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Trump shares posts asking ‘why bother voting for Republicans?’ ahead of key vote that could decide Senate

President launches attacks on his own party despite two decisive Senate races in Georgia next month

Gino Spocchia
Wednesday 02 December 2020 17:24 GMT
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Democrat Georgia candidate launches blistering attack on Trump state visit
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With almost a month until Georgia voters decide whether Republicans or Democrats control Congress’s upper chamber, Donald Trump shared a tweet that asked “why bother voting for Republicans?”

The US president shared the post on Monday as he continued to attack Republicans’ commitment to the electoral process and an election he will not concede, despite two crucial Senate elections next month.

“Why bother voting for Republicans if what you get is [Doug] Ducey and [Brian] Kemp?”, said the tweet, which was written by conservative commentator Carmine Sabia, and shared by the president, a Republican.

His remarks come as voters are set to decide between two Republicans or two Democratic challengers to take Georgia’s seats in the US Senate, and possible control over the upper chamber in Congress, in 35 days time.

Mr Trump, who plans to campaign in the battleground state this weekend, has appeared to have turned against Republicans as his election defeat continued to become near-impossible to undo.

And despite the two crucial senate races, Mr Trump delivered attacks on Georgia’s governor, Mr Kemp, as well as Arizona’s governor, Mr Ducey, who was alleged to have “put a Democrat in office" as the state confirmed election results, and Mr Trump’s defeat to Mr Biden, on Monday.

On Sunday, the president told Fox News he was “ashamed” to have backed Mr Kemp’s 2018 campaign to become governor of Georgia, and that the Republican had “done absolutely nothing” to question the state’s election results, despite repeated — and baseless — allegations about election fraud by Mr Trump.

Republican donors and strategists told the Associated Press , however, they were concerned that Mr Trump’s attacks on Republicans would persuade people not to vote in the Senate races, and that “Trump’s comments are damaging the Republican brand”, as Republican donor Dan Eberhart, described.

Still, the president told supporters they should back senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler against two strong Democratic opponents, who have pushed Georgia’s Senate elections to the wire, with no candidate securing a 50 per cent majority on 3 November.

Republicans need only one seat to reclaim control over the Senate, while Democrats need both Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock to take the Senate to a tie, which would then be decided by vice president-elect Kamala Harris.

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