Biden Blast Georgia GOP Senators For Backing Trump Efforts To Overturn Election

President-elect Joe Biden returned to the campaign trail on Tuesday, traveling to Georgia to stump for Democratic Senate candidates Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock, slamming their incumbent Republican rivals, Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler for “stand[ing] by” and “did nothing” to stop President Trump to “nullifying nearly 5 million Georgia votes.”

“I think you all just taught Donald Trump a lesson. In this election, Georgia wasn’t going to be bullied, Georgia wasn’t going to be silenced, and Georgia certainly wasn’t going to stand by and let Donald Trump or the state of Texas or anyone else come in here and toss out your votes,” Biden said.

During the drive-in rally in Atlanta, Biden lambasted Perdue and Loeffler, claiming the two GOP Senators “fully embraced” a lawsuit filed in the Supreme Court by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton that failed when the justices rejected his case to overturn the results of the presidential elections in four battleground states, with one of those states being Georgia.

“You know who did stand by? You know who did nothing while Trump and Texas and others were trying to wipe out every single one of the almost five million votes you all just in Georgia in November? Your two Republican senators,” Biden said. “That’s right, they stood by. In fact, your two Republican Senators fully embraced what Texas was telling the Supreme Court — to nullify nearly 5 million Georgian votes. You might want to remember that come Jan. 5.”

“I’ll try to be generous here, in the spirit of the season,” Biden added. “Maybe your senators were just confused. Maybe they think they represent Texas. Well, if you want to do the bidding of Texas, you should be running in Texas, not in Georgia.”

He spent the majority of his speech, pleading to Georgians to vote for both Democrats as the Georgia runoff will decide the control of the Senate, along with the control of the legislative power for the incoming Biden’s administration. Biden admitted that he needs both in the Senate if he wants to enact any of his agenda, warning Democratic defeats would lead to a gridlock from a controlled GOP Senate whom he said are “just going to get in the way,” similar to what President Obama dealt with in the final years of his presidency.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do and I plan to get to work right away doing it. And I need two senators from this state who want to get something done, not two senators who are just going to get in the way,” Biden pleaded. “There is so much more we can get done. On COVID. On revitalizing our economy. On health care. On voting rights. On criminal justice. On racial justice. On climate change.”

“We can get so much done. So much that can make the lives of Georgians better. But you need Senators who are willing to do it, for God’s sake. Send me these two men and we will control the Senate and change the lives of the people of Georgia,” he added.

If Democrats fail to win both these runoff races, Senate Republicans will hold the power to block many of Biden’s Cabinet nominations, as well as his radical policy initiatives. However, if Democrats pull the ultimate upset to unseat the GOP incumbents, Biden would enter office having Democrats control both chambers of Congress that will give him far more leverage to push his agenda and nominees without problems along with reversing many of President Trump’s initiative by positioning Vice President-elect Kamala Harris as the tiebreaker vote of a 50-50 chamber.

Democrats are banking on Biden to re-energize Georgia voters that apparently fueled his narrow victory. Nearly 2.5 million Georgian voted for Biden, with 850,000 of those votes were conducted through mail-in ballots. Biden urged the same coalition of voters to deliver once again for the Democratic candidates as early voting kicked off just this week.

“You voted in record numbers. You voted to improve the lives of every Georgian. You voted like your lives depended on it. Well, guess what? Now you’re going to have to do it again,” Biden said. “Come January 5th, you’ve got to vote in record numbers again.”

Nearly 482,000 Georgian voters have already cast their ballot in person and by mail during the first day of early voting on Monday, according to U.S. Elections Project Voting Statistics data. The first day saw 168,000 Georgians cast their votes in person. On mail-in ballots, less than a million absentee ballots were requested since Monday, with the state already receiving 314,000 of those ballots being cast.

Biden also thanked Georgia voters for turning out in electing him in November, becoming the first Democratic presidential candidate to win the state in more than a quarter-century. He narrowly won the state by 12,000 votes out of the 5 million that were cast.

He credited political activist Stacey Abrams, the former gubernatorial candidate, in particular, her work in mobilizing and registering hundreds of thousands of new voters

“If we had 10 of you,” he said, “we could rule the whole world!”

However, the failed gubernatorial candidate voter registration group she founded, “The New Georgia Project” was recently named as one of four groups that are under investigation for improper registration activities. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced earlier this month his office received “specific evidence” showing The New Georgia Project was “aggressively” soliciting voter register from those considered “ineligible, out-of-state, or deceased voters” before the state’s Jan. 5 Senate runoff elections.

Biden’s presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) have spent roughly $5 million so far, while directly fundraising for the two Democratic candidates with roughly $10 million has been raised since launching “Flip Georgia Fund” this month.

Polling averages currently show both Senate races as neck and neck, although historical trends favor the incumbent senators. According to Real Clear Politics Average, Perdue leads by 0.7 percentage points, garnishing an average of 49% from Nov. 8 to December to Ossoff 48.3%. Meanwhile, Warnock leads Loeffler by half a point with 48.8% to 48.3.%