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ATLANTA – On the eve of the Georgian Senate run-off, a senior state election official on Monday condemned President Trump for his false allegations of electoral fraud and made an emotional appeal to Georgians to ignore the disinformation of the government. president and cast their ballots Tuesday in a race that will determine control of the Senate.
The official, Gabriel Sterling, ticked off a point-by-point rebuttal of Mr. Trump’s grievances over his loss in Georgia to Joseph R. Biden Jr., which the president aired more recently over the weekend during the a phone call with the Secretary of State. Brad Raffensperger, another Republican. Mr. Trump pressured Mr. Raffensperger during the conversation to “find” votes to overturn his general election defeat.
“I wanted to scream,” Sterling said at an afternoon press conference, referring to his reaction to the call between Mr. Trump and Mr. Raffensperger. Mr Sterling, responsible for implementing the state’s voting system, said the president’s fraud allegations had been “completely debunked”.
“Personally, I found it to be something that was not normal, out of place, and no one that I know of who would be president would do something like that to a secretary of state.
His harsh rebuke provided the most vivid example of how Mr. Trump’s sustained assault on Georgia’s electoral integrity rocked state policy ahead of Tuesday’s run-off. Even as Mr. Trump prepared to campaign in northwest Georgia on Monday night for the two Republican incumbents, Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, party officials feared his unsubstantiated claims of a rigged election would reduce the participation rate among their base.
Both the president and Mr. Biden were making last-minute efforts to influence the outcome of the two second-round races that decide not only which party will control the Senate, but also the arc of Mr. Biden’s first-term political platform. If the two Democratic challengers, Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock, both win, the Democrats will control the White House and both houses of Congress.
At his Monday night rally in Dalton, northwest Georgia, Mr. Trump recycled his baseless claims that he had been the victim of voter fraud, and he vowed to keep fighting. “It was a rigged election, but we’re still fighting, and you’ll see what happens,” he said. Mr. Trump also called Tuesday’s vote “one of the most important polls in our country’s history,” and congratulated Mr. Perdue and Ms. Loeffler.
Democrats were trying to rob the White House, he told the crowd, so they couldn’t afford to let them rob the Senate.
He repeated his false claim that he won “by a landslide” and said he hoped Vice President Mike Pence “will pass for us”, an allusion to Mr Pence’s role as President of the Congress when it meets to certify Mr. Biden. victory Wednesday. “He’s a great guy,” he said of Mr. Pence. “Of course, if he doesn’t pass, I won’t like him that much.
Heading to Atlanta late Monday afternoon, Biden made no direct mention of Mr. Trump’s phone call, but obliquely criticized the president’s strongman tactics.
Speaking to a few hundred supporters flared on the hoods and roofs of their cars in a downtown parking lot, Mr Biden said Mr Trump was absorbing a hard lesson in democracy.
“As our friends in the opposition are finding out, all power comes from the people,” the president-elect said, adding that politicians could not “take power”.
Dressed in a black mask emblazoned with the word ‘VOTE’, Mr Biden urged the multiracial public of Georgians to do just that.
“It’s not hyperbole, you can change America,” he said.
That was the heart of Mr Sterling’s message and he implored voters to go to the polls on Tuesday. “If you are a Georgian voter, if you want your values to be reflected by your elected officials, I beg and strongly encourage you, go vote tomorrow,” he said. “Don’t let anyone put you off. Do not suppress your own vote. “
Hours before Mr. Trump’s appearance in Dalton, many of his staunch supporters defended his phone call to Mr. Raffensperger.
Neal Fitzgibbons of Kennesaw said the president just wanted the secretary of state to “take a very close look at all the irregularities that we’ve seen.”
Mr Fitzgibbons cited many of the same refuted claims the president made.
“Things were questionable, if not outright theft, and should be looked into,” he said.
Visits from Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump have increased the intensity of the races that have already become the most expensive Senate contests in U.S. history. Including the campaign before the second round, more than $ 469 million was spent in the Perdue-Ossoff contest, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, and more than $ 362 million was spent in the Loeffler-Warnock race.
As they did throughout the race, Republicans continued to warn on Monday of a dramatic slide into far-left socialism if Democrats take control of both Congress and the White House.
And Democrats argue that Mr. Trump has sought nothing less than to quash the will of the electorate and undermine democracy with his call on Mr. Raffensperger.
Earlier today, Mr Pence amplified the Republican message during a visit to a mega-church in Milner, central Georgia.
Standing in front of an image of an American flag and two screens that said ‘DEFEND THE MAJORITY’, Mr Pence said: ‘We need Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler to block the agenda of the radical left in Washington, DC ”as the crowd broke in chanting both“ Four Years Older ”and“ Stop The Theft ”.
Mr Pence did not mention the president’s phone call on Saturday to Mr Raffensperger, which was first reported by The Washington Post. A number of legal scholars have said the president may have broken state and local laws, although they also said criminal prosecution would be unlikely.
Nonetheless, Georgia election officials had received at least two official calls on Monday to investigate Mr. Trump’s violation of state laws.
In an appearance Monday in Conyers, an eastern suburb of Atlanta, Mr. Ossoff, the head of a video production company that challenges Mr. Perdue, sought to draw parallels between Mr. Trump’s phone call and Georgia’s long history of voter suppression and denial of the right to vote.
“The President of the United States on the phone trying to intimidate Georgia election officials into rejecting your votes,” Ossoff told a rally of volunteers preparing to canvass. “Let’s send a message: don’t come to Georgia and try to waste our voting rights.”
Among grassroots Democrats, the president’s phone call only added to their anger and desire to push senators who have so closely aligned with Mr Trump to resign.
Hillary Drummond Simpson, a retired elementary and middle school teacher, said she was puzzled at the support the president still had. “I don’t understand,” she said. “I don’t understand what they look for in a leader.”
Verdaillia Turner, who was at Conyers to help with prospecting, said she believes the president’s strong tactics could help Democrats gain momentum. “It’s like a beautiful and perfect storm, and all eyes are on us,” said Ms. Turner, President of the Georgia Teachers’ Federation.
Ms Loeffler, a wealthy businesswoman confronted by Mr Warnock, deflected questions about Mr Trump and his phone call as she campaigned in the state before joining the president on Monday evening. “My only goal is tomorrow, January 5,” she said at an Atlanta-area airport.
At the Monday night rally, and earlier in a tweet, Mrs. Loeffler said she would join a dozen U.S. senators on Wednesday in voting against certification of election results granting Mr. Biden victory.
Mr Perdue, who has been quarantined due to possible exposure to the coronavirus, appeared on a Fox News broadcast on Sunday evening where he said he did not believe the president’s campaign to pressure Mr. Raffensperger would affect the election.
Mr. Perdue blamed Mr. Raffensperger for the leaked recording of the hour-long conversation.
He also defended Mr. Trump’s claims about voter fraud. “What the president said is exactly what he said the last few months, which is the last two months anyway, we had some irregularities in the November elections and he wants to some answers. He has not yet obtained them from the Secretary of State.
Although Georgia has suffered from a number of election administration issues in recent times, with long lines, delayed results and technical issues, some election officials expressed confidence in the smooth running of the elections. Tuesday’s elections.
Fulton County officials said 370,000 ballots had already been cast there. Without specifically mentioning Mr. Trump, Fulton County Chief Electoral Officer Richard Barron addressed an “audio recording late yesterday” in which Fulton County was mentioned more than a dozen times.
In the Strip, Mr. Trump has made a number of allegations about Fulton County voter fraud, including allegations of what he called “ballot stuffing.” Mr Raffensperger’s office said those allegations were examined and dismissed as unfounded.
“There has been a lot of misinformation out there,” Mr. Barron said. “We don’t have the resources to answer all of them. And we focused on preparing for tomorrow and conducting the elections in a legal and fair manner. “
At his press conference, Mr Sterling spent some time reviewing numerous individual false statements made by the President or his attorneys. They claimed that thousands of votes were cast in Georgia by people under the age of 18, not registered to vote, registered late or registered with a post office box instead of a residential address. The Secretary of State’s office investigated the allegations, Sterling said, and found no ballots cast by anyone in any of those categories.
He added that Mr. Raffensperger does not have a brother named Ron who works for a Chinese tech company, as one of the plots retweeted by the president claims.
In fact, Mr Sterling said, Mr Raffensperger does not have a brother named Ron at all.
Richard Fausset and Rick rojas reported from Atlanta, and Maggie Astor from New York. Reporting was contributed by Astead W. Herndon from Dalton, Georgia, and Stephanie Saul and Shane Goldmacher from New York.
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