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Trump Pressured GOP Senators Facing Runoffs to Call for Georgia Secretary of State’s Resignation: Report

Trump reportedly enlisted Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, whose races will go to January runoffs, to help discredit Georgia’s top election official.

Trump and his team pressured incumbent Georgia Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue to call on Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to resign, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. The Republican senators played ball, fearing Trump would lambast them on Twitter and thus alienate them from the GOP’s voting base. Both Loeffler and Perdue’s races will go to runoffs in January that are likely to decide party control of the Senate. The candidates issued a joint statement Monday condemning the election as an “embarrassment” and calling for Raffensperger to resign, accusing him of “mismanagement and lack of transparency.” Perdue’s Democratic opponent Jon Ossof used the phrase “Republicans in disarray” to describe the GOP’s infighting as the party openly squabbles, dividing its attention between promoting unfounded claims of widespread election fraud and focusing on the Georgia runoffs. “Neither senator nor anyone on their campaigns discussed with the president, White House or the president’s campaign before issuing their statement,” Perdue’s spokesman, John Burke, told AJC in a statement.