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DALTON, Georgia – President Donald Trump on Monday announced a rally to gain support for the two incumbent Republicans the night before their decisive second round of the Senate, but he quickly went on to attack members of his own party, spreading misinformation on voter fraud and advocating for the 2016 and 2020 elections.
“The point is, we won the presidential election, we won it big. And we’re going to win tomorrow, ”Trump said at an outdoor rally Monday night. “The Democrats are trying to rob the White House. You just can’t let them rob the Senate.”
President-elect Joe Biden won Georgia by nearly 12,000 votes and is expected to be sworn in later this month despite repeated attempts by Trump to overturn the results.
Trump spent weeks pressuring Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler and Republican David Perdue, whose Senate tenure expired on Sunday, to hear his unfounded allegations of widespread voter fraud or risk disabling his dedicated base.
This pressure appeared to be effective.
In her brief speech Monday, Loeffler announced that she would oppose certification of the electoral college votes on Wednesday, joining a growing number of Republican senators who have bowed to Trump’s demands to do more to quash the election in his favor. Voting is largely performative and poses no real risk of removing Biden’s presidency.
Perdue, who did not attend the rally in person due to close contact with someone who tested positive for the coronavirus, addressed the crowd in a video message.
“If you’re as crazy as I am about November, then stand up with us and fight,” Perdue said. “If we don’t stand up and vote tomorrow, everything President Trump has done to make America great again is gone.”
Perdue faces Democrat Jon Ossoff while Loeffler is against Raphael Warnock after the candidates failed in November to meet the 50% threshold required for an outright victory.
Trump has brushed aside concerns from some Republicans that he would use his latest rally to sabotage the party by telling his supporters not to participate in a voting process he has spent the past two months denouncing against.
“No,” Trump replied. “Do you know what I want? I want a big country.
The president’s refusal to accept the election results reached new heights on Saturday when he pleaded with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in a phone call to “find 11,780 votes” and threatened to continue to spread electoral fraud conspiracy theories.
Trump kept that promise, using much of his roughly 70-minute speech to broadcast the number of ballots he claimed were missing in the final vote count, though there is no evidence for substantiate its claims.
“I’m going to be here in a year and a half and I’m going to campaign against your crazy governors and secretaries,” Trump said, expressing fear that many Republicans had this November integrity defense. the elections could take place at the risk of losing the president’s support. In addition to his attacks on Raffensperger and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, both Republicans, Trump also took a hit on Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, who did not join the effort to challenge the results on Wednesday.
“I’m a little angry with you right now, Mike,” Trump said. He also targeted Vice President Mike Pence and his role in certifying Wednesday’s election: “I hope Mike Pence will come for us. I have to tell you. I hope our great Vice President will come for us. He’s a great guy, of course if he doesn’t pass I won’t like him that much.
Yet it’s still unclear to what extent Trump’s words will impact the outcome. More than 3 million people have already voted in the second round in Georgia, breaking attendance records for an off-cycle race, and many fans at Monday night’s event said they had already voted for Perdue and Loeffler.
“They might be RINOs, but at least they’re not Communists,” said Gilbert Deloye, 68, of the Republican Senate candidates.
“These November votes were stolen,” he added. “You can’t put lipstick on a pig. So yeah, I still voted this time because I know Democrats are already working on stealing this one and our best hope is that they get caught. in the act. “
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