‘We’re winning’: Trump tells supporters at first post-election rally
- The US president made clear at an event in Georgia that he was neither ready to concede to Biden nor give up on his baseless claims of electoral fraud
- He was campaigning on behalf of two Republican candidates facing a hugely important run-off for control of the US Senate on January 5
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The crowd in Valdosta, Georgia for what was nominally a rally in support of two Republican Senate candidates facing a hugely consequential run-off election roared in support, at one point chanting “fight for Trump”.
In a nearly two-hour speech Trump, 74, declared he would not concede, at times sticking to his script but regularly going off-the-cuff for his more incendiary claims.
If I lost, I’d be a very gracious loser
It was yet another example of Trump breaking democratic norms, engaging in conspiracy-mongering and presenting falsehoods in ways unprecedented in US history.
His stance has raised the question of how he will react when Biden’s January 20 swearing-in date arrives.
“The swing states that we’re all fighting over now, I won them all by a lot,” Trump said, falsely.
“And I have to say, if I lost, I’d be a very gracious loser. If I lost, I would say, I lost, and I’d go to Florida and I’d take it easy and I’d go around and I’d say I did a good job. But you can’t ever accept when they steal and rig and rob.”
There had been concerns from some Republicans over whether Trump’s continuing claims of fraud would drive down voter turnout among Republicans in the upcoming election, making his appearance in Georgia somewhat of a gamble.
The run-off election will decide which party controls the US Senate, and Trump in his speech continued his fearmongering about rival Democrats.
“The voters of Georgia will determine which party runs every committee, writes every piece of legislation, controls every single taxpayer dollar,” he said.
You will decide whether your children will grow up in a socialist country or whether they will grow up in a free country
“Very simply, you will decide whether your children will grow up in a socialist country or whether they will grow up in a free country.”
The race has drawn enormous attention. One measure of the intense interest: with donations pouring in from across the country, the candidates have already spent more than US$315 million, the AdImpact website reported, an astounding figure for senatorial races.
But while Trump offered words of praise for the two Republicans and invited them on stage for brief comments on Saturday, he spent much of the time arguing that he had won the election.
Despite an overwhelming series of setbacks in the courts, the president and his lawyers have advanced wild conspiracy theories – one involving the late Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez – to explain Biden’s victory.
Biden won Georgia by just under 12,000 votes.
That result, while narrow, has been confirmed by subsequent recounts, making all the more surprising a phone call Saturday from Trump to Georgia Governor Brian Kemp reportedly urging him to press state legislators to overturn the result.
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As it happened: US Election 2020
The Washington Post said Kemp, once a devoted Trump ally, refused the entreaty.
Loeffler and Perdue have moved cautiously, urging Georgians to vote without directly challenging Trump’s complaints.
But Trump has not made things easier for Georgia Republicans, angrily attacking officials in his own party over his loss there, starting with Kemp.
He has denounced Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger as an “enemy of the people”.
But on Saturday night, there were flashes where it seemed Trump may be beginning to accept what lies ahead.
At one point, he said half-jokingly: “A friend of mine said, ‘Oh don’t worry about it sir, you’re way up in the polls, you’ll win in 2024.’ I said, ‘I don’t want to wait until 2024. I want to go back three weeks.’”
