Lindsey Graham donates $1 million to Republicans in Georgia while acknowledging Biden should receive briefings

Republican claims ‘tsunami of liberal money’ is heading towards Georgia while donating $1 million of his own campaign funds to GOP candidates in the state

Senator Lindsey Graham (R—SC) has announced his re-election campaign will donate $1 million of its leftover fundraising towards efforts in Georgie to keep GOP control of the senate.

With the state set to conduct two runoff races in early January, the Republican senator said on Fox News a “tsunami of liberal money” was flooding Georgia to help Democratic candidates like Jon Ossoff, vying for a shot to unseat Senator David Perdue (R—GA).

Senator Kelly Loeffler (R—GA) was also facing a widely-viewed race with Democratic candidate Raphael Warnock. The fate of both elections will ultimately determine whether Republicans maintain control of the senate during President-elect Joe Biden’s tenure in the White House — or if Democrats can have the votes to lead in congress, delivering him a unified government for his first-term in office.

Democrats have coalesced behind both candidates in the battleground state that swung to Mr Biden, according to official projections, in the hopes he will have a Democratic supermajority to pass a series of progressive economic recovery measures surrounding the coronavirus pandemic.

Senate Republicans have meanwhile already vowed to put forward their own recommendations for the president-elect’s administration, including nominees they would reportedly refuse to support for his Cabinet.

However, Republicans began stating publicly that they believed Mr Biden should begin receiving daily presidential briefings on Thursday, as President Donald Trump continued lying about the results of the election and posting a series of misinformation across social media.

Mr Graham told reporters on Capitol Hill the president-elect should be given access to the briefings, along with Senator Chuck Grassley (R—IA) and Senator John Thune (R—SD). 

After Alaska was called for the Republicans on Wednesday, the senate appeared to have 50 Republicans and 48 Democrats elected in the 2020 national elections.

If Democrats were to win both seats in Georgia, they would have a tie vote in the senate. At that point, Vice President Kamala Harris would serve as the tie-breaking and decision-making vote. However, it remains unclear what might come in the special runoff races: typically voters do not engage as often in runoffs as they do in presidential election cycles, and Georgia has often leaned Republican, with Mr Biden becoming the first Democrat to carry the state since 1992.