U.S. Sen. David Perdue is inching toward the radical notion (at least in Republican circle) that President Donald Trump lost his bid for re-election on Nov.3. The Washington Post makes note of the shift this morning:
[I]n a video meeting recorded Wednesday with members of the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC), Perdue spoke pragmatically about the role a GOP-controlled Senate could play as a check on the Biden administration. He did not discuss Trump's efforts to overturn the election.
“We know what this change of command at the top will mean with our foreign relations," Perdue said in the video, adding: “If we can keep the majority in the Senate, we can at least be a buffer on some of the things that the Biden camp has been talking about in terms of their foreign policy."
And Thursday evening, in a Fox News interview with Laura Ingraham, Perdue was asked what he expected Trump to say at a Saturday rally in Valdosta. Said Perdue, emphasis ours:
“He's going to deliver this message: we've got to protect what we did for four years under this administration. If in fact the result is not in his favor, we've got to protect it, and the way to do that is to get Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue re-elected."
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Speaking of that Fox News interview: David Perdue’s media strategy has been crystal clear the last few weeks of the runoff: He’s mostly avoided questions from Atlanta reporters, ducked the sole debate of the runoff and talked largely exclusively to friendly outlets outside the metro Atlanta area.
Nowhere was that more obvious than last night, when the Republican appeared on what was billed as a “town hall” with Ingraham. The audience was composed of a few President Donald Trump supporters, and Ingraham offered softballs while labeling Jon Ossoff a “pretty boy” unfit for the job. She did ask Perdue’s stock transactions, though she downplayed the issue even as she delivered the question.
Republicans would note that Ossoff has appeared regularly on MSNBC, where he’s received a platform to deliver his campaign message. But he’s also taken questions from an array of media outlets at just about every campaign event, including fielding one from Fox News at a Thursday rally in Kennesaw.
Gov. Brian Kemp also made an appearance on the Ingraham show -- and faced a tougher reception. He told Ingraham that he wants the secretary of state’s office to cross-check signatures on absentee ballot envelopes but he has no power to force Brad Raffensperger to do so. The secretary of state has said there’s no evidence to justify verifying the signatures another time, and noted they can’t be matched back to ballots.
“I think it should be done. I think especially [given] what we saw today,” Kemp said of the audit, adding: “It raises more questions.”
Presumably “what we saw today” was video released by Trump attorneys at a Georgia Senate hearing that claimed to show ballot-stuffing from “suitcases” in Fulton County away from the prying eyes of observers.
In reality, it showed ballots in regular containers being tallied. Trump’s campaign said news media and party observers on hand were never asked to leave but apparently followed several workers who were finished for the day; a state election board monitor was present for the tally. State officials pointed to this fact-check piece.
As for Trump’s constant sniping, Kemp had this to say:
“Look, I'm frustrated like [Trump] is, a lot of people are … He's a fighter, we had a few battles but nobody worked harder for Donald Trump before Nov. 3 and I continued to help his efforts in the legal campaign and I will continue to do that."
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Already posted: Vice President Mike Pence is returning to Georgia today for the second time in two weeks to stump for Republican runoff candidates, part of the all-out GOP push to convince rank-and-file voters to return to the polls ahead of the Jan. 5 vote to decide control of the U.S. Senate. Pence will also stop at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
At roughly the same time as Pence rallies with U.S. Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue in Savannah, former President Barack Obama will hold a virtual campaign stop with Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock as both parties race to mobilize core supporters.
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We picked up word late yesterday that Metro Atlanta Chamber chief executive Katie Kirkpatrick sent a note to chamber members that repeated the message that there was no evidence of systemic fraud in Georgia’s election — and encouraged the city’s corporate movers-and-shakers to remain engaged through the Jan. 5 runoffs and beyond. From the statement:
“November 3 marked another pivotal Election Day where Americans and Georgians enthusiastically participated in the democratic process to elect leaders who represent our views and values. In this moment, accepting the result of the people's vote and turning our energy to what is best for our nation, state and region should be our focus. However, we are watching rhetoric escalate to threats against election officials, poll workers and even their families. Violence and intimidation have no place in our community or our society and go against the spirit of our residents and our business community, which is known for embracing our differences as evidence of inclusive thought and strength.
“We are proud of the significant investment of resources and energy poured into improving our voting process with secure technology, recruiting new poll workers, purchasing additional absentee ballot drop boxes and encouraging employees to vote, while making the voting process as easy, safe and secure as possible. We must celebrate this progress and acknowledge that repeated examinations of our voting system have all rendered the same conclusion: Georgia's elections are secure and there is no evidence of systemic election irregularities or fraud…"
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At one of two state Senate hearings at the Capitol on Thursday, Trump attorney Ray Smith promised that a lawsuit in Fulton County Superior Court would be filed later that day, challenging Democrat Joe Biden’s presidential victory in Georgia. And it was indeed filed, alleging tens of thousands of underage voters, felons, people who had moved away, dead people and other ineligible voters had cast ballots.
But Trump’s legal team has had problems with lawsuits filed in other states -- embarrassing typos, misspellings and such. This one is no different. One passage:
“[T]here were all imaginable varieties of voting fraud, including machine-controlled algorithms deliberately run by Dominion Voting Systems that generally took more than 2.5% of the votes from Mr. Biden and flipped them to Trump for a more than 5% fraudulent vote increase for Biden."
So votes for Biden were stripped from him and given to Trump, increasing the vote for Biden. Pass the popcorn -- we really want to know how that worked.
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In Washington, members of the House Freedom Caucus, a group of some of the most conservative members of Congress, held a press conference Thursday to criticize Attorney General William Barr for not investigating election issues across the nation.
Group members identified six states won by Joe Biden where they want Barr to launch inquiries: Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada, Arizona and Georgia. Various caucus members cited allegations similar to those raised by President Donald Trump and his attorneys; their testimony has repeatedly failed to convince judges there is widespread fraud or mismanagement.
Asked whether this criticism of the election process could hurt U.S. Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, both of whom face Jan. 5 runoffs, by diminishing GOP voters’ confidence in the election process, Caucus Chairman Andy Bigg said he hopes not. But he said that won’t stop him from questioning state leaders.
“I’m concerned about the integrity of the election, but I would tell everybody who supports Loeffler and Perdue you have no other alternative but to get out and vote and then work like the dickens for them to win,” said Bigg, an Arizona Republican.
U.S. Rep. Jody Hice, R-Monroe, was supposed to be one of the headliners at the presser, but he was a no-show.
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Dominion Voter Systems, the vendor that supplies voting machines to all 159 Georgia counties, is ramping up its public relations after weeks of Republican-led criticism of its equipment and personnel.
The company on Thursday put out a fact sheet refuting some of the misinformation spread by President Donald Trump and his allies about whether Dominion machines were manipulated to steal the election in Georgia.
A note near the top sums up how the non-political company has been swept into a intraparty political battle: “Georgia certified its election results on Friday, November 20 following a hand audit of five million paper ballots that validated the tabulated results. Governor Brian Kemp, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, and Georgia’s Voting System Implementation Manager Gabriel Sterling — all Republicans — have all affirmed the accuracy of the results.”
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Our AJC colleague James Salzer reports that Fair Fight Action, the voting rights organization Stacey Abrams founded in 2018 after losing a close gubernatorial election, raised $34.5 million in just 39 days from late October to the last week of November, funneling a chunk of the money into helping Democratic candidates in key races.
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Already posted: Former U.S. attorney Michael J. Moore of Atlanta has asked the Georgia State Election Board to investigate whether U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham improperly attempted to press Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to interfere in the counting of votes cast in the presidential election.
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We told you on Thursday that COVID-19 was threatening the survival of Manuel’s Tavern, the most famous political watering hole in Atlanta. Our AJC colleague Ligaya Figueras has some good news:
Manuel's Tavern owner Brian Maloof went to bed Wednesday night not knowing what he would wake up to. After 64 years in business, Manuel's Tavern appeared to be yet another restaurant casualty of the coronavirus pandemic. Less than 24 hours later, and thanks to an outpouring of community support, a Manuel's closing is not imminent.
Maloof was prepared to call it quits when a group of longtime patrons approached him about setting up a Go Fund Me campaign. The page went live Wednesday night with a goal of raising $75,000, enough to pay the insurance and liquor license fees for 2021 as well as make payroll through February.
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