this week.
—Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) December 4, 2020
Republicans ‘very concerned’ Trump dissuading GOP base from turning around
But fringe actors like Powell and Wood aren’t the only ones sparking controversy for the party.
Last week, Ronna McDaniel, the chairperson of the Republican National Committee, appeared to face a messaging crisis on her own initiative when, after weeks of supporting the president’s claims, she struggled to persuade Georgian voters who believed that the election had been rigged to participate in the second round of the Senate.
When a Trump supporter echoed the President’s baseless claim that the voting machines had been tampered with and illegally transferred votes from Trump to Biden, McDaniel replied, “We haven’t seen this in the past. ‘audit, so we just have to … This evidence we haven’t seen, so we’ll have to wait and see. “
At another point, a voter asked why they should put in “more money and work” when the two races were “already decided”.
“It’s not decided,” McDaniel said. “That’s the key. It’s not decided.”
Trump is expected to travel to Georgia this weekend to stage a rally supporting Loeffler and Perdue. Republicans are excited about the event, but some party members are also concerned that if Trump uses the stage to continue to voice his grievances over the 2020 election, it could deter his supporters from making it to the second round.
The president lost Georgia to Biden by around 13,000 votes and has repeatedly said his defeat was the result of widespread electoral fraud and mischief. As the Guardian’s Sam Levine wrote, “by undermining confidence in the election, Trump could also tell his supporters that their votes won’t matter.”
Allen Peake, a former Republican state lawmaker, echoed these concerns, telling Politico that “it is important that Trump comes to focus on the Senate election and not the other peripheral side protests of whining, to complain and to bring unfounded accusations “.
“But it’s kind of been his fashion for the past four years,” added Peake. “I don’t think he will change. So I’m very concerned about that on Saturday.”
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