President Trump didn’t go “off script,” as quaking establishment Republicans everywhere feared, during his Dec. 5 rally in Valdosta, Georgia. The president firmly and repeatedly endorsed GOP Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler as they prepare for their Jan. 5 runoff elections and urged his supporters to get out and vote to protect the Republican Senate majority. As he did so, however, Trump skillfully wove that narrative to his steadfast commitment to continue the fight to expose what he states is the flagrant voter fraud that allowed Democrats to “steal” the Nov. 3 presidential race.
Trump appeared in fine fettle during his address to the large and enthusiastic audience, displaying the relaxed and confident manner of a political figure who feels his star is still ascending, rather than fading. “You know we won Georgia, just so you understand,” Trump told the crowd that had, unmistakably, showed up for him and not the two GOP Senate candidates. “And we won Florida, and we won a lot of places.”
‘Fight For Trump’
Perhaps the most telling moment of the evening came midway through the president’s speech when he had Perdue and Loeffler take the mic to say a few words. Loeffler, who Trump lavishly praised throughout the evening despite the fact that he opposed Republican Gov. Brian Kemp’s decision to appoint her to fill a Senate vacancy in 2019, was politely received by the crowd. But when Perdue attempted to speak, he was blasted with a boisterous “Fight For Trump” chant by rallygoers.
Sen. Kelly Loeffler
Perdue has been the subject of withering ire from Trump backers after revealing his apparent desire for a Joe Biden presidency paired with a GOP Senate. “We have the potential if we have a majority in the Senate on the Republican side, that [Senate Majority Leader] Mitch McConnell [R-KY] could indeed negotiate with Biden in a way that we haven’t seen in two or three administrations,” the senator giddily proclaimed in a Zoom video conference call with the Republican Jewish Coalition on Dec. 2.
That’s the last thing Trump supporters want to hear at the moment. Perdue was not the only Republican to feel the heat in Valdosta. Gov. Kemp was a frequent target of the president during his speech. Trump has been urging Kemp to take a more active role in rooting out the numerous irregularities surrounding the election voting in his state.
“You know again, all I can do is say ‘I’m running,’ win, and then do a good job as president. That’s all,” Trump crisply exclaimed. “I don’t run the elections. I don’t run to see if people are walking in with suitcases and putting them under a table with a black robe around it. I don’t do that, that’s up to your government here, and for whatever reason, your secretary of state and your governor are afraid of Stacey Abrams. They’re afraid of her.”
Abrams is the progressive billionaire-funded “get out the vote” activist who narrowly lost to Kemp in the 2018 gubernatorial race. Trump referred to her again later in his address, wondering aloud why her massive voter registration and other electioneering activities are not more closely scrutinized. “Did you see where Stacy is allowed to harvest but other people can’t harvest?” Trump asked. “How is that constitutional? Has anybody looked at that?”
‘The Left Lies’
Trump was at his strongest when he described a network of power that he maintains is arrayed against the American people, presenting his struggle to hold on to the White House as their fight as well. The president asserted that election fraud is but one facet of a far bigger operation.
Brian Kemp
“The Left lies, they cheat and they steal. They are ruthless and they are hellbent on getting power and control by any means necessary,” Trump averred. “They investigate you and they prosecute you. The moment you question them they try to intimidate you. They call you a poor American – ‘you’re not a good American, you don’t love our country.'”
The president went on to tell the crowd: “They want you to be quiet, they want you to go away. But we don’t go away. We don’t go away.” He got one more dig in on Kemp when he hailed Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA), a staunch ally who attended the rally. “Doug, you wanna run for governor in two years, buddy?” Trump hollered out to Collins, the man he wanted Kemp to appoint to the Senate instead of Loeffler one year ago.
Speaking about the all-important Senate runoff elections that will take place less than one week into the new year, Trump promised: “[And] we’re going to be watching on January 5th. We’re gonna be watching every element of what they do… We’re gonna be watching it more closely than any election has ever been watched.” Clearly frustrated over the reluctance of anyone with real game-changing influence to step up and take on the issue of electoral fraud, the president continued:
“I used to say without borders we don’t have a country. I can say also without an honest voting system, without an electoral process that works and is honest and fair, we don’t have a country either.”
Whether Trump wins his own battle against apparent election fraud remains unclear. There is little doubt, though, that he does not plan to go quietly.
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