by The Washington Examiner Editors
President Trump says he wants Republicans to keep the Senate and will be campaigning in Georgia. But his persistent claims that the election was stolen from him and attacks on Georgia’s Republican leadership are fueling disillusionment that could backfire on conservatives and the Republican Party, and make Sen. Chuck Schumer the majority leader.
As things stand, Republicans will enter January with 50 Senate seats to 48 for Democrats, with the two Georgia seats to be determined by runoffs. If Republicans win at least one of them, they can maintain control of the Senate. If Democrats sweep both, then they will take over a 50-50 Senate, with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris serving as the tie-breaking vote.
It takes no more than one Senate seat to make a huge difference in how President-elect Joe Biden’s first term plays out. With a Republican Senate, Biden can say goodbye to plans to pass legislation that would raise taxes, implement a Green New Deal, ban guns, cater to unions, expand Obamacare, and implement a whole host of other liberal priorities. With Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell at the helm, Biden won’t be able to confirm radical nominees to the Cabinet or judiciary. Instead, he’ll be forced to offer more centrist choices if he wants vacancies to be filled. Though he can still try to govern by executive order, that will invite years of litigation that will slow down his agenda.
But if Democrats sweep in Georgia, Schumer will be in charge of the Senate floor. Sen. Joe Manchin will be the only thing standing in the way of the liberal agenda. Republicans will be stuck on the sidelines, forced to sit and hope Manchin holds his ground under enormous pressure from his party and resists cutting backroom deals with Schumer. There isn’t much reason to be confident that this will work out. During his time in the Senate, Manchin voted with Schumer a majority of the time, and as high as 86% during one Senate term during the Obama era. Manchin may not rubber-stamp Sen. Bernie Sanders's wish list, but there are plenty of liberal priorities that he’d be willing to advance for the right price.
If Trump were to have taken our advice and conceded, right now, he could be helping Republicans win the Georgia races by arguing exclusively that voting for Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler would place a necessary check on Biden. He could be arguing that voting for them would be crucial to preserving his legacy.
Instead, the president's continued insistence that the election was stolen from him amid widespread fraud is undercutting his message. His insistence that he really won Georgia requires such a vast conspiracy that it’s impossible not to implicate Georgia’s Republican leadership, which certified the state for Biden.
“Georgia Secretary of State, a so-called Republican (RINO), won’t let the people checking the ballots see the signatures for fraud,” Trump tweeted. “Why? Without this the whole process is very unfair and close to meaningless. Everyone knows that we won the state. Where is @BrianKempGA?”
Such rhetoric directs anger at Georgia Republicans, encouraging disillusionment among GOP voters just weeks ahead of the runoff elections.
It is also creating fertile ground for lawyers Sidney Powell and Lin Wood (who has a history of donating to Democrats) to spread conspiracy theories that are even more far-fetched. Trump elevated Powell by including her as part of his legal team, allowing for her statements to gain traction now even though the legal team has subsequently distanced itself from her.
Without providing evidence, Powell has said Gov. Brian Kemp received financial kickbacks to award a contract to Dominion, the vote-counting machine company, which, she further claims, rigged the election by flipping a massive number of votes from Trump to Biden.
Powell and Wood went so far as to discourage Georgia Republicans explicitly from voting, attacking Loeffler and Perdue as part of the problem for not demanding a special legislative session to deal with their fraud claims. "There should not be a runoff," Powell said. "Certainly not on Dominion machines. I think I would encourage all Georgians to make it known that you will not vote at all until your vote is secure."
It’s possible that most Republicans in Georgia will not pursue the self-defeating strategy of boycotting the runoff election. We certainly hope that's the case. But given how close the races were this year and how tight polls are, if even 1% of the Republican electorate is convinced not to turn out, it could be the difference. And that difference is one between Republicans having veto power over the liberal agenda or Biden being sworn in with unified Democratic control of Washington.
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