Loeffler Dodges Questions, Refuses To Rule Out Objecting To Electoral College Vote Certification

Yesterday, unelected Senator Kelly Loeffler repeatedly “deflected or ignored several direct questions about the results of the presidential election” and refused to say whether she’d take the unprecedented step of objecting to certifying the Electoral College votes in Congress next month. The full video of Loeffler’s comments shows her being asked about Joe Biden’s win six different times and refusing every single time to directly answer.

Loeffler’s continued refusal to acknowledge that Joe Biden won Georgia and is now the president-elect comes after three recounts, two certifications, the Electoral College vote, and other top Senate Republicans including Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and NRSC Chair Todd Young finally accepting reality. The day before Loeffler made her stunning comments, McConnell “warned” his caucus not to object to the Electoral College certification next month because it would be a “terrible vote” for Republicans.

Loeffler’s fellow Republican on the ballot, Senator David Perdue, has also “refused to acknowledge Biden’s victory,” telling his supporters that “it’s not over yet” for outgoing President Donald Trump. Last week, Loeffler and Perdue backed a “brazen” Texas lawsuit that Georgia’s Republican Attorney General has called “constitutionally, legally and factually wrong” asking the U.S. Supreme Court to “toss out” their own state’s election results.

Read the latest coverage of Loeffler’s refusal to accept the will of Georgia’s voters:

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Loeffler won’t say whether she’ll formally challenge Biden’s win in Senate

By Greg Bluestein

• U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler won’t say whether she’ll formally challenge President-elect Joe Biden’s victory when Congress convenes a day after twin Jan. 5 Georgia runoffs to decide control of the U.S. Senate. U.S. Sen. David Perdue won’t have a say even if he wins another term.

• The two Republicans have refused to acknowledge Biden’s victory and echoed President Donald Trump’s false assertions of widespread voter fraud. They’re under pressure not to alienate the president – and his loyal base – ahead of the high-stakes election.

• Shortly after she cast her ballot on Wednesday, Loeffler was noncommittal over whether she would join an effort by U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama to challenge Biden’s victory when Congress meets to formally ratify the Electoral College vote on Jan. 6.

• The effort is doomed to fail. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has congratulated Biden on his victory and told his GOP colleagues Tuesday that he wouldn’t back the push to circumvent the voter’s will.

• Asked multiple times whether she conceded Trump’s defeat after the Electoral College confirmed Biden’s victory, Loeffler repeated that the president “has a right to every legal recourse and that’s what’s playing out right now.”

CNN: Loeffler leaves open the option of objecting to the Electoral College results

By Ryan Nobles

• Sen. Kelly Loeffler, a Georgia Republican who is up for reelection in a heated runoff race set for January 5, left open the possibility Wednesday that she may object to the Electoral College results of Joe Biden’s victory when the matter is brought before the US Congress next month.

• When pressed if she was leaving the option open, Loeffler responded: “I haven’t looked at it. January 6 is a long way off; there’s a lot to play out between now.”

• Loeffler, who is being challenged by the Rev. Raphael Warnock, also refused to call Biden the President-elect during a short news conference after she cast her ballot Wednesday morning for the Georgia races. She deflected or ignored several direct questions about the results of the presidential election, claiming she was focusing all of her energy on the January 5 runoff.

• Both GOP candidates in the Georgia runoff have found themselves in a difficult position as they attempt to fire up Republican base voters to participate in the runoff, which is expected to be very close.

• Their efforts have been complicated by President Donald Trump, who, despite endorsing Loeffler and GOP Sen. David Perdue, has spent much of his time challenging the results of the presidential race in Georgia and attacking leading Republicans who oversaw the voting process and confirmed the results.

• Warnock quickly pounced on Loffler’s comments Wednesday, accusing her of disrespecting voters in Georgia.

• “After refusing for weeks to acknowledge the basic fact that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris won the election, Kelly Loeffler is now leaving the door open to challenging those results in Congress,” Warnock said in a statement. “That’s reckless and disrespectful of Georgia voters.”

• Republican voters in Georgia have put an enormous amount of pressure on Loeffler and Perdue to demonstrate support for Trump’s ill-fated quest to overturn the results. Some have interrupted their campaign stops demanding they do more to stand up for Trump. When the pair appeared onstage with Trump during a rally in Valdosta, the crowd erupted in a chant of “Fight for Trump.”

• It’s left Loeffler and Perdue in a situation where they been forced to wade carefully through the sensitive issue and commit full loyalty to Trump, despite the reality of the results of the presidential race. 

Associated Press: Loeffler declines to rule out formal protest of Biden’s win
By Bill Barrow

• Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler of Georgia on Wednesday declined to rule out a formal protest of Democrat Joe Biden’s victory when Congress convenes next month to certify the presidential election results.

• It’s the latest refusal by Loeffler to acknowledge Biden’s victory in the Nov. 3 election, as she and fellow Republican Sen. David Perdue of Georgia cling to President Donald Trump’s false assertions of widespread voter fraud.

• Loeffler and Perdue’s position, at odds with the Electoral College and a bipartisan slate of elections officials nationally who have verified the integrity of the voting process, underscores the hold that Trump has on the Republican Party and on his core supporters.

• Loeffler, when asked whether she’d consider disputing the election when a joint session of Congress convenes for the final certification of Biden’s election, replied, “I haven’t looked at it.” The senator, speaking outside her early voting precinct Wednesday, called that Jan. 6 session “a long way out” and added that “there’s a lot to play out between now and then.”

• In fact, Trump’s legal team has lost dozens of state and federal court disputes challenging the counts in Georgia and other battleground states where Biden prevailed. Most notably, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously rejected a suit by the state of Texas challenging several other states’ results.

• Warnock on Wednesday seized on Loeffler’s latest refusal to accept Biden’s win. Say it with me @KLoeffler,” he wrote on Twitter. “@JoeBiden and @KamalaHarris won the election. It’s disrespectful to Georgia voters to say anything else.”

• Loeffler could do little more than momentarily delay the final certification of Biden’s victory over Trump. But she — along with Perdue — has been consistent since the election in joining with Trump to cast doubt on the outcome and insist it’s not over.

• In a statement released by his campaign Wednesday, Perdue argued anew that Trump “still has the right to fight to ensure that the results of the election are fair and accurate,” and restated his fealty to the president. “I have fought alongside President Trump since day one to get our agenda accomplished, and I continue to stand with him now,” he said.

NBC News: As other GOP lawmakers move on, Georgia’s senators are stuck fighting the last war
By Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, Carrie Dann and Melissa Holzberg

• But there are still two big Republican exceptions when it comes to next month’s Georgia runoffs: Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler still haven’t recognized Biden’s victory — and thus are stuck fighting the last war of 2020.

• “I will never stop fighting for @realDonaldTrump because he has never stopped fighting for us!” Loeffler tweeted yesterday.
  
• President Trump has conditioned Republicans to always keep up the fight and never concede. But what happens when GOP Senate leaders and other rank-and-file senators do just that? And what happens to the Republican senators who are still fighting the last fight?

• Meanwhile, campaigning in Georgia on Tuesday, Biden went after Perdue and Loeffler for trying to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia.

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