Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Friday, March 29th, 2024

Biden, Trump to Converge on Georgia Before Pivotal US Senate Vote

Biden, Trump to Converge on  Georgia Before Pivotal US Senate Vote

President-elect Joe Biden and President Donald Trump will both visit Georgia on Monday, a day before voters in the state cast their ballots in dual contests that will determine which party controls the US Senate for the first two years of Biden’s presidency.
The runoff races between Democrat Jon Ossoff against incumbent Republican David Perdue and Democrat Raphael Warnock against incumbent Republican Kelly Loeffler have gripped national attention in the weeks following the November 3 elections.
Democrats control 48 seats in the 100-member Senate and Republicans have 50. If either Loeffler or Perdue wins their races on Tuesday, Republicans will maintain control of the Senate.
Both Democrats – Ossoff, a documentary filmmaker, and Warnock, a senior pastor at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta – must win to give their party 50 seats in the chamber.
In that event, under the US Constitution, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will cast the tie-breaking vote.
A sweep for Democrats in the races would vastly improve Biden’s chances of passing his legislative agenda, as Democrats control the House of Representatives. Losses by either Ossoff or Warnock could portend legislative deadlock.
“We’re not having any conversations about whether there’s a value-add to have the president-elect be a part of this,” Biden’s incoming White House deputy chief of staff, Jen O’Malley Dillon, told The Associated Press on Sunday. “There is.”
Beyond legislative goals, Democratic control of the Senate would also help Biden shape the first years of his presidency, as cabinet nominees and federal judges – including Supreme Court justices – are confirmed by a simple majority in the chamber.
Impeachment trials are also conducted by the Senate.
‘I just want to find 11,780 votes’
Tuesday’s vote will be yet another step towards the end of a tumultuous election season that has seen Trump continue to allege, without evidence, widespread fraud and voting irregularities.
Trump continued his attempts to overturn the results in the state on Saturday, urging Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in a phone call to recalculate the total to give him victory.
I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we won the state,” Trump told Raffensperger in the call, the audio of which was obtained by US media.
Biden won Georgia by 11,779 votes, according to the final total certified by the state.
Loeffler and Perdue have both tied their political fates to Trump’s baseless claims of election malfeasance, with the candidates calling Raffensperger to resign in the wake of the general election, citing “mismanagement and lack of transparency”, without offering further evidence.
In the waning days of the race, Ossoff, Warnock, and Loeffler have been on a campaign blitz, as Perdue waits in isolation after being exposed to a person infected with the coronavirus.
On Monday, Biden will campaign in Atlanta, a day after Vice President-elect Harris visits the city of Savannah. The president-elect had previously campaigned in the state on December 15. (Aljazeera)