Trump throws grenades into high-stakes Georgia Senate runoffs in final stretch
Trump throws grenades into high-stakes Georgia Senate runoffs in final stretch
More uncertainty was added on Saturday after 11 Republican senators said they'd reject electors from certain states unless a commission is established to investigate the results.
CUMMING, Ga. — Outgoing President Donald Trump is throwing one grenade after another into the high-stakes Georgia Senate runoffs in the final days before the Tuesday election.
And it's not clear who the victims of his explosions will be.
First it was his refusal to accept defeat in the 2020 election, which muddied his party's message here about the need to keep the Senate in Republican hands. Then he pushed GOP leaders to pass $2,000 stimulus checks, compelling Sen. David Perdue and Sen. Kelly Loeffler to switch their positions on the issue to align with him.
He also described the "Republican Senate" as "pathetic" for rebuffing his demands to repeal an internet liability law known as Section 230 in a military bill vote that Perdue and Loeffler missed.
On Friday, Trump falsely claimed that the entire 2020 election in Georgia, including the two Senate races, was "illegal and invalid." On Saturday, Trump again cast doubt on the legitimacy of the state's election system.
His recent series of tweets came moments after Loeffler urged rally-goers in this suburb of Atlanta to vote and urge people they know across the state to vote.
"We've got to hold the line," she said. "We're the firewall to stopping socialism in America."
The impact of Trump's bomb-throwing is unpredictable in the highly polarized environment of a competitive state and an off-year election. His claims appear to have energized voters in both parties and, with polls showing both races neck-and-neck, it's not clear which side will come out on top. Trump is scheduled to appear at a rally for Perdue and Loeffler on Monday night in the city of Dalton.
The runoffs on Tuesday will shape President-elect Joe Biden's administration. If Democrats win both seats they'll wrest control of the Senate and set the agenda. If at least one of the two Republican incumbents wins, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., will have a pocket veto over Biden's legislative agenda, top administration personnel and judicial appointments.
"Tuesday is it. Tuesday is everything," Jon Ossoff, the Democratic candidate facing Perdue, said at a campaign stop in Stone Mountain, just outside Atlanta. "And the work that you are doing today to mobilize the community to get out and vote will make the difference."
As Ossoff boasts a packed schedule, Perdue has been forced off the campaign trail, saying Thursday he'll quarantine after coming in "close contact" with a member of his team who has Covid-19. He expects to miss Trump's rally on Monday, he told Fox News.
Rich McCormick, the 2020 Republican nominee for this city's congressional district who narrowly lost to a Democrat, said "there is a danger" that Trump's attacks on Republicans who run the Senate could hurt Perdue and Loeffler politically.
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"His ability to excite people is what got him elected," McCormick told reporters after appearing at a rally here with Loeffler and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. "He's trying to get people who would normally show up just for him to show up for them, and I think that's a good thing."
The Georgia races were thrown into more uncertainty on Saturday after 11 Republican senators announced they would reject electors from certain states unless a commission is established to investigate the election results — part of a last-ditch effort by Trump's allies to overturn the election result.
The effort on Jan. 6 is virtually guaranteed to fail, as the senators conceded in a joint statement. Perdue's term will have lapsed by then, regardless of the election outcome, so he won't participate. Loeffler declined to say how she'll vote, telling reporters that "everything's on the table right now" and vowing to "keep fighting for this president."
Her Democratic rival, Raphael Warnock, tore into her.
"We keep reaching new lows. This is outrageous and it's outrageous that the sitting un-elected senator of Georgia, Kelly Loeffler, is not standing up for the voices of people in Georgia," Warnock said on CNN. "We have a democratic system. And the most powerful four words are, the people have spoken."
The effort to block the counting of some electoral votes won by President-elect Joe Biden was blasted by numerous Republicans, including Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey and Utah Sen. Mitt Romney. McConnell has urged GOP senators not to participate in the effort.
Later on Saturday, Trump tagged McConnell in a tweet pressuring Congress to pass $2,000 payments, citing a Republican pollster who said they are popular. It again undercut the GOP message on Senate control.
McCormick described Trump as the political equivalent of a character played by Adam Sandler in a popular 1996 movie.
"He's kind of like the Happy Gilmore of golf. He's the guy who's not supposed to be there, who has an amazing unorthodox following," McCormick said. "Here's this guy who can just drive the long ball, but all of a sudden he's for real. And he wins."
GOP senators, led by Cruz, to object to Electoral College certification, demand emergency audit
A group of GOP senators led by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, will object to the Jan. 6 certification of the presidential election results next week unless there is an emergency 10-day audit of the results by an electoral commission.
Cruz and the other senators claim the Nov. 3 election "featured unprecedented allegations of voter fraud and illegal conduct."
Joining Cruz are Sens. Ron Johnson, R-Wis.; James Lankford, R-Okla.; Steve Daines, R-Mont.; John Kennedy, R-La.; Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Mike Braun, R-Ind.; as well as Sens.-elect Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo.; Roger Marshall, R-Kansas; Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., and Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala.
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Their effort is separate from one announced by Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., who said this week that he will object to what he claims was the failure of some states -- most notably Pennsylvania -- to follow their own election laws.
HAWLEY SAYS HE'LL OBJECT TO ELECTORAL COLLEGE CERTIFICATION OF BIDEN VICTORY ON JAN. 6
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"Voter fraud has posed a persistent challenge in our elections, although its breadth and scope are disputed," the lawmakers said Saturday in a statement. "By any measure, the allegations of fraud and irregularities in the 2020 election exceed any in our lifetimes."
While the Trump campaign has challenged the results in dozens of lawsuits, judges in multiple states have shot them down. Attorney General William Barr told The Associated Press last month that "to date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election."
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A source familiar with the effort by the GOP senators told Fox News that it was Cruz who orchestrated the push for the audit just days before the joint session of Congress on Wednesday to officially approve the Electoral College votes electing former Vice President Joe Biden.
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The lawmakers say there is a precedent of Democrats objecting to election results in 1969, 2001, 2005 and 2019. "And, in both 1969 and 2005, a Democratic Senator joined with a Democratic House Member in forcing votes in both houses on whether to accept the presidential electors being challenged," they said.
Cruz: I agreed to argue Pa. election case because US needs 'resolution'Video
The senators and senators-elect are calling for Congress to appoint a commission to conduct a 10-day emergency audit of the election returns in states where the results are disputed. They cite as precedent the 1877 race between Samuel Tilden and Rutherford Hayes in which there were allegations of fraud in multiple states.
"In 1877, Congress did not ignore those allegations, nor did the media simply dismiss those raising them as radicals trying to undermine democracy," the lawmakers said in the statement. "Instead, Congress appointed an Electoral Commission -- consisting of five Senators, five House Members, and five Supreme Court Justices -- to consider and resolve the disputed returns."
"We should follow that precedent. To wit, Congress should immediately appoint an Electoral Commission, with full investigatory and fact-finding authority, to conduct an emergency 10-day audit of the election returns in the disputed states. Once completed, individual states would evaluate the Commission’s findings and could convene a special legislative session to certify a change in their vote, if needed."
If that doesn't happen, the senators intend to vote against certification.
"Accordingly, we intend to vote on January 6 to reject the electors from disputed states as not ‘regularly given’ and ‘lawfully certified’ (the statutory requisite), unless and until that emergency 10-day audit is completed," they said in the statement.
"American democracy relies on the consent of the governed," Sen. Blackburn and Sen.-elect Hagerty said in a separate statement. "Allegations of voter fraud, irregularities and unconstitutional actions diminish public confidence in what should be a free, fair and transparent process. Protecting the integrity of the electoral process is paramount to preserving trust and legitimacy in the final outcome."
It is unclear whether they will rally more Republicans to their cause, given Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's public acceptance of Biden's victory. While the lawmakers note that most Democrats and some Republicans will vote to certify the results, they argue that an audit would increase the public’s faith in the process.
"These are matters worthy of the Congress, and entrusted to us to defend. We do not take this action lightly. We are acting not to thwart the democratic process, but rather to protect it," they said. "And every one of us should act together to ensure that the election was lawfully conducted under the Constitution and to do everything we can to restore faith in our Democracy."
The effort by the senators marks a major win for President Trump’s continuing efforts to challenge the results of the election. Trump has repeatedly claimed he beat Biden, who flipped a number of states, including Georgia and Arizona, to get over the 270 Electoral College votes needed to secure the White House.
Electoral College voting to certify Biden as 46th president of USVideo
Trump’s campaign has launched a number of legal challenges, while Trump himself has urged states with Republican governors and legislatures to overturn Biden’s victories.
Senate GOP leadership, however, is against efforts to challenge Biden's win -- with McConnell urging Republicans behind closed doors not to contest the election results.
But if the group of GOP senators object, along with a similar effort by House Republicans, the joint session of Congress would be dissolved, and the House and Senate would then meet separately to debate any contested state’s electoral votes.
Afterward, each body would vote whether to accept or reject any contested votes. Then the House and Senate would reconvene the joint session.
In the House, at least 13 incoming House GOP freshmen are expected to back a move by Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., to object to certification. Rep.-elect Kat Cammack, Fla., was the latest to announce Saturday in a statement that she was among them.
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The last time this happened (and only the second time in U.S. history) was in January 2005, following President’ George W. Bush’s narrow re-election victory over Democratic challenger John Kerry of Massachusetts. One Senate Democrat – Barbara Boxer of California – and one House Democrat – Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Ohio – objected. In 2017, a handful of House Democrats objected to Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton, but no Senate Democrats joined them.
A state’s slate of electoral votes would only be thrown out if both the House and Senate vote to do so -- something that is unlikely given the Democratic majority in the House, and the push by GOP Senate leaders to certify.
Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser, Jason Donner, Marisa Schultz and Tyler Olson contributed to this report.