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    Trump’s Pressure Campaign in Georgia

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    State Certified Vote Totals

    Election Disinformation

    Full Results

    Transition Updates

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    'A coward': Jon Ossoff addresses empty podium as Senator David Perdue skips Georgia debate – video

    The Democratic challenger for a US Senate seat in Georgia debated against an empty lectern as Senator David Perdue, the Republican incumbent, declined to participate in the debate against Democrat Jon Ossoff ahead of the runoff election. ‘Your senator is refusing to answer questions and debate his opponent because he believes he shouldn’t have to,’ Ossoff said on the debate stage, standing beside Perdue’s empty lectern. ‘He believes the senate seat belongs to him. The senate seat belongs to the people’
    Georgia runoff debate: senator Kelly Loeffler refuses three times to accept Biden victory
    Trump’s attacks on election integrity ‘disgust me’, says senior Georgia Republican More

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    Georgia runoff debate: senator Kelly Loeffler refuses multiple times to accept Biden victory

    Donald Trump’s baseless claims of election fraud dominated a tense debate in Georgia ahead of a crucial Senate runoff election as Republican senator Kelly Loeffler refused three times to acknowledge the result of the November ballot, which Trump lost by a convincing electoral college margin and by more than 7m votes.
    The future of the US senate hangs on the outcome of the 5 January election in Georgia with the two seats at stake determining whether Republicans or Democrats will hold an effective majority in the upper chamber. The result will play a major role in president-elect Joe Biden’s ability to legislate and govern during his tenure as the next president of the United States.
    Loeffler faces Democrat Raphael Warnock in the first race, while incumbent Republican David Perdue faces Democrat Jon Ossoff in the second.
    On Sunday Ossoff debated alone next to an empty podium as Perdue declined to partake in the televised debate amid allegations of corruption tied to his stock market trading during the pandemic.

    Ossoff argued that Perdue avoided the debate in Atlanta as he did not want to “incriminate himself” over his financial dealings, which include suspiciously timed investments in companies set to benefit from the pandemic.
    “It shows an astonishing arrogance and sense of entitlement for Georgia’s senior US senator to believe he shouldn’t have to debate at a moment like this in our history,” Ossoff said.
    Both Perdue and Loeffler appeared at a rally held by Donald Trump on Saturday night in south Georgia, ostensibly staged for the president to show his support for both senate candidates, but which saw the outgoing president make repeated baseless claims of election fraud and criticism of Republican state officials who certified a victory for Biden in Georgia.
    Although Loeffler and Perdue have not articulated the same baseless conspiracy theories as Trump, like the majority of their Republican colleagues they have not recognized Biden as the president-elect.
    On Sunday, Loeffler was asked on numerous occasions whether she believed Trump’s fictitious claims of election fraud and declined to answer directly each time.
    She argued that Trump, who has so far lost all meaningful decisions in his numerous legal attempts to subvert the results through the courts, had “every right to every legal recourse” in the election.
    Trump lost the state of Georgia, a long time Republican stronghold, by over 12,000 votes in a result that was certified by the Republican secretary of state over two weeks ago.
    Loeffler attempted to pivot away from the issue by arguing that Trump had also encouraged his supporters on Saturday to vote for her in January.
    “The president was also clear that Georgians need to come out and vote for David Perdue and myself because of what’s at stake,” she said.
    Both Republicans candidates face a rhetorical tightrope. On the one hand they are refusing to acknowledge that Biden has won, but on other framing the Georgia Senate race as crucial to prevent Democratic control of government, itself a tacit acknowledgement that Trump has lost the White House.
    Warnock, pastor of the historic Ebenezer baptist church in Atlanta, criticised Loeffler for her position, and used one of his own questions in the debate to ask: “Yes or no, Senator Loeffler: did Donald Trump lose the presidential election?”
    The senator dodged the answer again.
    Loeffler, who is a multi-millionaire, also faces allegations of shady stock market trading tied to the pandemic, hit back by branding Warnock, a centrist Democrat, as a “radical liberal” and at one point asked the pastor to renounce Marxism in public.
    Warnock did not engage, and concluded the debate by stating: “It’s dark right now. But morning is on the way. It’s our job, Georgia to put our shoes on and get ready because there are those engaged in the politics of division. They have no vision and so they engage in division.”
    Early voting in the Georgia runoff begins on 14 December with polls indicating an extremely tight election in both races. More

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    In Georgia Debate, Kelly Loeffler Won’t Say Trump Lost

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    State Certified Vote Totals

    Election Disinformation

    Full Results

    Transition Updates

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    Trump's attacks on election integrity 'disgust me', says senior Georgia Republican

    Donald Trump’s attacks on Republican officials in Georgia and insistence his defeat by Joe Biden must be overturned are disgusting, the Republican lieutenant governor of the southern state said on Sunday.
    “It’s not American,” Geoff Duncan told CNN’s State of the Union. “It’s not what democracy is all about. But it’s reality right now.”
    The president staged a rally in Valdosta, Georgia on Saturday night. He began his speech, which lasted more than 90 minutes, by falsely claiming he won the state, which in fact he lost by around 12,000 votes in a result certified by Republican secretary of state Brad Raffensperger more than two weeks ago.
    “They cheated and they rigged our presidential election, but we will still win it,” Trump falsely insisted. “And they’re going to try and rig this [Senate] election too.”
    Two Georgia Republicans face 5 January runoffs which will decide control of the Senate. On Sunday evening, Kelly Loeffler will debate Rev Raphael Warnock, her Democratic challenger. Amid controversy over stock trades made by both Republicans during the Covid-19 pandemic, David Perdue has declined to debate his challenger, Jon Ossoff.
    In Valdosta, the president invited Perdue and Loeffler on to the stage. Neither reiterated his baseless claims about election fraud, Perdue coming closest by saying: “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!”
    Some suggest Trump’s assault on the presidential election could depress Republican turnout.
    “I think the rally last night was kind of a two-part message,” Duncan told CNN. “The first part was very encouraging to listen to the president champion the conservative strategies of Senators Loeffler and Perdue, and the importance of them being re-elected.
    “The second message was concerning to me. I worry that … fanning the flames around misinformation puts us in a negative position with regards to the 5 January runoff. The mountains of misinformation are not helping the process. They’re only hurting it.”
    CNN’s Jake Tapper asked Duncan: “At a certain point, does this disgust you?”
    “Oh, absolutely it disgusts me,” Duncan said.
    In Valdosta, Trump read from a prepared list of nonsensical evidence he said highlighted his victory. This included arguing that by winning Ohio and Florida he had in fact won the entire election, and also that winning an uncontested Republican primary was proof he beat Biden in November.
    Trump lost the electoral college 306-232 and trails in the popular vote by more than 7m. His campaign has launched legal challenges in various states. The majority have been rejected or dropped. The campaign filed a new lawsuit in Georgia on Friday.
    Trump vented fury at Republican governor Brian Kemp, a one-time ally who he called from the White House on Saturday to demand the Georgia result be overturned.
    “Your governor could stop it very easily if he knew what the hell he was doing,” Trump told supporters, adding: “For whatever reason your secretary of state and your governor are afraid of Stacey Abrams.”
    Abrams, a staunch voting rights advocate who Kemp beat for governor in 2018, helped drive turnout and secure the state for Biden, the first Democrat to win it since 1992.
    On Sunday, Duncan was asked if Kemp would do as Trump asks, and call a special session of the state general assembly to appoint its own electors for Trump, a demand one critic called “shockingly undemocratic”.
    “I absolutely believe that to be the case that the governor is not going to call us into a special session,” Duncan said.
    In an angry intervention earlier this week, Georgia elections official Gabriel Sterling said of Trump’s attacks on Kemp, Raffensperger and other Republicans: “Someone’s gonna get hurt, someone’s gonna get shot. Someone’s gonna get killed. And it’s not right. It has all gone too far.”
    Duncan said “we’ve all all of us … got increased security around us and our families [but] we’re going to continue to do our jobs. Governor Kemp, Brad Raffensperger and myself, all three voted and campaigned for the president, but unfortunately he didn’t win the state of Georgia.”
    Duncan sidestepped a question about the wisdom of holding a rally where many attendees did not wear masks, as coronavirus cases surge. But he did call Biden’s request that Americans to wear masks for 100 days “absolutely a great step in the right direction”.
    On Saturday, the Washington Post found only 27 of 249 congressional Republicans were willing to acknowledge Biden’s victory. Duncan did so.
    “On 20 January Joe Biden’s going to be sworn in as the 46th president and the constitution is still in place,” Duncan said. “This is still America … as the lieutenant governor and as a Georgian I’m proud that we’re able to look up after three recounts and be able to see that this election was fair.”
    Raffensperger told ABC’s This Week: “We don’t see anything that would overturn the will of the people here in Georgia.”
    It was “sad, but true”, he added, that Trump had lost.
    “I wish he would have won. I’m a conservative Republican and I’m disappointed but those are the results.”
    In Valdosta, Trump did seem at points to recognise the end is near. With reference to policy on Iran and China, he described “what we would have done in the next four years”. He also said that if he thought he had lost the election, he would be “a very gracious loser”.
    “I’d go to Florida,” he said. “I’d take it easy.” More

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    'If I lost, I'd be a very gracious loser': Trump pushes false fraud claims in Georgia – video

    Donald Trump campaigned for two Republican senators in Georgia on Saturday, at a rally that some in the party feared could end up hurting their chances by focusing on his efforts to reverse his own election defeat. In his first rally appearance since he lost to Joe Biden, Trump repeated baseless claims of widespread fraud in the presidential election. The crucial January runoff will determine which party controls the Senate
    Trump rails against election result at rally ahead of crucial Georgia Senate runoff More

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    At Rally for Georgia Senators, Trump Focuses on His Own Grievances

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    State Certified Vote Totals

    Election Disinformation

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    Trump heads for Georgia but claims of fraud may damage Senate Republicans

    Donald Trump will return to the campaign trail on Saturday – not, notionally at least, in his quixotic and doomed attempt to deny defeat by Joe Biden, but in support of two Republicans who face January run-offs which will decide control of the US Senate.The president and first lady Melania Trump are due to appear in Valdosta, Georgia at 7pm local time.“See you tomorrow night!” Trump tweeted on Friday, as Vice-President Mike Pence stumped in the southern state.But the president couldn’t help tying the Senate race to his baseless accusations of electoral fraud in key states he lost to Biden.“The best way to insure [sic] a … victory,” he wrote, “is to allow signature checks in the presidential race, which will insure [sic] a Georgia presidential win (very few votes are needed, many will be found).“Spirits will soar and everyone will rush out and VOTE!”To the contrary, many observers postulate that Trump’s ceaseless baseless claims that the election was rigged could depress turnout among supporters in Georgia, handing a vital advantage to Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, the Democratic challengers to senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue.If Ossoff and Warnock win, the Senate will be split 50-50, Kamala Harris’s vote as vice-president giving Democrats control. Polling in both races is tight.Trump’s recalcitrance is being encouraged by congressional Republicans. On Saturday the Washington Post reported that only 25 of 247 Republican representatives and senators have acknowledged Biden’s victory.Biden won the electoral college by 306-232, the same result Trump said was a landslide when it landed in his favour over Hillary Clinton. The Democrat is more than 7m ballots ahead in the national popular vote, having attracted the support of more than 81 million Americans, the most of any candidate for president.Democrats performed less well in Senate, House and state elections, however, making the Georgia runoffs vital to the balance of power in Washington as leaders look for agreement on much-needed stimulus and public health measures to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic and its attendant economic downturn.Earlier this week, two lawyers who have both been involved in legal challenges to Biden’s victory and trafficked in outlandish conspiracy theories, Lin Wood and Sidney Powell, told Trump supporters not to vote in Georgia unless Republican leaders act more aggressively to overturn the presidential result.“We’re not gonna go vote 5 January on another machine made by China,” Wood said on Wednesday. “You’re not gonna fool Georgians again. If Kelly Loeffler wants your vote, if David Perdue wants your vote, they’ve got to earn it. They’ve got to demand publicly, repeatedly, consistently, ‘Brian Kemp: call a special session of the Georgia legislature’.“And if they do not do it, if Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue do not do it, they have not earned your vote. Don’t you give it to them. Why would you go back and vote in another rigged election?”After a rush of defeats on Friday, Trump has won one election-related lawsuit and lost 46. But he continues to attack, in Georgia slamming Governor Brian Kemp and secretary of state Brad Raffensperger for overseeing a contest in which the state went Democratic for the first time since 1992.Matt Towery, a former Georgia Republican legislator now an analyst and pollster, told Reuters Trump could help in the state “if he spends most of his time talking about the two candidates, how wonderful they are, what they’ve achieved.“If he talks about them for 10 minutes and spends the rest of the time telling everyone how terrible Brian Kemp is, then it will only exacerbate things.”Gabriel Sterling, the Republican manager of Georgia’s voting systems, this week blamed the president and his allies for threats of violence against election workers and officials. On Friday, he said: “I think the rhetoric they’re engaged in now is literally suppressing the vote.”At a rally in Savannah, the vice-president was greeted by chants of “stop the steal”.“I know we’ve all got our doubts about the last election,” Pence said, “and I actually hear some people saying, ’Just don’t vote.’ My fellow Americans, if you don’t vote, they win.”Kemp and Loeffler missed campaign events on Friday after a young aide to the senator was killed in a car crash.Former president Barack Obama held a virtual event in support of Warnock and Ossoff. From Wilmington, Delaware, where he continues preparations to take power on 20 January, Biden said he would travel to Georgia at some point, to campaign with the Democratic candidates. More