In a bid to save their majority, Senate Republicans have made the calculation that their voters are indeed stupid enough to buy into the baseless notion that the election was stolen out from under them, only to march straight back to the polls in January for another exercise in futility.
That scorched-earth strategy of stoking distrust in Georgia's election results became crystal clear Monday with a joint statement issued by the two GOP senators facing runoffs on Jan. 5, Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue.
We've got one last shot at booting Senate Republicans from power in January. Please give $3 right now to send the GOP packing.
"The management of Georgia elections has become an embarrassment for our state. Georgians are outraged, and rightly so," the GOP senators said of the state’s GOP-led election in which Democratic President-elect Joe Biden appears to have flipped the state blue. The Republican secretary of state, they said, "has failed the people of Georgia, and he should step down."
Oh, and by the way, Georgia GOP voters, please come on back to the polls in two months to be disenfranchised all over again.
In reality, there's zero credible proof of any voter fraud in Georgia, but that's apparently the Republican gambit now—they simply must fire up Donald Trump’s base, even at the risk of depressing other Republican voters. Meanwhile, GOP Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger met the senators’ call for his resignation with a one-finger salute.
“Earlier today Senators Loeffler and Perdue called for my resignation. Let me start by saying that is not going to happen,” Secretary Raffensperger said at the outset of a lengthy statement, calling the election process a "resounding success" even though Republicans are upset by its outcome. Raffensperger called the assertion that the elections hadn't been transparent enough "laughable," and said the biggest problem standing in the way of administering local elections was federal law.
"Now that Senators Perdue and Loeffler are concerned about elections, hopefully they can fix these federal laws," Raffensperger said. As for the Republicans maintaining their Senate majority, he added, "I recommend that Senators Loeffler and Perdue start focusing on that."
Wow—the GOP unity is so palpable, it brings tears to the eyes.
From the Senate floor Monday, GOP Leader Mitch McConnell also threw his weight behind Donald Trump's delusions of fraud, saying Trump was “100% within his rights to look into allegations of irregularities and weigh his legal options.”
So just in case anyone wondered whether McConnell would be concerned enough about the implications of Trump purging his national security team to prioritize country first—forget it. As expected, the only thing McConnell cares about is the only thing McConnell has ever cared about: his own raw power, whatever the cost to the country.
In the meantime, Georgia Republicans have devolved into a civil war of finger-pointing and recriminations as they gear up to motivate their voters back to polls in a last-ditch effort to save their Senate majority. Carry on.
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.
Here’s McConnell placing self over country, as always: