Biden, Trump to campaign in Georgia runoff elections

Biden, Trump to campaign in Georgia runoff elections

[NFA] President-elect Joe Biden and President Donald Trump will campaign next week in Georgia, holding dueling events on the eve of runoff elections that will determine who controls the U.S. Senate.

Colette Luke has more.

With control of the Senate hanging in the balance, President-elect Joe Biden and President Donald Trump will campaign next week in Georgia, holding dueling events on the eve of runoff elections that will determine the fate of the upper chamber.

PRESIDENT-ELECT JOE BIDEN: “Hello Atlanta!” Biden will travel to Atlanta on Monday to campaign on behalf of Democratic Senate candidates Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, according to his transition team, with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris going to Savannah, Georgia, a day earlier.

On the same day Biden appears in Atlanta, Trump will travel to Dalton, Georgia, to hold a "victory rally" to support Republican incumbent Senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue.

On Thursday, Perdue’s campaign said the senator is quarantining after coming in contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19.

Perdue was notified of the contact on Thursday and has tested negative.

The Biden and Trump's Georgia visits come as the president escalates his fight with fellow Republican leaders in the state for not supporting his bid to overturn the election results.

On Wednesday, he called for the state's Republican governor, Brian Kemp, to resign in a tweet, forcing a rare pushback from Kemp.

GOVERNOR BRIAN KEMP: “Well all of these things are a distraction.

I mean I have supported the president, I've said that many times, I worked as hard as anybody in the state on his reelection up through November 3rd.

I've supported the legal process that him or any other campaign can go through in this state, but at the end of the day, I also have to follow the laws and the Constitution..

I got to stay focused on the issues of the day in Georgia not what somebody is tweeting or doing in a committee meeting in the Georgia state capitol.” If the Democrats win both seats, the Senate would be split 50-50 with the Republican Party, giving the tie-breaking vote to Harris and control of both congressional chambers to the Democratic Party.

If the Republicans win one or both of the Georgia seats, they will retain a slim majority in the Senate, giving them an opportunity to block Biden's legislative goals and judicial nominees.

According to the Georgia secretary of state's office, more than 2.5 million votes have already been cast in the runoff races.