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President Donald Trump is pressing his grievances over losing the presidential election, using a weekend rally to spread baseless allegations of misconduct in last month's voting in Georgia and beyond even as he pushed supporters to turn out for a pair of Republican Senate candidates in a runoff election in January.
"Let them steal Georgia again, you'll never be able to look yourself in the mirror," Trump told rallygoers.
Trump's 100-minute rally before thousands of largely maskless supporters came not long after he was rebuffed by Georgia's Republican governor in his astounding call for a special legislative session to give him the state's electoral votes, even though President-elect Joe Biden won more votes than any other candidate.
The Jan. 5 Senate runoffs in Georgia will determine the balance of power in Washington after Biden takes office. Republicans in the state are worried that Trump is stoking so much suspicion about Georgia elections that voters will think the system is rigged and decide to sit out the two races.
The latest futile attempt to subvert the presidential election results continued Trump's unprecedented campaign to undermine confidence in the democratic process, but overshadowed his stated purpose in traveling to Georgia — boosting Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler.
Republicans need one victory to maintain their Senate majority. Democrats need a Georgia sweep to force a 50-50 Senate and position Vice President-elect Kamala Harris as the tiebreaking vote. Party officials had hoped the president would dedicate his energy to imploring supporters to vote in the runoff, when Perdue and Loeffler try to hold off Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, respectively.
Trump did echo Republican rhetoric that the races amounted to "the most important congressional runoff, probably in American history." That is only true because he lost.
But after Air Force One landed, it quickly became apparent that Trump was intent on airing his own complaints and stoking baseless doubts about the conduct of last month's vote, rather than boosting his party.
"I want to stay on presidential," Trumps said minutes into his speech. "But I got to get to these two." He praised the GOP lawmakers, Perdue for his support for military spending and Loeffler for pushing for early coronavirus relief spending. But he quickly pivoted back to his own defeat.
Trump pulled out a piece of paper and read a list of his electoral achievements, including falsely asserting he won Georgia and the White House. Biden carried the state by 12,670 votes and won a record 81 million votes nationally. Trump continued to reiterate his unsubstantiated claims of fraud, despite his own administration assessing the election to have been conducted without any major issues.
Chants of "Fight for Trump" drowned out the two senators as they briefly spoke to the crowd.
Hours before the event, Trump asked Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp in a phone call to order the legislative session; the governor refused, according to a senior government official in Georgia with knowledge of the call who was not authorized to discuss the private conversation and spoke on the condition of anonymity. A person close to the White House who was briefed on the matter verified that account of the call.
Kemp, in a tweet, said Trump also asked him to order an audit of signatures on absentee ballot envelopes in his state, a step Kemp is not empowered to take because he has no authority to interfere in the electoral process on Trump's behalf.
Trump, though, vented his frustrations with Kemp on Twitter and at the rally.
"Your people are refusing to do what you ask," he complained in a tweet, as if speaking with Kemp. "What are they hiding? At least immediately ask for a Special Session of the Legislature. That you can easily, and immediately, do."
At the rally, he took aim once again at Kemp, saying he could assure him victory "if he knew what the hell he was doing."
Trump's personal contact with...