And leaving the White House … if.
Republicans got two pieces of good news from Donald Trump yesterday. With the election mostly behind everyone except Trump himself, the GOP needs to focus on the last question still to be settled — control of the Senate. Two runoffs in Georgia on January 5th will determine whether Mitch McConnell or Chuck Schumer control the Senate floor, and Republicans worried that Trump might turn off his most dedicated followers with his repeated claims of election fraud in the Peach State. Yesterday, Trump told reporters that he will hold at least one get-out-the-vote rally for Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, as soon as tomorrow: President Trump said Thursday he will visit Georgia to campaign for incumbent GOP Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, likely this weekend ahead of their Jan.5 run-offs. The commander in chief announced his plans while speaking to reporters following a Thanksgiving video conference with military members stationed abroad, saying he would head out “probably Saturday.” “Speaking of Georgia, we’re going there. I spoke with the two great senators today. I’ll probably be going on Saturday,” Trump said, adding that he planned to hold some type of campaign rally. He went on to argue that people in the Peach State felt “very disappointed we were robbed,” appearing to allude to his losing Georgia to President-elect Joe Biden. The big risk in Georgia is that Republican voters get discouraged about voting in a state where Trump claims Republican leaders like Gov. Brian Kemp allowed massive fraud to steal the election from him. That is no way to gin up enthusiasm for a second round of turnout, and about the only prescription to reverse that buzzkill is to have Trump hit the stump to call his supporters to the polls. Perdue and Loeffler need to get full MAGA backing to contend with what’s expected to be a better-than-usual turnout effort by Democrats on January 5th; absentee ballot requests have already reached a record: News: As of today 762k absentee ballots have been requested for the Jan.
