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ATLANTA – President Donald Trump is ending his tenure in the White House as his candidacy has begun: to lead a scorched earth crusade against members of his own party.
With Senate party control resting on a pair of second-round races in Georgia, Trump has spent the last few weeks trying to undermine confidence in an election he lost and attack Republican officials here he has. formerly supported.
In interviews, Georgia Republicans have projected their confidence that Trump’s false allegations of widespread fraud and his continued efforts to cast doubt on the integrity of the Georgian electoral process will not keep their voters at home the month next – simply because the stakes in the second round of the January 5 elections are so clear.
But some have revealed concerns, while others have called for party unity. In a state where the divide between Democratic and Republican voters is as tight as it gets, they know that if even a small segment of Trump supporters – or bill separators – walk away, victory is more difficult.
“This is by far the toughest race we’ll ever go on,” said a Republican agent familiar with Senator David Perdue’s re-election campaign. “This is the most important and it is the most difficult.
“It’s a very simple path, but it’s a very windy road to get there,” the person added. “Right now, I would say, I have never seen the Republican Party more united in understanding what is at stake and understanding what needs to be done to end it. … People have different priorities in the meantime of what they are doing. “
Trump and some allies have made baseless claims about rigged elections across the country, focusing on Georgia after losing the state to President-elect Joe Biden by less than 13,000 votes. Trump saved some of his strongest anger at Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, both Republicans, and he urged them to take action to overturn the election the men called illegal .
Trump tweeted on Tuesday that if Kemp simply ran the November election the way he wanted – effectively depriving a significant number of Democratic voters, many of whom are black – he could “cancel” the second round.
Gabriel Sterling, a Republican who is responsible for implementing the state’s voting system, chided Trump at a press conference on Tuesday.
“It must stop,” he said of the fury directed at state officials, pointing to threats Raffensperger, his family and other election officials received. “Mr. President, you did not condemn these actions or this language.”
Asset responded by calling the elections “rigged” on Twitter and suggesting that state officials were engaged in a cover-up.
Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, a Republican, has dispelled the theories Trump and his allies have been promoting in recent days. In an interview, he said he was “afraid” that the rhetoric “will negatively affect these second-round races”.
“And I strongly encourage both the president and his team and Republicans in general and senators to redirect their energy to get re-elected and not get caught up in this massive wave of disinformation, because that’s exactly what it is, ”Duncan told me. “This is a massive and unfounded wave of disinformation. There has been no sign of systemic or organized fraud here in Georgia. And as lieutenant governor of that state, I am proud of it, no matter what. the person I voted for didn’t win. “
A call for party unity
Trump is due to travel to Georgia on Saturday to campaign for Perdue and Senator Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., Who face Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock respectively, after no candidate hits the 50% threshold on the month latest.
Republicans across the state are hoping he will focus his message on electing the two, not last month’s election. In an open letter shared with NBC News on Wednesday, 18 former Republican leaders in Georgia called on the party to rally around the goal.
Former Senator Saxby Chambliss was one of the signatories. He said in an interview that the letter was in response to “comments from several different camps that people should remember not to vote on January 5”.
“It makes absolutely no sense,” he said. “And then those of us who were talking about it, it occurred to us that we needed to do something about it.”
Chambliss said he wanted Trump to stop his attacks on Kemp and Raffensperger, both of whom he defended as having followed the law. He said allegations of widespread electoral fraud “are still unfounded”.
He said he expects Trump to explain why Perdue and Loeffler’s election matters, especially for those considering not voting.
“He has to remind them that he has a legacy that he wants to see maintained,” Chambliss said.
Others echoed this sentiment.
“I want him to focus on the future and protect the values he has served and pursued,” said Loeffler campaign adviser Eric Johnson, a former GOP leader in the State Senate, who has signed the letter. “Where Trump may have been defeated, the Republicans have done well. So to me that says whether or not they like the president, they don’t like the agenda of the left.
“Regardless of what happens with voter fraud, control the US Senate – Republicans are not stupid,” he added. “They can do the math. They know that 52-48 is better than 50-50.”
Jay Williams, a Georgia GOP strategist, has said he doesn’t expect Republican voters to choose to “cut our noses to upset us.”
The only really damaging thing Trump could say on Saturday would be “stay home,” he added.
“I can’t tell you how many grassroots people I’m talking to, and officials, who are absolutely convinced that there is massive voter fraud,” he said. “So that obviously has some sort of effect. And I think coming here actually helps mitigate that, unless he says something crazy, but we’ll find out.”
‘I hope and pray this will end immediately’
State Republicans have promoted the importance of keeping the Senate under GOP control to provide control over a Democratic president. But the candidates themselves have sought to walk a fine line on this message, as it recognizes that Trump will no longer be in the White House next year.
The delicacy of this position was on display last week, when a man interrupted Perdue at a campaign event to ask what he was “doing to help Donald Trump in this fraud case.”
The audience started to applaud. Perdue stressed that he had called for Raffensperger’s resignation and said he wanted to see additional lawsuits aimed at overturning the results.
Meanwhile, influential conservatives like L. Lin Wood, a Georgian lawyer and Trump ally, on Wednesday advised supporters not to vote in January.
Speaking at a rally, Wood said Loeffler and Perdue had yet to “win your vote.”
“Why would you come back and vote in another rigged election, for God’s sake?” says Wood, seeking an injunction to stop the runoff. “Fix it! You must fix it!”
Duncan said such rhetoric had alarmed him.
“Very smart, successful, accomplished people that I know in everyday life are hooked on those random, one-time Twitter or Facebook posts that take anyone 10 seconds to debunk, and they’re sucked into it,” he says. don’t know where it came from. I don’t know where the energy is, but I hope and pray that it stops immediately. “
Some on the left have even grasped this energy. Billboards paid for by the Really American PAC reading “Perdue / Loeffler Didn’t Deliver For Trump, DO NOT Deliver For Them” started popping up across the state recently.
Justin Horwitz, founder and chairman of the group, said nine of those billboards were in place and the group planned to place at least 20 of them, all in areas that voted more than 70 percent for Trump on last month.
A Republican strategist from Georgia said, “It’s the Democrats doing it like they’re right-wing fools. It’s great. It’s great because that’s exactly what Lin Wood would say.”
The strategist said Trump “can decide if he wants to be a plus or a minus” on his trip to the state, adding, “He definitely has the ability to come here and blow this thing up.”
Some Republicans are ready to turn the page
Voters polled in Forsyth County, northeast of Atlanta, where Trump won around 66% of the vote, said they would vote for Perdue and Loeffler.
Ken Prevette, a Republican, said he didn’t think much of Perdue and Loeffler, but believed the country needed checks and balances and a unified government would not be good. He said he had voted “reluctantly” for Trump, praising some of his efforts while condemning him as a human being.
“His inability to recognize that he is not as tall as he thinks cost him the election,” said Prevette. “And so now this Senate election, for me, is pretty important.”
Prevette added that it was high time for Trump to accept the election results.
“I thought it showed a lack of class on Stacey Abrams when she refused to admit she lost the gubernatorial election last time,” he said. “And I would be a hypocrite if I didn’t say I feel the same about Trump and what he did. I understand it was a very close election, but I think his ego stood in the way. to reality. “
The runoff in Georgia has always favored Republicans. But with increased national exposure, a flood of donor money, increased efforts to register voters and a president pulling by his side, Republicans have recognized that this time around could be different.
“I’ve been doing this for 20 years,” said Williams, one of the quarterbacks. “I’ve never seen anything crazy like this.”
Trump posted a tweet on Wednesday that could help calm some Republican anxieties.
“Will be going to Georgia for a big Trump rally in support of our two great Republican senators, David and Kelly,” he said. “They are fantastic people who love their country and love their state. We have to work hard and make sure they win.”
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