Guess what? The Republican civil war breaking out in Georgia over the GOP's dismal electoral showing came at the demand of Donald Trump. As Georgia's two GOP senators embark on trying to save their seats in a January runoff, they were effectively given an ultimatum by Team Trump: Declare the Georgia returns favoring Joe Biden bogus, or else.
Republican Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue quickly acquiesced, skewering their party's own election officials for having failed the state's residents and demanding the resignation of Republican Sec. of State Brad Raffensperger.
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"We’re told the president and his top allies pressured the two Republican senators to take this step, lest he tweet a negative word about them and risk divorcing them from his base ahead of the consequential runoff," writes the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
That's what Republicans get after four years of coddling an egomaniacal man-child with big autocratic dreams. Trump has now dragged Washington Republicans into combat with a state party official and forced everyone to take sides. Republican Gov. Brian Kemp predictably sided with Trumper while Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan backed Sec. of State Raffensperger.
Following the scathing joint statement from Loeffler and Perdue, Raffensperger quickly shot back, suggesting the two senators might want to concentrate on winning their runoffs rather than blaming others for their failures.
Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff, who's challenging Perdue in the Jan. 5 runoff, happily chimed in with a three-word response on the GOP infighting: "Republicans in disarray."
It's worth remembering that Trump's claims are entirely baseless—he simply can't handle the truth that he's likely the first Republican presidential nominee to lose the state in several decades. But more than anything, Loeffler and Perdue need Trump's base to turn out in full force in January despite the fact that he's not on the ballot. And if Trump had tweeted so much as a single negative thing about them, they'd almost surely be toast.
So yeah, time to eat your own on the way to seeking victory. It's not like either Loeffler or Perdue have sterling reputations to protect anyway—they're just as self-serving as the next Republican. Sorry Raffensperger, someone had to take the hit for Dear Leader’s failures.
But in the meantime, Perdue and Loeffler have now allowed themselves to be taken hostage by Trump, who frankly couldn’t care less about whether they win reelection.
The Georgia runoff is Jan. 5. Click here to request an absentee ballot. Early in-person voting starts Dec. 14. And REGISTER TO VOTE here by Dec. 7.
