Trump rails against election result at rally
ahead of crucial Georgia Senate runoff
President falsely claims he was ‘cheated’ and calls
for people to vote in coming Senate races that will decide control of chamber
Oliver
Laughland in Valdosta, Georgia
@oliverlaughland
Sun 6 Dec
2020 02.59 GMT
Donald
Trump has held his first political rally since losing the presidential
election, delivering an incoherent speech laced with baseless conspiracies
theories about election fraud and attacks on Republican state officials in
Georgia who have refused to help him subvert the results.
In front of
a crowd of thousands of mostly maskless, non-socially distanced supporters in
south Georgia, Trump repeatedly claimed, falsely, that he had won the
presidential election, and called for those in government with “courage and
wisdom” to help him reverse the result.
The
president’s rally, on a cold evening at a regional airport in the small city of
Valdosta, came ahead of a critical US Senate runoff election in January, which
will decide control of the upper house and ultimately play a decisive role in
president-elect Joe Biden’s ability to legislate.
Trump had
ostensibly travelled to Georgia as a show of support for the two Republican
Senate candidates for the January poll, Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, but
spent the majority of speech railing against the results of the presidential
election.
He began
his speech, which lasted more than 90 minutes, by falsely claiming he had won
the state of Georgia, which he lost to Joe Biden by over 12,000 votes in a
result that was certified by the Republican secretary of state more than two
weeks ago.
The
president read from a prepared list of nonsensical evidence that he said
highlighted his victory. This included arguing that by winning the states of
Ohio and Florida he had in fact won the entire election, and also that winning
an uncontested Republican party primary earlier this year was proof he had won
against Biden in November.
Trump lost
the electoral college vote by 306 votes to 232 and the popular vote by over 7m.
His campaign has launched numerous legal challenges in various states. An
Associated Press tally showed that of roughly 50 cases brought by Trump’s
campaign and his allies, more than 30 have been rejected or dropped, and about
a dozen are awaiting action.
Trump
vented fury at the Republican governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp, a one-time
political ally of the president, who has resisted calls to join Trump’s
attempts to overturn the result in the state.
“Your
governor could stop it very easily if he knew what the hell he was doing,”
Trump told the crowd.
He added:
“For whatever reason your secretary of state and your governor are afraid of
Stacey Abrams” – a reference to the former Democratic gubernatorial candidate,
who is a staunch voting rights advocate and helped drive turnout in the
election and secure the state for Biden.
The rally
came hours after the Washington Post reported that Trump pressured Kemp to
overthrow the results of the election in the state during a Saturday morning
phone call. Trump pushed Kemp to convene a special session of the state
legislature in a bid to send Trump backing presidential electors when the
electoral college convenes on 14 December. Kemp denied the request, the Post
reported.
Trump then
made a similar demand on Twitter in the afternoon.
The
president also demanded an audit of absentee ballot signatures in the state,
which Kemp does not have the power to authorise.
The rally
bore the hallmarks of many Trump campaign events of the 2020 election season,
including a ritual booing of the assembled press, a soundtrack that included
Queen’s hit song We Are the Champions, and chants of “four more years”. But
despite continually claiming he had won, Trump appeared a little more cognizant
of the fact he is set to leave office on 20 January.
At one
point Trump described “what we would have done in the next four years” with
reference to foreign policy related to Iran and China.
And later
claimed if he thought he had lost the presidential election, he would be “a
very gracious loser”.
“I’d go to
Florida … I’d take it easy” he said.
Trump also
made a number of bizarre and incoherent ad libs throughout his address, at one
point professing: “I like cucumbers”.
At another
point he boasted about non-existent “hydrosonic” missiles.
“Hypersonic
missiles. We have hypersonic and hydrosonic. You know what hydrosonic is?
Water,” he said.
The
president did eventually pivot to the Georgia Senate race and invited Perdue
and Loeffler onto stage for a few short remarks.
Neither of
the candidates reiterated Trump’s baseless claims about election fraud, with
Perdue coming closest by addressing Trump directly and stating: “We’re going to
fight and win those seats and make sure you get a fair and square deal in
Georgia.”
As Perdue
spoke the crowd chanted: “Fight for Trump!”
The moment
underlined the difficulties that Trump’s continual denial of the result poses
for the Republican party. Some allies of the president, including attorneys
Sidney Powell and Lin Wood, have urged Republican voters in Georgia not to turn
out for the Senate race in protest against the presidential result.
And while
neither Loeffler nor Perdue have recognized Joe Biden as the president elect,
they are arguing that the Senate race in Georgia is crucial for Republicans to
retain control of some form of power, in itself a tacit acknowledgement that
Biden has won.
“We have a
job to do here, Georgia,” Loeffler told the crowd to a lukewarm reception.
“America is counting on us … if you don’t vote we will lose this country.”
If
Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock win in both Senate races they will
effectively retake the chamber, by creating a 50-50 split, where vice-president
elect Kamala Harris would hold the power to cast a deciding vote. A Republican
victory in either race would ensure the party retained control of the senate,
marking a major blow to the incoming Biden administration’s legislative agenda.
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