President Trump went after both Brian Kemp and Mitch McConnell today in a fiery statement that laid out the main two reasons he believes Republicans lost the two Senate seats in Georgia.
First up, Kemp:
NY POST – Trump, in an emailed statement, said Kemp’s failure to crack down on alleged voting irregularities dampened Republican voter turnout in the Peach State.
“To set the record straight, there were two reasons the Senate races were lost in Georgia,” Trump wrote.
“First, Republicans did not turn out to vote because they were so angry and disappointed with Georgia Republican leadership and Governor Kemp for failing to stand up to Stacey Abrams and the disastrous Consent Decree that virtually eliminated signature verification requirements across the state (and much worse), and was not approved by the State Legislature as required by the Constitution — having a major impact on the result, a rigged election,” the statement continued.
And now Mitch:
“Second, Senator Mitch McConnell’s refusal to go above $600 per person on the stimulus check payments when the two Democrat opponents were touting $2,000 per person in ad after ad. This latter point was used against our Senators and the $2,000 will be approved anyway by the Democrats who bought the Georgia election — and McConnell let them do it!,” he said.
Trump also went after Mitch and the NRSC:
The former president also voiced his anger with the National Republican Senatorial Committee for spending millions on “ineffective” ads using McConnell, who he said won re-election in Kentucky because of Trump’s support.
“Even more stupidly, the National Republican Senatorial Committee spent millions of dollars on ineffective TV ads starring Mitch McConnell, the most unpopular politician in the country, who only won in Kentucky because President Trump endorsed him,” Trump said in the statement.
“He would have lost badly without this endorsement,” Trump said.
And lastly, Trump took aim at the WSJ:
Trump also leveled criticism at the Wall Street Journal. He said the newspaper’s editorial page “continues, knowingly, to fight for globalist policies such as bad trade deals, open borders, and endless wars that favor other countries and sell out our great American workers, and they fight for RINOS that have so badly hurt the Republican Party.”
“That’s where they are and that’s where they will always be. Fortunately, nobody cares much about The Wall Street Journal editorial anymore. They have lost great credibility,” he continued.
Regarding the two Senate seats we lost, I think Trump is right about how frustrated people were that nothing at the state level was being done to fix the problems. This frustration was exacerbated by titans like Lin Wood, who actually encouraged people not to vote. That was reckless and it certainly led to Republicans losing the Senate.
As far as McConnell nixing the 2k paychecks, Trump might be right. It’s really hard to say whether that would have encouraged more people to vote Republican. Also, I really hate the idea of a bribe for votes, which is what Democrats do all the time. So even if that were part of the problem, I discount it for that very reason.