Even as the outgoing president’s grip on the country weakens, his grip on Cult 45 remains strong.
The New York Times reported Monday that with the Biden administration only weeks away EPA staff members “are emboldened to stymie Mr. Trump’s goals” of leaving more regulatory destruction in his wake. Some are conducting back-channel discussions with the Biden transition team on putting the agency back together.
But as the “mad king” obsesses over Republicans who did not go to the mat to steal the election for him, his rantings about election fraud are undermining chances for Georgia Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler to retain their U.S. Senate seats up for grabs in Jan. 5 runoffs.
The Trump legal team’s un-victory tour has traveled the country reinforcing among base supporters Trump’s claim that the election he lost was “a total scam.” So while Trump’s lame-duck efforts to lay waste to Washington, D.C. meet resistance there, hardcore supporters in Georgia wonder why they should show up to vote on Jan. 5 if the result is as rigged as he claims.
The Washington Post reports:
- In some Trump-supporting circles on social media, there is talk of boycotting the election. Lin Wood is a Trump ally in Atlanta who recently tweeted to his hundreds of thousands of followers: “If not fixed, I will NOT vote in GA runoff.”
- Politico reports that #CrookedPerdue and #CrookedKelly are popping up on social media, accusing the two senators of being “liberal DemoRats.” That’s despite the fact that Perdue and Kelly stuck their necks out politically to try to demonstrate how concerned they were with election fraud. Shortly after they learned they were going to runoffs, they sent out a joint statement demanding Georgia’s Republican secretary of state resign over perceived misdeeds in overseeing the election. They provided no evidence, and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) has ridiculed them for it.
- Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel was campaigning in Georgia this weekend when she encountered some GOP voters who don’t see the point in voting if the election is supposedly rigged. CNN reported that she was confronted by concerns about using “money and work [to win the runoffs] when it’s already decided.” “It’s not decided,” she pushed back.
“The Trump wing of the Republican Party was always at risk of detaching from the party establishment,” writes Amber Phillips. But it is not clear there is a Trump “wing” of the party. Trump is the party now. Establishment Republicans are the fringe. Chickens are coming home to an intramural cock fight.
Runoffs and primaries are typically low-turnout elections attended mostly by party faithful. To secure the two Georgia wins Republicans need to retain control of the Senate, Perdue and Loeffler will need to turn out Trump’s base: the new Trumpublican base. But as the Jan. 20 Joe Biden inauguration nears, Trump’s mood is likely to further darken as his thoughts turn to issuing pardons and his looming post-presidency legal troubles. Getting out the vote for them in Georgia will not be a priority.
Even if he shows up in Georgia on Dec. 5 to campaign for Loeffler and Perdue, Trump is unlikely to help … or keep to script. He will spend his superspreader event rubbing his wounded ego. He will complain about “betrayal” by Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. He will repeat that Georgia was stolen from him via the “rigged voting machines & fake mail ballots” Wood complained of on Sunday to his hundreds of thousands of Twitter followers.
“Color revolution.”
If Trump has no faith in Georgia’s elections, why should his followers there bother?