Trump news: Just 10% of Republicans in Congress acknowledge Biden win as president heads to Georgia
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Donald Trump's refusal to admit his defeat to Joe Biden in November’s presidential election has trickled down to Republicans in Congress, 90 per cent of whom have failed to publicly acknowledge the loss.
In a survey of all 249 Congressional Republicans by The Washington Post, just 25 recognised Mr Biden as the President-elect. The vast majority failed to respond to the newspaper, while two falsely claimed Mr Trump had won.
It comes as Mr Trump prepares to head to Georgia to deliver his first rally since his election defeat.
The president is due to appear alongside Republican senate candidates David Purdue and Kelly Loeffler, who are in run-off elections against their Democratic opponents.
What the president will say during the rally remains unknown, but it comes after he tweeted against the governor and secretary of state, both of whom are Republicans, for Georgia. Mr Trump implored the pair to do a full audit of absentee ballot signatures, claiming this would prove his victory in the state.
Georgia already certified its election results, giving the win to President-elect Biden. But Mr Trump refuses to accept those results.
The goal of his evening rally tonight is to boost support for Mr Purdue and Ms Loeffler as they face off against Democratic challengers for their US Senate seats. Both races are important because they will determine which party has control of the US Senate come January.
But Mr Trump could make matters worse for the Republican Party if he chooses to attack the US election process instead of boosting enthusiasm among GOP voters at the upcoming rally.
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Trump claims he will ‘easily win’ Georgia
The president has continued to promote claims about massive voter fraud in Georgia ahead of his rally on Saturday evening, despite state officials saying no such fraud took place.
In a tweet, Donald Trump said he would “easily win” the battleground state if Republican Governor Brian Kemp and the Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger reviewed ballots for signature verification. One of his claims has been that thousands of absentee ballots must have their signatures verified before counting them as votes.
Mr Kemp did call for a signature verification process, he told Fox News, but that power resided with the secretary of state, also a Republican, to carry out.
Mr Raffensperger told CNN, though, that signature verification was out of his office's legal purview and would need to be a decision made by the courts. He added there was currently no basis for the courts to order signature verification of all absentee ballots.
Georgia certified its election results on 20 November, declaring Joe Biden as the winner of the state. The certification came after the state entered into a hand recount of every ballot given the close margin between Mr Biden and Mr Trump.
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