Donald Trump attended a rally for Georgia Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue on Saturday but gave them little more than lips service, instead using an almost two hour speech to bemoan his election loss to Joe Biden, vow that he would prevail in the end, and attack Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, whom he asked for help on Saturday to overturn the election (he was rebuffed).
The NYT reports: “Speaking for an hour and 40 minutes, the president did read a series of scripted lines about the two Republican senators, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, and repeatedly urged his supporters in Georgia to vote next month, even mentioning the deadlines for the mail-in ballots he has so often scorned. Yet he embedded those dutiful remarks of support in a deep thicket of conspiracy-mongering about his defeat and even aired a lengthy montage of video of clips from the conservative news outlets Newsmax and One America News Network, which also depicted a sinister plot of electoral theft.”
A few clips:
In related news, The Washington Post reports: “Hours before he was scheduled to hold a rally in Georgia on behalf of the state’s two GOP senators, Trump pressed Kemp to call a special session of the state legislature for lawmakers to override the results and appoint electors who would back the president at the electoral college, according to two people familiar with the conversation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the private call. Trump also asked the governor to demand an audit of signatures on mail ballots, something Kemp has previously noted he has no power to do. Kemp declined the president’s entreaty, according to the people.”
