Trump's baseless claims of Georgia voter fraud
spark fears among Republicans
As Trump suffers another post-election court defeat,
some Republicans worry he could depress turnout in crucial Georgia runoffs
Miranda
Bryant
Fri 27 Nov
2020 18.50 GMTFirst published on Fri 27 Nov 2020 15.58 GMT
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/27/trump-georgia-senate-runoff-election
Despite
giving his strongest hints yet that he is coming to accept his loss of the
White House to challenger Joe Biden, Donald Trump’s continuing reluctance to
leave office and baseless claims about electoral fraud are increasingly
worrying his own party.
In
particular, Republicans are concerned that the chaos caused by Trump’s stance
and his false comments on the conduct of the election in the key swing state of
Georgia, which Biden won for the Democrats, could hinder his party’s efforts to
retain control of the Senate.
Control of
the key upper chamber of the US Congress hangs in the balance as runoff races
for the state’s two Senate seats play out over the remainder of 2020, with an
election scheduled in early January. If Democrats win those seats, they grab
the Senate while if Republicans emerge victorious, they keep control and can
seriously hinder Biden’s agenda, including his ability to freely pick his
cabinet.
Trump has
attacked the election system in Georgia, even though it is headed by
Republicans, after Biden flipped the southern state to the Democrats for the
first time since 1992.
On
Thanksgiving – a day usually reserved for presidential platitudes – Trump broke
with tradition and repeated those attacks in a now rare face-off with
journalists. “I’m very worried about that,” Trump said when asked about his
previous baseless claims of fraud in Georgia. “You have a fraudulent system.”
He then called Georgia’s Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, who
has defended the state’s election process, an “enemy of the people”.
Such
attacks have Republicans worried as they seek to motivate Georgia voters to
come to the polls in January, volunteer for their Senate campaigns and –
perhaps most importantly of all – dig deep into their pockets to pay for the
unexpected runoff races.
In
particular Trump’s comments have spurred conspiracy theories that the state’s
electoral system is rigged and prompted some of his supporters to make calls
for a boycott of the coming vote – something that local Georgia Republicans
desperately do not want. “His demonization of Georgia’s entire electoral system
is hurting his party’s chances at keeping the Senate,” warned an article
published by Politico.
Even
Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr, has jumped into the fray, tweeting: “I’m seeing a
lot of talk from people that are supposed to be on our side telling GOP voters
not to go out & vote.. That is NONSENSE. IGNORE those people.”
The
president has also pledged to visit Georgia to hold rallies in support of the
two Republican candidates, Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue. The first of those
events is expected to be on Saturday 5 December and could be a double-edged
sword. Trump is still a powerful force with a loyal following whose endorsement
is a key mobilizing tool for the race. On the other hand, in freewheeling his
rallies, Trump may spout conspiracy theories that undermine their campaigns.
Certainly
Trump’s mood has become increasingly erratic even as he has made the clearest
signs yet that he will eventually leave the White House, which he convincingly
lost to Biden in both the popular vote and the vital electoral college that
actually picks the next president.
On
Thanksgiving Day, Trump grumpily said he would leave the White House when the
electoral college voted for Biden. He has so far defied tradition by refusing
to concede defeat and launching legal attempts to challenge the outcomes in
battleground states includijng Georgia, Pennsylvania and Michigan. So far,
those efforts have largely failed.
New court
defeat for Trump
On Friday,
Trump’s legal team suffered yet another defeat as a federal appeals court in
Philadelphia roundly rejected its latest effort to challenge the state’s
election results.
Trump’s
lawyers vowed to appeal to the supreme court despite the judge’s assessment
that the “campaign’s claims have no merit”.
The case
had been argued last week in a lower court by Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani without
tangible proof presented. “Charges require specific allegations and then proof.
We have neither here,” Judge Stephanos Bibas wrote for the three-judge panel on
Friday.
On
Thursday, Trump had declined to say whether he would attend Biden’s inauguration,
which is due to take place on 20 January, and called one reporter a
“lightweight”, telling him: “Don’t talk to me like that.”
Trump
continued his rant on Friday, producing a long string of retweets and tweets
making untrue claims about the election and his opponent. “Biden can only enter
the White House as President if he can prove that his ridiculous ‘80,000,000
votes’ were not fraudulently or illegally obtained,” he tweeted.
He even
retweeted a video of a fight between a lion and a pack of attacking hyenas,
over which was narrated a piece of movie dialogue by the actor Christopher
Walken, taken from the film Poolhall Junkies. “So much truth,” Trump remarked.
The
Republican party has shocked many observers by mostly continuing its adherence
to Trump and backing his wild claims and legal efforts, though daylight has
started to appear between some top party figures and the White House.
“We’re
going to have an orderly transfer from this administration to the next one,”
Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate majority leader, told reporters
recently. “What we all say about it is, frankly, irrelevant.”
Also on
Friday, Republicans picked up their third US House seat in California. David
Valadao reclaimed the seat he lost two years ago, defeating the Democratic
representative TJ Cox.
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário