Just four days before the Georgia Senate runoff elections that will determine control of the upper body and perhaps the fate of the republic, Donald Trump threw a stick of dynamite into the race in order to sabotage the GOP’s chances to maintain its Senate majority.
It’s either that or Donald Trump is the dumbest, most ignorant politician who ever lived.
Trump tweeted out a series of messages that left no doubt he wants Republicans to lose both Georgia Senate seats and hand control to the Democrats.
….changes made to the voting process, rules and regulations, many made hastily before the election, and therefore the whole State Election is not legal or Constitutional. Additionally, the Georgia Consent Decree is Unconstitutional & the State 2020 Presidential Election….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 1, 2021
….is therefore both illegal and invalid, and that would include the two current Senatorial Elections. In Wisconsin, Voters not asking for applications invalidates the Election. All of this without even discussing the millions of fraudulent votes that were cast or altered!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 1, 2021
Why would Trump deliberately undermine Republican chances to win? What “grand strategy” is at work? It could be as simple as Trump wanting to watch the world burn as he leaves office. More likely, he knows that with the GOP in chaos, he will continue to dominate the right, making any venture he decides to participate in after he leaves office more visible — and more profitable.
Make no mistake, this was a deliberate effort to discourage Georgians from voting and give an already energized and enthusiastic Democratic party more reasons to show up at the polls on election day. More than 3 million votes have already been cast in the state through early voting and mail-in ballots — a majority almost certainly Democratic, given the GOP’s reluctance to embrace those practices.
To put it mildly, Trump isn’t helping.
Trump is scheduled to hold a rally in Dalton, Ga., on Monday, one day before the Senate runoff elections, to encourage his supporters to turn out for GOP Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, who are facing off against Democratic challengers Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, respectively.
Even while campaigning for the GOP candidates, whose elections will determine which party controls the Senate, the president has continued to advance his unfounded allegations of voting irregularities and fraud in November, despite the Electoral College confirming Biden’s win last month.
It’s not just Trump’s dubious claims of altered ballots and illegal votes that will depress GOP turnout on Election Day. Trump is urging Republicans to vote even though their ballot is not likely to count.
Trump’s latest tweets come amid concerns by Republican leaders that the president’s repeated attacks on the voting system could end up depressing turnout in the critical Georgia runoffs. The questions about the integrity of the election may help explain why it seems that Democrats far outpaced Republicans in early voting in the state. A record three million voters in Georgia cast their ballots early for the runoffs. The early voting period ended Thursday and no votes will be counted until polls close Tuesday but data shows more votes were cast in areas that tend to favor Democrats. That means Republicans need to come out in large numbers on the day of the election in order make up the difference.
Beyond his attacks on the integrity of the elections, Trump has also been blasting Republican leaders, a move that has also concerned many in the GOP who worry that frustrated allies of the president may decide to skip the runoffs entirely. In a another tweet Friday, Trump called Republican Senate leaders “pathetic” for not coming through on $2,000 stimulus checks and failing to repeal legal protections for social media companies.
Trump’s scorched-earth exit from office has been painful to watch. He’s not protecting the integrity of anything, much less the vote, by claiming in advance that an election is illegal. Those are the tactics of banana republic opposition leaders seeking to delegitimize an election before it’s held. Those tactics are also designed to depress turnout to further undermine the integrity of the election process.
His legal theories have been laughed out of court — some by judges he appointed. Perhaps what is most concerning is that so many Republicans believe his ludicrous claims and will go down with him, consigned to the dustbin of history along with other failed politicians.
