Whether you’re talking about Sen. David Perdue getting 780 more votes than Donald Trump, or Georgia’s congressional candidates collectively getting 15,889 more votes than Joe Biden despite 114,997 fewer votes being cast in their races than in the presidential race, it’s very clear that Trump is not the most popular Republican in the Peach State. But he’s the most popular with the Republican base, so it matters that he’s trashing the governor and the Secretary of State.
The president is scheduled to campaign in Georgia on Saturday, but it’s hard to know if it will actually help Perdue and Sen. Kelly Loeffler in their January 3 runoff elections. Arguably, reminding voters that just rejected Trump that he’s a Republican probably isn’t a great selling point for Republican candidates. But it’s really his decision to question the integrity of the voting equipment and the loyalty of the GOP officeholders who oversee the state’s elections that seems most problematic. Why vote if you don’t believe your vote will be counted accurately?
I honestly think Trump is so perturbed about losing when the GOP had an otherwise great election– so far holding the Senate and picking up seats in the House and state and local races– that he doesn’t want Perdue and Loeffler to win. It will just make him look worse by comparison. Perhaps that’s why Roger Stone resuscitated an old PAC to encourage people to write-in Trump in the runoff elections.
Yet, Donald Trump Jr. perhaps has a better grasp of how to maintain influence in the party and has set up a PAC to encourage Georgia’s Republicans to turn out and vote. It’s a bit schizophrenic.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is a bit mystified about it all:
Donald Trump is expected in Georgia on Saturday, even as the president continues to scapegoat Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger for his November defeat here…
…No, there was no broad Republican outcry at President Donald Trump’s rant on Sunday that he was “ashamed” to endorse Gov. Brian Kemp.
Just as Republican elected officials have largely stood by as Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is bullied by the president and his allies for defending the integrity of election, even Kemp’s staunchest supporters stayed silent after Trump lashed out in one of his first interviews since his defeat.
U.S. Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue didn’t come to his defense. Neither did other top Republican officials. Even Kemp declined to comment.
Everyone is afraid to alienate Trump’s voters, but this isn’t a good look. The Democratic runoff candidates, Rafael Warnock and Joe Ossoff, still have to figure out how to turn the Democratic base out, but Trump campaigning in the state is probably the best holiday gift they could receive.
After watching Oliver Darcy on Brian Stelter’s wonderful @ReliableSources say there is not a word for what FOX and even more outrageous outlets are doing with Trump’s reckless, irresponsible & dangerous election bullshit, I thought of a new word thoughtfully inspired by his own ranting delusion: shit-holian. You combine that with the wonderful German word for being hoisted on one’s own petard & you get a rather cogent, concise description of the Georgia mishigas so well presented here: shit-holian schadenfreude.
Loeffler reminds me of the earlier state of affairs in India’s eastern state of Bihar.
When the chief minister (equivalent of Governor) Lalloo Prasad Yadav was behind bars, he had his wife – a housewife with little or no education and experience – act as the chief minister of the state for years!