On Thursday, ex-President Donald Trump reacted harshly against a recent editorial from The Wall Street Journal that squarely blamed him for recent electoral losses among Republicans. As the paper put it, “Republicans lost the House in 2018 as suburban voters fled to check Mr. Trump,” and Trump eventually also “cost the GOP two Georgia Senate races on Jan. 5 as he made his claims of election fraud the main issue rather than checking Mr. Biden and Nancy Pelosi.” In his response, Trump blamed Georgia Republican leaders and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) for the Georgia Senate losses — and reiterated his false “rigged election” claims.
Trump angrily commented as follows:
‘To set the record straight, there were two reasons the Senate races were lost in Georgia. First, Republicans did not turn out to vote because they were so angry and disappointed with Georgia Republican leadership and Governor Kemp for failing to stand up to Stacey Abrams and the disastrous Consent Decree that virtually eliminated signature verification requirements across the state (and much worse), and was not approved by the State Legislature as required by the Constitution — having a major impact on the result, a rigged election.’
As before when he’s made this claim about the supposed elimination of signature verification for mail-in ballots in the state of Georgia, he is wrong. No changes to the signature verification process meant that the entire procedure was somehow effectively eliminated.
Trump continued by complaining that McConnell stuck to stimulus checks of $600 per person in a relief package late last year, despite support from Trump and Democrats for a higher amount. Trump did not meaningfully engage in the negotiations process — his call for higher amounts constituted an apparently hollow stunt.
Trump angrily complained as follows:
‘Second, Senator Mitch McConnell’s refusal to go above $600 per person on the stimulus check payments when the two Democrat opponents were touting $2,000 per person in ad after ad. This latter point was used against our Senators and the $2,000 will be approved anyway by the Democrats who bought the Georgia election — and McConnell let them do it!’
Trump also claimed that McConnell would not have won re-election in 2020 without Trump’s endorsement, but suggesting that McConnell’s political future was somehow in legitimate jeopardy and only turned around by Trump is just not accurate. McConnell has been in power for decades. Check out Trump’s remarks below:
Stmt from Donald Trump says McConnell "only won in Kentucky because President Trump endorsed him," and ends with this: "(McConnell) would have lost badly without this endorsement (from then-Pres Trump)." pic.twitter.com/jbfqbYZP31
— Frank Thorp V (@frankthorp) March 4, 2021
Trump hasn’t yet conclusively indicated whether or not he will run again in 2024, but he left the option open during recent remarks at this year’s edition of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).
