Still refusing to admit defeat, Donald Trump organizes his first meeting since the presidential election on Saturday evening, finding his supporters to campaign in a crucial senatorial election in Georgia, because it will decide the balance of power in Washington.
The Republican tribune could play a dangerous game in front of his supporters.
Whoever still refuses to recognize the victory of Joe Biden, nearly a month after the official announcement, will he spend more time on stage screaming fraud in a “rigged” system, or urging voters to mobilize to elect the two Republican candidates to the Senate?
In any case, his message is already sowing doubt among his followers and worries Republican officials.
Because the stakes are immense.
On January 5, two US Senate seats, now held by Republicans, will be played in the state of Georgia in a double by-election.
If they lose them, the upper house will come under the control of the Democrats, because with 50 seats against 50, the future vice-president Kamala Harris will be able, as provided by the Constitution, to vote to decide the equality. And Joe Biden, who will be invested on January 20, will therefore count on an entirely Democratic Congress to unfold his program.
But if the Republicans retain the majority, the future president will have to deal with a divided Congress, the Senate having in particular the power to block his nominations and his big bills.
Accompanied by his wife Melania Trump, Donald Trump is therefore mobilizing with a “victory meeting” scheduled for 7pm, in Valdosta, Georgia, with outgoing Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler.
“We have to work hard to make sure they win,” he urged this week.
At the same time, he is showering the authorities, Republican, of Georgia with criticism by urging them to reverse the result of the election, yet already verified and certified, which gave the victory to Joe Biden by a short lead of less than 13 000 votes in this conservative state.
Some of his lawyers have even called for boycotting these senatorial elections as long as the “frauds” they denounce, without solid evidence to support them, will not be clarified.
While looking to the future by evoking a new candidacy in 2024, Donald Trump insists that the November 3 bulletins must again be checked.
The courts have, however, already rejected a myriad of legal actions presented by his team across the United States against results giving the advantage to Joe Biden.
But nothing helps, for the stormy billionaire.
“We are only starting to fight,” he tweeted again on Saturday, exhausting the handful of Congress Republicans (less than 30 out of 249) who acknowledged his rival’s victory over the Washington post.
“Already decided”
What to doubt the faithful Trumpists.
Why invest “money and work” in the senatorial “when it is already decided”, launched a voter of Georgia to the president of the Republican Party Ronna McDaniel last week.
In the first round, David Perdue won more than 88,000 votes ahead of his Democratic rival Jon Ossoff. A wide margin, but not enough to give him the more than 50% of the vote necessary to win in Georgia.
Kelly Loeffler, she had more than 300,000 votes behind her rival, Raphael Warnock, but she suffered, in the first round, from competition from another Republican who won nearly a million votes.
On paper, the two Republican senators therefore leave victorious.
But with a now younger and more diverse electorate in Georgia, and Democrats galvanized by Joe Biden’s victory in that state that had not voted for a presidential candidate for their party since 1992, Democratic hopes are growing.
And all political attention is turned to the “Peach State”.
Joe Biden assured Friday that he would also campaign in Georgia, without giving a date.
“It’s not just Georgia,” warned Barack Obama on Friday, campaigning online for Democrats. “It’s about America and the world. “
The same day, Republican Vice President Mike Pence was in this state, where he tried, with difficulty, to reconcile the two messages of Donald Trump, to challenge the victory of Joe Biden and to mobilize the Republicans: “We can fight for our president and to have more Republicans in the Senate at the same time. “