Mike Pence: Georgia senators are last line of GOP defense

Vice President Mike Pence campaigned with Georgia's two Republican senators Friday, trying to hold off ir Democratic challengers in Jan. 5 ruffs that will determine who controls Senate at outset of President-elect Joe Biden's ministration.

trip highlights a critical juncture for Republicans and Pence, who is trying to balance his own political future against his loyalties to a president who has yet to concede defeat.

Pence appeared with Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler on outskirts of metro Atlanta's sprawling footprint, on same day Georgia's Republican secretary of state certified that Biden is first Democratic presidential minee  to carry state since 1992.

Although Pence has joined President Donald Trump in t yet conceding to Biden, vice president held fast Friday to more careful langu than president's repeated and baseless claims of widespre voter fraud.

“As our election contest continues, here in Georgia and in courts across country, I’ll make you a promise,” Pence said in a prepared speech he delivered in Canton and Gainesville, towns rth of Atlanta. “We’re going to keep fighting until every legal vote is counted. We’re going to keep fighting until every illegal vote is thrown out."

That position has grown increasingly fraught as more states certify election returns, and even federal judges appointed by Trump reject president's specious claims of a fraudulent election. Pence, almost certainly a future presidential candidate himself, cant yet afford to distance himself from Trump, but also must be careful t to attach himself to mistruths that undermine confidence in U.S. elections.

Pence focused Friday on securing Republican Senate majority by helping Perdue and Loeffler defeat Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warck, respectively. Having won 50 Senate seats in new Congress, Republicans need one more for control. A Democratic sweep of Georgia ruffs would yield a 50-50 Senate, giving Vice President-elect Kamala Harris tie-breaking vote to tilt chamber to Democrats.

With some irony, Republicans’ chief argument in ruff contest has been to warn against giving Democrats complete control, a position that tacitly ackwledges that Biden will be sworn in as president on Jan. 20. Pence implied as much when he said Friday that a “Republican Senate majority could be last line of defense for all that we’ve done."

Speaking before Pence, Perdue explicitly ackwledged Biden’s win when he warned that if Georgia doesn’t elect him and Loeffler, Democrats will “have White House, Senate and House of Representatives. y’ll do anything y want.”

(Im Credit: AP)