President Donald Trump declared the Senate runoff elections in Georgia both “illegal and invalid” in a tweet on Friday, which could dissuade his followers from heading to the polls.
The results of the Jan. 5 vote will determine which party controls the Senate. More than 3 million Georgians have already voted during the state’s early voting period.
Trump issued his baseless conclusion in a Twitter thread Friday night when he attacked the election process in the state, which is controlled by Republicans.
In his slam, Trump wrote that the Georgia “consent decree” is “unconstitutional.” He was referring to a bipartisan agreement forged by election officials in March that helped establish standards for judging valid signatures on absentee ballots. Lawsuits challenging the decree on Trump’s behalf have failed.
“The Georgia Consent Decree is Unconstitutional & the State 2020 Presidential Election … is therefore both illegal and invalid, and that would include the two current Senatorial Elections,” Trump tweeted.
There was no immediate comment from Republican Sens. Kelly Loeffler and Sen. David Perdue about their “invalid” races.
The president is scheduled to speak at a rally in support of them in Dalton, Georgia, on Monday.
Axios co-founder Mike Allen told CNBC on Thursday that many Republicans believe Trump has been deliberately sabotaging the Georgia race. (Check out the video up top.)
“There’s a big strain of thought among Republicans that President Trump is sabotaging this race,” Allen said. “He’s done so much to be unhelpful to those candidates. [Republicans] say he must be thinking: ‘I want to send a message. If I’m not on the ballot, Republicans are in trouble.’”
Trump’s ideas are veering dangerously close to the thoughts of his right-wing allies, attorneys Sidney Powell and Lin Wood. Both lawyers have advised Republicans to boycott voting in the runoff unless the presidential race is overturned.
Wood has also recently suggested that Vice President Mike Pence is guilty of treason and will be executed, that the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein is actually alive, and that Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts is part of a murderous pedophile cult. (https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/trump-georgia-senate-runoffs-illegal-invalid-042554943.html?.tsrc=daily_mail&uh_test=2_04)
