President Donald Trump’s lies have unintended consequences for election theft: his base has members who urge Republicans not to vote for vital Senate seats in the Georgian run.
Democrats could take control of the U.S. Senate if both Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff defeat Republican-appointed Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue in the upcoming run. But Trump harmed his party’s cause by attacking two state Republican officials – Governor Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, and a Republican Trump declared himself “RINO only” or only a Republican on his behalf – for their alleged participation in a far-reaching plan to win the state presidential election for Joe Biden. (In reality, Raffensperger and Kemp are also supporters of Trump.)
Georgia’s secretary of state, the so-called Republican (RINO), does not allow people who check ballots to see their fraud signatures. Why? Without it, the whole process is very unfair and almost meaningless. Everyone knows we won the state. Where is @BrianKempGA?
– Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 14, 2020
A faction at Trump’s base, including the PAC linked to Roger Stone, called for Trump’s conspiracy and attacks on Kemp and Raffensperger to sit down the drains. These rumbles were significant enough that on Monday Donald Trump Jr. was forced to consider a tweet rejecting a speech about holding back Perdue and Loeffler’s votes as “NONSENSE,” adding, “EVERYONE of ours has to come out to Kelly and David I will vote. “
I see a lot of speeches from people who are supposed to be on our side telling GOP voters not to go out and vote @KLoeffler and @PerdueSenate.
This is NONSENSE.
IGNORE those people.
We need ALL of our people to come out to vote for Kelly and David.#ITSELF #GAS
– Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) November 23, 2020
The irony is that Trump fans, warned by Don Jr., are simply taking their signals from his father, who continues to urge unfounded conspiracy theories about his stolen election, even as he wholeheartedly supported the DG’s move tonight. to officially begin the transition to Biden.
Trump fans are unwilling to believe that Trump really lost
On Parler’s right-wing social media platform, investigative reporter Marcus Baram documented how the posters say, “Don’t vote! Do not be part of corruption. ”And“ With Dominion voting machines, we don’t count our votes anyway. The only way to corruption is to boycott the election, or rather write Donald Trump. “
Of course, the idea that Dominion Voting Systems, a fraudulent electronic voting system used across the country, somehow made the election of Joe Biden is an unproven MAGA fever. But Trump urged him relentlessly and is at the center of the demands he pursued on Tuesday recasting the elections.
The idea that Trump fans should boycott the Georgian runoff as a punishment for Republican settlements echoed beyond Parler. At the “Stop the Steal” demonstration in Georgia over the weekend, for example, a performer rejoiced as he attacked Raffensperger and Kemp as a “traitor,” saying, “Any Republican who lets this happen is complicit, and we’re done! … we will do everything we can to completely destroy the Republican Party. ”(Adu tweeted his support to the meeting.)
And it’s not just randians who publicly call Trump fans to sit out the drains. On Tuesday, Lachlan Markay and Will Sommer wrote to the Daily Beast that “conservative operational organizations and the super PAC linked to the GOP’s infamous dirty trick, Roger Stone, are calling on Trump supporters to punish Republicans for to plant the decisive course of the Georgian Senate, or to write to Trump. name. ”
Meanwhile, a lawyer who worked on the Trump campaign in Georgia, L. Lin Wood, tweeted on Saturday that unless Purdue and Loeffler do more to investigate Trump’s (baseless) fraud allegations, “I’m NOT going to vote in the GA process. . “
Let’s talk about truth @SenLoeffler & @sendavidperdue.
Why Do Little or Nothing to Support GA Citizens’ Efforts to Address Illegal Elections and Needs @BrianKempGA to order a special session of the legislature?
If not corrected, I will NOT vote in the GA process.
Are you going to?
– Lin Wood (@LLinWood) November 21, 2020
It should be noted that some of these efforts are extremely half-finished. The PAC belonging to the stone, for example, encourages Trump fans to write Trump’s name, even though the Georgian election vote does not allow entry. But given how tight the Warnock-Loeffler and Perdue-Ossoff races can be, the demoralization of even a fraction of Republican voters could boost the Democrats ’decisive race.
Now that he’s actually leaving the White House, it’s not clear how much Trump is interested in Republicans maintaining control over the Senate. Nor is it clear that he is thinking of the consequences of the conspiracy theories he has pressed, given that he supported Loeffler and Purdue just last week.
But Don Jr.’s tweet, which ignores calls by MAGA fans around the vote, illustrates well one of the biggest challenges the Republican Party faces, as evidenced by Trump’s defeat. Is it possible to satisfy Trump fans who refuse to believe they have defeated their leader while also existing in a world where elections still have consequences? Early returns indicate that it will be difficult.
