Pence stumps in Ga. before potential Trump storm

Ahead of President Donald Trump wading into two high-profile Georgia Senate runoffs this weekend, Vice President Mike Pence on Friday urged Republicans to form a united front in the contests that will determine which party controls the Senate in January.Pence campaigned Friday with Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, with the GOP roiled by Trump’s continued denial of his own defeat and his baseless attacks that Republican officials in Georgia, including the governor and secretary of state, enabled widespread voter fraud on behalf of President-elect Joe Biden.

There have even been suggestions from some Trump allies that conservative voters should sit out the Jan. 5 Senate runoffs in protest, a notion Pence took head on. Republicans need one more seat to allow McConnell to maintain his majority leader post and block Biden’s priorities. Democrats need to win both seats to force a 50-50 Senate and set up Vice President-elect Kamala Harris to tilt the chamber to Democrats as the tiebreaking vote.

The main runoff pitch for Republicans is that a GOP Senate is necessary to keep Democrats from absolute control. But that's a delicate argument since it tacitly admits Biden's victory even as Trump refuses to concede. Pence, as he did two weeks ago when campaigning with the Georgia senators, tried to strike a balance. He told Republicans they could “stay in the fight for the integrity of our elections” while also fighting for Perdue and Loeffler.

But this time, Pence's message comes as Georgia completes yet another recount of presidential ballots and in the wake of Trump escalating his attacks on Georgia Republicans. The president recently called Gov. Brian Kemp “hapless” and dubbed Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger “an enemy of the people.” Trump has tweeted in support of Perdue and Loeffler, but has spent more energy falsely suggesting that Kemp and Raffensperger have the legal authority to reverse Biden’s victory in Georgia. State law gives them no such option.

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