United States President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken have reacted to the Georgia shootings. Antony Blinken is horrified by violence.

United States: Joe Biden and Antony Blinken react to Georgia shootings

Thousands of anti-government protesters rallied in the Georgian capital Friday to demand early elections after the arrest of a top opposition leader.

Protesters marched through the city's main street, led by the leaders of all of Georgia's opposition parties waving Georgian, EU, and US flags, before staging a rally outside parliament.

Georgia plunged deeper into political crisis following this week's arrest of Nika Melia -- the leader of the country's main opposition force, the United National Movement (UNM), and a violent police raid on the party headquarters.

"I am in prison, but I am free," Melia wrote in an address to demonstrators read out at the rally.&nbsp;

"We are fighting for freedom and we will prevail in this struggle."

Supporters said they were energised by Melia's resolve.

"Nika's example inspires all of us," 20-year-old student Tornike Beridze told AFP.&nbsp;

"We will not stop until he is set free, until Georgia is free from Georgian Dream's authoritarianism," he said referring to the ruling party.

Nata Shavishvili, 46, said Melia had become "an icon of Georgians' aspirations to build a democratic, European country."

Ex-Soviet Georgia has faced political turmoil since parliamentary elections in October that the opposition said was rigged to give the ruling party a narrow victory.&nbsp;

Opposition members have refused to enter the new parliament in a boycott that weighs heavily on the ruling party's legitimacy.

- 'Democratic setback' -

Melia, a 41-year-old who has united Georgia's traditionally divided opposition forces, has denounced his prosecution on charges of "organising mass violence" during anti-government protests in 2019 as politically motivated.

A court in Tbilisi last week ordered Melia to be placed in pre-trial detention after he refused to pay an increased bail fee in the case.&nbsp;

Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia resigned over plans to arrest Melia, warning it would escalate tensions, but police moved in anyway and detained him on Tuesday.

Friday's rally was the latest in a series of mass protests the opposition has staged since October, to denounce what it says is political repression and to demand fresh polls.&nbsp;

More protests have been announced for the coming weeks.

"The protest movement will continue until the ruling party liberates all political prisoners and calls snap elections," a leader of the opposition Lelo party, Badri Japaridze, told reporters on Friday.

The United States led a chorus of international condemnation against Melia's arrest, saying the move was a setback for pro-Western Georgia "on its path toward becoming a stronger democracy in the Euro-Atlantic family of nations".

 
&nbsp;

Thousands of anti-government protesters rallied in the Georgian capital Friday to demand early elections after the arrest of a top opposition leader. Protesters marched through the city's main street, led by the leaders of all of Georgia's opposition parties waving Georgian, EU, and US flags, before staging a rally outside parliament.

Thousands of anti-government protesters rallied in the Georgian capital Friday to demand early elections after the arrest of a top opposition leader. Protesters marched through the city's main street, led by the leaders of all of Georgia's opposition parties waving Georgian, EU, and US flags, before staging a rally outside parliament. Georgia plunged deeper into political crisis following this week's arrest of Nika Melia -- the leader of the country's main opposition force, the United National Movement (UNM), and a violent police raid on the party headquarters. "I am in prison, but I am free," Melia wrote in an address to demonstrators read out at the rally. "We are fighting for freedom and we will prevail in this struggle." Supporters said they were energised by Melia's resolve. "Nika's example inspires all of us," 20-year-old student Tornike Beridze told AFP. "We will not stop until he is set free, until Georgia is free from Georgian Dream's authoritarianism," he said referring to the ruling party. Nata Shavishvili, 46, said Melia had become "an icon of Georgians' aspirations to build a democratic, European country." Ex-Soviet Georgia has faced political turmoil since parliamentary elections in October that the opposition said was rigged to give the ruling party a narrow victory. Opposition members have refused to enter the new parliament in a boycott that weighs heavily on the ruling party's legitimacy. - 'Democratic setback' - Melia, a 41-year-old who has united Georgia's traditionally divided opposition forces, has denounced his prosecution on charges of "organising mass violence" during anti-government protests in 2019 as politically motivated. A court in Tbilisi last week ordered Melia to be placed in pre-trial detention after he refused to pay an increased bail fee in the case. Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia resigned over plans to arrest Melia, warning it would escalate tensions, but police moved in anyway and detained him on Tuesday. Friday's rally was the latest in a series of mass protests the opposition has staged since October, to denounce what it says is political repression and to demand fresh polls. More protests have been announced for the coming weeks. "The protest movement will continue until the ruling party liberates all political prisoners and calls snap elections," a leader of the opposition Lelo party, Badri Japaridze, told reporters on Friday. The United States led a chorus of international condemnation against Melia's arrest, saying the move was a setback for pro-Western Georgia "on its path toward becoming a stronger democracy in the Euro-Atlantic family of nations".

Thousands rally in Georgia after opposition chief's arrest

After a year of the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, his mother has filed a lawsuit against the alleged culprits. Ahmaud Arbery was an African-American man who was shot dead while jogging in the United States, a year ago.

Now with Joe Biden as the US President, the country is hoping to see some positive change in the safety of people of colour and minority groups.&nbsp;Considering this, Wanda Cooper has filed a case against the three white men who have been charged with killing the then-25-year-old man.

Also read|&nbsp;<a data-ctorig="https://www.wionews.com/world/black-jogger-ahmaud-arberys-alleged-killers-plead-not-guilty-314095" data-cturl="https://www.google.com/url?client=internal-element-cse&amp;cx=006054055338965708568:09spwrlibei&amp;q=https://www.wionews.com/world/black-jogger-ahmaud-arberys-alleged-killers-plead-not-guilty-314095&amp;sa=U&amp;ved=2ahUKEwjTkNCBt4HvAhUyzjgGHVj9BlcQFjAGegQIAxAC&amp;usg=AOvVaw1Q6Fh7F2hgLJVxdTq83Lit" dir="ltr" href="https://www.wionews.com/world/black-jogger-ahmaud-arberys-alleged-killers-plead-not-guilty-314095" target="_blank">Black jogger&nbsp;Ahmaud Arbery's&nbsp;alleged killers plead not guilty</a>

Arbery 's mother is seeking $1 million in damages in the suit, reminding the country and the justice department that her son was brutally shot dead while he was unarmed and simply jogging in his neighbourhood in the state of Georgia.

"A Black man should be able to go for a jog without fearing for his life," Biden said. "Today, we remember Ahmaud Arbery's life and we dedicate ourselves to making this country safer for people of color."

Cooper has also named the local police and prosecutors, accusing them of covering up the killing as no arrests were made for two months after Arbery's killing.

Also read|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/all-three-men-involved-in-killing-of-black-jogger-ahmaud-arbery-charged-with-murder-308382">All three men involved in killing of black jogger Ahmaud Arbery charged with murder</a>

Allegedly, the local police started an investigation only after a video of the shooting went viral on various social media platforms. The three accused are Gregory McMichael, a former investigator, his son, Travis. The third culprit was the man who shot the video footage, William Bryan, and was arrested two weeks after the father-son duo.

As per the lawsuit, the three men "hunted Ahmaud down. Based on a 'gut feeling' that Ahmaud was responsible for prior thefts in the neighbourhood, these Defendants shot Ahmaud at close range with their shotgun and killed him."

"For nearly three months, ...police officers, the chief of police, and two prosecutors conspired to hide the circumstances surrounding Ahmaud's death and protect the men who murdered him," Cooper alleged.

After a year of the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, his mother has filed a lawsuit against the alleged culprits. Ahmaud Arbery was an African-American man who was shot dead while jogging in the United States, a year ago.

After a year of the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, his mother has filed a lawsuit against the alleged culprits. Ahmaud Arbery was an African-American man who was shot dead while jogging in the United States, a year ago. Now with Joe Biden as the US President, the country is hoping to see some positive change in the safety of people of colour and minority groups. Considering this, Wanda Cooper has filed a case against the three white men who have been charged with killing the then-25-year-old man. Also read| Black jogger Ahmaud Arbery's alleged killers plead not guilty Arbery 's mother is seeking $1 million in damages in the suit, reminding the country and the justice department that her son was brutally shot dead while he was unarmed and simply jogging in his neighbourhood in the state of Georgia. "A Black man should be able to go for a jog without fearing for his life," Biden said. "Today, we remember Ahmaud Arbery's life and we dedicate ourselves to making this country safer for people of color." Cooper has also named the local police and prosecutors, accusing them of covering up the killing as no arrests were made for two months after Arbery's killing. Also read| All three men involved in killing of black jogger Ahmaud Arbery charged with murder Allegedly, the local police started an investigation only after a video of the shooting went viral on various social media platforms. The three accused are Gregory McMichael, a former investigator, his son, Travis. The third culprit was the man who shot the video footage, William Bryan, and was arrested two weeks after the father-son duo. As per the lawsuit, the three men "hunted Ahmaud down. Based on a 'gut feeling' that Ahmaud was responsible for prior thefts in the neighbourhood, these Defendants shot Ahmaud at close range with their shotgun and killed him." "For nearly three months, ...police officers, the chief of police, and two prosecutors conspired to hide the circumstances surrounding Ahmaud's death and protect the men who murdered him," Cooper alleged.

After a year of Ahmaud Arbery's killing, his mother files lawsuit

In a dramatic arrest, Georgian police arrested the leader of the United National Movement — the main opposition party — from his party headquarters.

Nika Melia was seen being dragged from his party headquarters, on Tuesday, to be placed in pre-trial detention, as shown in Live television's footage.

This has led to further deepening of the already existing political crisis that had started specifically after last year's disputed parliamentary elections.

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false">
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
As the Court ruled to arrest <a href="https://twitter.com/NikaMelia5?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NikaMelia5</a>, Chair of <a href="https://twitter.com/UNMGeorgia?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@UNMGeorgia</a> the footage shows Special Forces being mobilized while the Court hearing was still ongoing and before the decision was announced <a href="https://t.co/rg5K4iSPmI">pic.twitter.com/rg5K4iSPmI</a>
— UNM Georgia (ენმ) (@UNMGeorgia) <a href="https://twitter.com/UNMGeorgia/status/1362210046327848961?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 18, 2021</a></blockquote>
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The local police also used tear gas on the supporters of the opposition and several leaders of various opposition parties who had been camping out in the building since Wednesday.

"Shocked by the scenes at UNM headquarters this morning," said Mark Clayton, the British ambassador. "Violence and chaos in Tbilisi are the last thing Georgia needs right now. I urge all sides to act with restraint, now and in the coming days."

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false">
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<a href="https://twitter.com/UNMGeorgia?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@UNMGeorgia</a> Chair <a href="https://twitter.com/NikaMelia5?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NikaMelia5</a> has been arrested this morning in a police raid of the party HQ involving hundreds of patrol police and special forces. Pepper spray was used against the opposition leaders and supporters <a href="https://t.co/7XL0nzg4xq">pic.twitter.com/7XL0nzg4xq</a>
— UNM Georgia (ენმ) (@UNMGeorgia) <a href="https://twitter.com/UNMGeorgia/status/1364099145888378882?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 23, 2021</a></blockquote>
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This dramatic arrest and usage of tear gas have come a few days after Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia resigned over ruling party Georgian Dream's plans to arrest Melia.

The opposition had called for snap parliamentary polls after the news of Gakharia's resignation from the position.

For now, Melia has dismissed all accusations of "organising mass violence" during the anti-government protests in 2019 as politically motivated.

In a dramatic arrest, Georgian police arrested the leader of the United National Movement — the main opposition party — from his party headquarters. Nika Melia was seen being dragged from his party headquarters, on Tuesday, to be placed in pre-trial detention, as shown in Live television's footage.

In a dramatic arrest, Georgian police arrested the leader of the United National Movement — the main opposition party — from his party headquarters. Nika Melia was seen being dragged from his party headquarters, on Tuesday, to be placed in pre-trial detention, as shown in Live television's footage. This has led to further deepening of the already existing political crisis that had started specifically after last year's disputed parliamentary elections. As the Court ruled to arrest @NikaMelia5, Chair of @UNMGeorgia the footage shows Special Forces being mobilized while the Court hearing was still ongoing and before the decision was announced pic.twitter.com/rg5K4iSPmI — UNM Georgia (ენმ) (@UNMGeorgia) February 18, 2021 × The local police also used tear gas on the supporters of the opposition and several leaders of various opposition parties who had been camping out in the building since Wednesday. "Shocked by the scenes at UNM headquarters this morning," said Mark Clayton, the British ambassador. "Violence and chaos in Tbilisi are the last thing Georgia needs right now. I urge all sides to act with restraint, now and in the coming days." @UNMGeorgia Chair @NikaMelia5 has been arrested this morning in a police raid of the party HQ involving hundreds of patrol police and special forces. Pepper spray was used against the opposition leaders and supporters pic.twitter.com/7XL0nzg4xq — UNM Georgia (ენმ) (@UNMGeorgia) February 23, 2021 × This dramatic arrest and usage of tear gas have come a few days after Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia resigned over ruling party Georgian Dream's plans to arrest Melia. The opposition had called for snap parliamentary polls after the news of Gakharia's resignation from the position. For now, Melia has dismissed all accusations of "organising mass violence" during the anti-government protests in 2019 as politically motivated.

Georgian police arrest top opposition leader, Nika Melia, using force and tear gas

Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia resigned on Thursday. He stepped down over plans to arrest a top opposition leader. He said it risked escalating a political crisis.

Gakharia said he was resigning because of disagreement in the government over enforcing a court order to arrest Nika Melia. He said that to do so would "pose a risk to the health and lives of our citizens and increase political polarisation in the country."

"It is inadmissible to enforce a judiciary decision... if that poses a risk to the health and lives of our citizens or creates the possibility of a political escalation in the country."

A court in Georgia on Wednesday ruled to place Melia in pre-trial detention.

Melia, who faces up to nine years behind bars if found guilty of "organising mass violence" during anti-government protests in 2019, has rejected the charges as politically motivated.&nbsp;

The move to arrest Melia -- chairman of the country's main opposition force, the United National Movement (UNM) -- raised the stakes in a political crisis that has gripped Georgia since parliamentary elections in October.

The opposition denounced the polls as rigged after the ruling Georgian Dream party claimed victory.

Leaders of nearly all of the country's opposition parties gathered Wednesday at the UNM party headquarters in the capital Tbilisi ahead of the trial, vowing to obstruct police if they moved to arrest Melia.

Georgian television stations on Wednesday night aired footage of riot police mobilising close to the UNM headquarters.

In a statement ahead of the trial, the European Union envoy to Georgia described the circumstances surrounding Melia's prosecution as a "dangerous trajectory for Georgia and for Georgian democracy."

The US embassy in Tbilisi said on Twitter that the crisis "must be resolved peacefully", urging both the government and the opposition to show restraint.

(With AFP inputs)

Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia resigned on Thursday. He stepped down over plans to arrest a top opposition leader. He said it risked escalating a political crisis.

Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia resigned on Thursday. He stepped down over plans to arrest a top opposition leader. He said it risked escalating a political crisis. Gakharia said he was resigning because of disagreement in the government over enforcing a court order to arrest Nika Melia. He said that to do so would "pose a risk to the health and lives of our citizens and increase political polarisation in the country." "It is inadmissible to enforce a judiciary decision... if that poses a risk to the health and lives of our citizens or creates the possibility of a political escalation in the country." A court in Georgia on Wednesday ruled to place Melia in pre-trial detention. Melia, who faces up to nine years behind bars if found guilty of "organising mass violence" during anti-government protests in 2019, has rejected the charges as politically motivated. The move to arrest Melia -- chairman of the country's main opposition force, the United National Movement (UNM) -- raised the stakes in a political crisis that has gripped Georgia since parliamentary elections in October. The opposition denounced the polls as rigged after the ruling Georgian Dream party claimed victory. Leaders of nearly all of the country's opposition parties gathered Wednesday at the UNM party headquarters in the capital Tbilisi ahead of the trial, vowing to obstruct police if they moved to arrest Melia. Georgian television stations on Wednesday night aired footage of riot police mobilising close to the UNM headquarters. In a statement ahead of the trial, the European Union envoy to Georgia described the circumstances surrounding Melia's prosecution as a "dangerous trajectory for Georgia and for Georgian democracy." The US embassy in Tbilisi said on Twitter that the crisis "must be resolved peacefully", urging both the government and the opposition to show restraint. (With AFP inputs)

Georgia PM resigns over plans to arrest opposition leader

After six weeks as a district attorney, Fani T. Willis is taking on a former president.

And not just that. In an interview about her newly announced criminal investigation into election interference in Georgia, Willis, the district attorney of Fulton County, made it clear that the scope of her inquiry would encompass the pressure campaign on state officials by former President Donald Trump as well as the activities of his allies.

“An investigation is like an onion,” she said. “You never know. You pull something back, and then you find something else.”

She added, “Anything that is relevant to attempts to interfere with the Georgia election will be subject to review.”

Willis, whose jurisdiction encompasses much of Atlanta, has suddenly become a new player in the post-presidency of Trump. She will decide whether to bring criminal charges over Trump’s phone call to Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, asking him to “find” votes to erase the former president’s loss there, and other efforts by Trump allies to overturn the election results. The severity of the legal threat to Trump is not yet clear, but Willis has started laying out some details about the inquiry.

She and her office have indicated that the investigation will include Sen. Lindsey Graham’s phone call to Raffensperger in November about mail-in ballots; the abrupt removal last month of Byung J. Pak, the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, who earned Trump’s enmity for not advancing his debunked assertions about election fraud; and the false claims that Rudy Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, made before state legislative committees.

She laid out an array of possible criminal charges in letters sent to state officials and agencies asking them to preserve documents, providing a partial map of the potential exposure of Trump and his allies. Trump’s calls to state officials urging them to subvert the election, for instance, could run afoul of a Georgia statute dealing with “criminal solicitation to commit election fraud,” one of the charges outlined in the letters, which if prosecuted as a felony is punishable by at least a year in prison.

The misinformation spread by Giuliani could prove problematic, as Willis said in her letters that she would review “the making of false statements to state and local governmental bodies.” Georgia law bars “any false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement” within “the jurisdiction of any department or agency of state government.”

Willis is also open to considering not just conspiracy but racketeering charges. As she put it in the interview, racketeering could apply to anyone who uses a legal entity — presumably anything from a government agency to that person’s own public office — to conduct overt acts for an illegal purpose. In this case, it applies to the pressure the president and his allies exerted on Georgia officials to overturn the election.

Willis has brought a novel racketeering case before. In 2014, as an assistant district attorney, she helped lead a high-profile criminal trial against a group of educators in the Atlanta public school system who had been involved in a widespread cheating scandal.

Racketeering cases tend to make people think of mob bosses, who have often been targets of the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, known as RICO, since it was enacted in 1970. Asked how racketeering applied in the cheating scandal and in an election case, Willis said, “I always tell people when they hear the word racketeering, they think of ‘The Godfather,’” but she noted that it could also extend to otherwise lawful organizations that are used to break the law.

“If you have various overt acts for an illegal purpose, I think you can — you may — get there,” she said.

Willis, 49, who easily won election last year, is the daughter of an activist defense lawyer who was a member of the Black Panthers, and she is also a veteran prosecutor who has carved out a centrist record. She views the case before her as a critical task.

“It is really not a choice — to me, it’s an obligation,” she said. “Each DA in the country has a certain jurisdiction that they’re responsible for. If alleged crime happens within their jurisdiction, I think they have a duty to investigate it.”

For their part, Trump and his allies are girding for a second criminal investigation, alongside an ongoing fraud inquiry before a grand jury in Manhattan. This past week, Jason Miller, a senior adviser to Trump, called the Georgia investigation “simply the Democrats’ latest attempt to score political points by continuing their witch hunt against President Trump, and everybody sees through it.”

Willis has many challenges before her, and not just relating to this inquiry. She replaced a controversial prosecutor who faced lawsuits accusing him of sexual harassment. In an overhaul of her office’s anti-corruption unit, which will handle the Trump investigation, she removed all eight lawyers and has since hired four, with a fifth on the way. The police in Atlanta, as elsewhere, are both maligned and demoralized, and 2020 was one of Atlanta’s deadliest years in decades. She must also decide how to proceed with the case of Rayshard Brooks, a Black man fatally shot by a white police officer last year.

“I have 182 open, unindicted homicides involving 222 defendants,” she said. “I have a sex crime unit that is backed up. But I am very capable of identifying great people to work in this office who are dedicated to the cause of making this county safer, and I do not get to be derelict in my duty, because I have other responsibilities.”

Clark D. Cunningham, a law professor at Georgia State University in Atlanta, said it appeared that Willis might be “pulling out all the stops” for the Trump case, “because of the range of the types of crimes that are mentioned in that letter,” he said, adding, “and particularly the talk about racketeering and conspiracy.”

The pressure campaign to overturn the Georgia election results began on Nov. 13, when Graham, a Trump ally from South Carolina, made a phone call to Raffensperger, Georgia’s secretary of state. Raffensperger, a Republican, later said that Graham had asked him if he had the authority to throw out all mail-in votes from particular counties, a suggestion the secretary of state rebuffed. (Graham disputed Raffensperger’s account.)

On Dec. 3, Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer, made an appearance before a Georgia state Senate committee, saying that “there’s more than ample evidence to conclude this election was a sham,” and laid out a number of false claims. Two days later, Trump called Brian Kemp, Georgia’s Republican governor, to press him to call a special session of the legislature to overturn the election. Trump then called Georgia’s Republican attorney general, Chris Carr, and pressured him not to oppose a legal attempt to challenge the elections results in Georgia and other swing states.

Because of the flurry of Trump calls, Willis said she believes that she is the only official with jurisdiction who does not have a conflict of interest. As she wrote in her letters to other public officials, “this office is the one agency with jurisdiction that is not a witness to the conduct that is the subject of the investigation.”

Even after Raffensperger recertified the election results on Dec. 7, Trump’s efforts intensified. Three days later, Giuliani testified virtually before a state House committee, repeating false claims that poll workers at an Atlanta arena had counted improper ballots stuffed in suitcases, when they were simply using the normal storage containers. “They look like they’re passing out dope,” he said during the hearing.

Gabriel Sterling, a top aide to Raffensperger, has derided the claims as a ridiculous, “‘Oceans 11’ type scheme,” adding, “This has been thoroughly debunked.”

Giuliani returned on Dec. 30, telling a Senate committee, “You had 10,315 people that we can determine from obituaries were dead when they voted,” and adding: “So, right away, that number you submitted to Washington is a lie. It’s not true! It’s false!” The numbers, however, were farcical; state officials have found only two instances in which votes were cast in the names of people who had died.

The pressure campaign culminated when Trump himself called Raffensperger on Jan. 2. “I just want to find 11,780 votes,” Trump said on the call, fruitlessly searching for ways to reverse his election loss.

Willis is also reviewing the departure of Pak, a Trump appointee. Shortly before Pak’s resignation, Trump’s acting deputy attorney general, Richard Donoghue, told Pak that the president was unhappy that he wasn’t pursuing voter fraud cases.

Willis has said that her office would request subpoenas “as necessary” when the next Fulton County grand jury convenes in March.

She appears undaunted. As she put it, “this is not a 9-to-5 job.” For her, lawyering is a family calling. Her father is John Clifford Floyd III, a longtime civil rights activist and defense lawyer.

“My dad was a single father that raised me,” she said. When she was a young girl in Washington, D.C., she said, her father would take her to court with him on Saturday mornings as he took on new clients who had been arrested the previous night.

“There was an old white Irish judge,” she recalled. “He would let me come sit up on the bench with him,” she recalled. While she was on his lap, the judge would ask her, “should we send them home, or are they going to the back?”

She decided then that she wanted to be a judge, but her father explained that she had to be a lawyer first. So her career ambition was set. While she embraces some of the prosecutorial reform efforts favored by the left, including diversion programs that keep some offenders out of jail, Willis has also said that she has a “conservative side” that separates her from the new wave of progressive prosecutors.

Heretofore, she has been best known for the Atlanta school case, in which 11 educators were convicted of racketeering and other crimes. The case drew criticism in some quarters for overreach.

“I’ve been criticized a lot for that case, but I’m going to tell you what I tell people if I’m taking criticism for defending poor Black children, because that’s mainly what we were talking about,” she said. The only chance many such children have to get ahead is through the public education system, she said, adding, “So if what I am being criticized for is doing something to protect people that did not have a voice for themselves, I sit in that criticism, and y’all can put it in my obituary.”

After six weeks as a district attorney, Fani T. Willis is taking on a former president. And not just that. In an interview about her newly announced criminal investigation into election interference in Georgia, Willis, the district attorney of Fulton County, made it clear that the scope of her inquiry would encompass the pressure campaign on state officials by former President Donald Trump as well as the activities of his allies.

After six weeks as a district attorney, Fani T. Willis is taking on a former president. And not just that. In an interview about her newly announced criminal investigation into election interference in Georgia, Willis, the district attorney of Fulton County, made it clear that the scope of her inquiry would encompass the pressure campaign on state officials by former President Donald Trump as well as the activities of his allies. “An investigation is like an onion,” she said. “You never know. You pull something back, and then you find something else.” She added, “Anything that is relevant to attempts to interfere with the Georgia election will be subject to review.” Willis, whose jurisdiction encompasses much of Atlanta, has suddenly become a new player in the post-presidency of Trump. She will decide whether to bring criminal charges over Trump’s phone call to Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, asking him to “find” votes to erase the former president’s loss there, and other efforts by Trump allies to overturn the election results. The severity of the legal threat to Trump is not yet clear, but Willis has started laying out some details about the inquiry. She and her office have indicated that the investigation will include Sen. Lindsey Graham’s phone call to Raffensperger in November about mail-in ballots; the abrupt removal last month of Byung J. Pak, the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, who earned Trump’s enmity for not advancing his debunked assertions about election fraud; and the false claims that Rudy Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, made before state legislative committees. She laid out an array of possible criminal charges in letters sent to state officials and agencies asking them to preserve documents, providing a partial map of the potential exposure of Trump and his allies. Trump’s calls to state officials urging them to subvert the election, for instance, could run afoul of a Georgia statute dealing with “criminal solicitation to commit election fraud,” one of the charges outlined in the letters, which if prosecuted as a felony is punishable by at least a year in prison. The misinformation spread by Giuliani could prove problematic, as Willis said in her letters that she would review “the making of false statements to state and local governmental bodies.” Georgia law bars “any false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement” within “the jurisdiction of any department or agency of state government.” Willis is also open to considering not just conspiracy but racketeering charges. As she put it in the interview, racketeering could apply to anyone who uses a legal entity — presumably anything from a government agency to that person’s own public office — to conduct overt acts for an illegal purpose. In this case, it applies to the pressure the president and his allies exerted on Georgia officials to overturn the election. Willis has brought a novel racketeering case before. In 2014, as an assistant district attorney, she helped lead a high-profile criminal trial against a group of educators in the Atlanta public school system who had been involved in a widespread cheating scandal. Racketeering cases tend to make people think of mob bosses, who have often been targets of the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, known as RICO, since it was enacted in 1970. Asked how racketeering applied in the cheating scandal and in an election case, Willis said, “I always tell people when they hear the word racketeering, they think of ‘The Godfather,’” but she noted that it could also extend to otherwise lawful organizations that are used to break the law. “If you have various overt acts for an illegal purpose, I think you can — you may — get there,” she said. Willis, 49, who easily won election last year, is the daughter of an activist defense lawyer who was a member of the Black Panthers, and she is also a veteran prosecutor who has carved out a centrist record. She views the case before her as a critical task. “It is really not a choice — to me, it’s an obligation,” she said. “Each DA in the country has a certain jurisdiction that they’re responsible for. If alleged crime happens within their jurisdiction, I think they have a duty to investigate it.” For their part, Trump and his allies are girding for a second criminal investigation, alongside an ongoing fraud inquiry before a grand jury in Manhattan. This past week, Jason Miller, a senior adviser to Trump, called the Georgia investigation “simply the Democrats’ latest attempt to score political points by continuing their witch hunt against President Trump, and everybody sees through it.” Willis has many challenges before her, and not just relating to this inquiry. She replaced a controversial prosecutor who faced lawsuits accusing him of sexual harassment. In an overhaul of her office’s anti-corruption unit, which will handle the Trump investigation, she removed all eight lawyers and has since hired four, with a fifth on the way. The police in Atlanta, as elsewhere, are both maligned and demoralized, and 2020 was one of Atlanta’s deadliest years in decades. She must also decide how to proceed with the case of Rayshard Brooks, a Black man fatally shot by a white police officer last year. “I have 182 open, unindicted homicides involving 222 defendants,” she said. “I have a sex crime unit that is backed up. But I am very capable of identifying great people to work in this office who are dedicated to the cause of making this county safer, and I do not get to be derelict in my duty, because I have other responsibilities.” Clark D. Cunningham, a law professor at Georgia State University in Atlanta, said it appeared that Willis might be “pulling out all the stops” for the Trump case, “because of the range of the types of crimes that are mentioned in that letter,” he said, adding, “and particularly the talk about racketeering and conspiracy.” The pressure campaign to overturn the Georgia election results began on Nov. 13, when Graham, a Trump ally from South Carolina, made a phone call to Raffensperger, Georgia’s secretary of state. Raffensperger, a Republican, later said that Graham had asked him if he had the authority to throw out all mail-in votes from particular counties, a suggestion the secretary of state rebuffed. (Graham disputed Raffensperger’s account.) On Dec. 3, Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer, made an appearance before a Georgia state Senate committee, saying that “there’s more than ample evidence to conclude this election was a sham,” and laid out a number of false claims. Two days later, Trump called Brian Kemp, Georgia’s Republican governor, to press him to call a special session of the legislature to overturn the election. Trump then called Georgia’s Republican attorney general, Chris Carr, and pressured him not to oppose a legal attempt to challenge the elections results in Georgia and other swing states. Because of the flurry of Trump calls, Willis said she believes that she is the only official with jurisdiction who does not have a conflict of interest. As she wrote in her letters to other public officials, “this office is the one agency with jurisdiction that is not a witness to the conduct that is the subject of the investigation.” Even after Raffensperger recertified the election results on Dec. 7, Trump’s efforts intensified. Three days later, Giuliani testified virtually before a state House committee, repeating false claims that poll workers at an Atlanta arena had counted improper ballots stuffed in suitcases, when they were simply using the normal storage containers. “They look like they’re passing out dope,” he said during the hearing. Gabriel Sterling, a top aide to Raffensperger, has derided the claims as a ridiculous, “‘Oceans 11’ type scheme,” adding, “This has been thoroughly debunked.” Giuliani returned on Dec. 30, telling a Senate committee, “You had 10,315 people that we can determine from obituaries were dead when they voted,” and adding: “So, right away, that number you submitted to Washington is a lie. It’s not true! It’s false!” The numbers, however, were farcical; state officials have found only two instances in which votes were cast in the names of people who had died. The pressure campaign culminated when Trump himself called Raffensperger on Jan. 2. “I just want to find 11,780 votes,” Trump said on the call, fruitlessly searching for ways to reverse his election loss. Willis is also reviewing the departure of Pak, a Trump appointee. Shortly before Pak’s resignation, Trump’s acting deputy attorney general, Richard Donoghue, told Pak that the president was unhappy that he wasn’t pursuing voter fraud cases. Willis has said that her office would request subpoenas “as necessary” when the next Fulton County grand jury convenes in March. She appears undaunted. As she put it, “this is not a 9-to-5 job.” For her, lawyering is a family calling. Her father is John Clifford Floyd III, a longtime civil rights activist and defense lawyer. “My dad was a single father that raised me,” she said. When she was a young girl in Washington, D.C., she said, her father would take her to court with him on Saturday mornings as he took on new clients who had been arrested the previous night. “There was an old white Irish judge,” she recalled. “He would let me come sit up on the bench with him,” she recalled. While she was on his lap, the judge would ask her, “should we send them home, or are they going to the back?” She decided then that she wanted to be a judge, but her father explained that she had to be a lawyer first. So her career ambition was set. While she embraces some of the prosecutorial reform efforts favored by the left, including diversion programs that keep some offenders out of jail, Willis has also said that she has a “conservative side” that separates her from the new wave of progressive prosecutors. Heretofore, she has been best known for the Atlanta school case, in which 11 educators were convicted of racketeering and other crimes. The case drew criticism in some quarters for overreach. “I’ve been criticized a lot for that case, but I’m going to tell you what I tell people if I’m taking criticism for defending poor Black children, because that’s mainly what we were talking about,” she said. The only chance many such children have to get ahead is through the public education system, she said, adding, “So if what I am being criticized for is doing something to protect people that did not have a voice for themselves, I sit in that criticism, and y’all can put it in my obituary.”

In Georgia, a new district attorney starts circling Trump and his allies

The office of Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, on Monday started an investigation into former President Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the state’s election results, including a phone call he made to Raffensperger in which Trump pressured him to “find” enough votes to reverse his loss.

Such inquiries are “fact-finding and administrative in nature,” the secretary’s office said, and are a routine step when complaints are received about electoral matters. Findings are typically brought before the Republican-controlled state board of elections, which decides whether to refer them for prosecution to the state attorney general or another agency.

The move comes as Fani Willis, the Democratic district attorney of Fulton County, which encompasses much of Atlanta, is weighing whether to begin a criminal inquiry of her own. A spokesperson for Willis declined to comment Monday.

The January call was one of several attempts Trump made to try to persuade top Republican officials in the state to uncover instances of voting fraud that might change the outcome, despite the insistence of voting officials that there was no widespread fraud to be found. He also called Gov. Brian Kemp in early December and pressured him to call a special legislative session to overturn his election loss. Later that month, Trump called a state investigator and pressed the official to “find the fraud,” according to those with knowledge of the call.

“The secretary of state’s office investigates complaints it receives,” Walter Jones, a spokesperson for the office, said in a statement Monday. “The investigations are fact-finding and administrative in nature. Any further legal efforts will be left to the attorney general.”

David Worley, the sole Democrat on the state elections board, said Monday that administrative inquiries by the secretary of state’s office could result in criminal charges.

“Any investigation of a statutory violation is a potential criminal investigation depending on the statute involved,” he said, adding that in the case of Trump, “The complaint that was received involved a criminal violation.”

Worley said that now that an inquiry had been started by the secretary of state’s office, he would not introduce a motion at Wednesday’s state board of election meeting, as he had originally planned to do, in an effort to refer the case to the Fulton County district attorney’s office.

Not long after the call to Raffensperger became public, several complaints were filed. One came from John F. Banzhaf III, a George Washington University law professor.

Former prosecutors said Trump’s calls might run afoul of at least three state laws. One is criminal solicitation to commit election fraud, which can be either a felony or a misdemeanor; as a felony, it is punishable by at least a year in prison. There is also a related conspiracy charge, which can be prosecuted either as a misdemeanor or a felony. A third law, a misdemeanor offense, bars “intentional interference” with another person’s “performance of election duties.”

Jason Miller, a senior adviser to Trump, said in a statement: “There was nothing improper or untoward about a scheduled call between President Trump, Secretary Raffensperger and lawyers on both sides. If Mr. Raffensperger didn’t want to receive calls about the election, he shouldn’t have run for secretary of state.”

Biden’s victory in Georgia was reaffirmed after election officials recertified the state’s presidential election results in three separate counts of the ballots: the initial election tally; a hand recount ordered by the state; and another recount, which was requested by Trump’s campaign and completed by machines. The results of the machine recount show Biden won with a lead of about 12,000 votes.

Biden was the first Democrat to win the presidential election in Georgia since 1992. Trump accused Kemp and Raffensperger, both Republicans, of not doing enough to help him overturn the result in the weeks after the election. Kemp and Raffensperger had each resisted numerous attacks from Trump, who called the governor “hapless” and called on the secretary of state to resign. 
&nbsp;

The office of Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, on Monday started an investigation into former President Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the state’s election results, including a phone call he made to Raffensperger in which Trump pressured him to “find” enough votes to reverse his loss.

The office of Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, on Monday started an investigation into former President Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the state’s election results, including a phone call he made to Raffensperger in which Trump pressured him to “find” enough votes to reverse his loss. Such inquiries are “fact-finding and administrative in nature,” the secretary’s office said, and are a routine step when complaints are received about electoral matters. Findings are typically brought before the Republican-controlled state board of elections, which decides whether to refer them for prosecution to the state attorney general or another agency. The move comes as Fani Willis, the Democratic district attorney of Fulton County, which encompasses much of Atlanta, is weighing whether to begin a criminal inquiry of her own. A spokesperson for Willis declined to comment Monday. The January call was one of several attempts Trump made to try to persuade top Republican officials in the state to uncover instances of voting fraud that might change the outcome, despite the insistence of voting officials that there was no widespread fraud to be found. He also called Gov. Brian Kemp in early December and pressured him to call a special legislative session to overturn his election loss. Later that month, Trump called a state investigator and pressed the official to “find the fraud,” according to those with knowledge of the call. “The secretary of state’s office investigates complaints it receives,” Walter Jones, a spokesperson for the office, said in a statement Monday. “The investigations are fact-finding and administrative in nature. Any further legal efforts will be left to the attorney general.” David Worley, the sole Democrat on the state elections board, said Monday that administrative inquiries by the secretary of state’s office could result in criminal charges. “Any investigation of a statutory violation is a potential criminal investigation depending on the statute involved,” he said, adding that in the case of Trump, “The complaint that was received involved a criminal violation.” Worley said that now that an inquiry had been started by the secretary of state’s office, he would not introduce a motion at Wednesday’s state board of election meeting, as he had originally planned to do, in an effort to refer the case to the Fulton County district attorney’s office. Not long after the call to Raffensperger became public, several complaints were filed. One came from John F. Banzhaf III, a George Washington University law professor. Former prosecutors said Trump’s calls might run afoul of at least three state laws. One is criminal solicitation to commit election fraud, which can be either a felony or a misdemeanor; as a felony, it is punishable by at least a year in prison. There is also a related conspiracy charge, which can be prosecuted either as a misdemeanor or a felony. A third law, a misdemeanor offense, bars “intentional interference” with another person’s “performance of election duties.” Jason Miller, a senior adviser to Trump, said in a statement: “There was nothing improper or untoward about a scheduled call between President Trump, Secretary Raffensperger and lawyers on both sides. If Mr. Raffensperger didn’t want to receive calls about the election, he shouldn’t have run for secretary of state.” Biden’s victory in Georgia was reaffirmed after election officials recertified the state’s presidential election results in three separate counts of the ballots: the initial election tally; a hand recount ordered by the state; and another recount, which was requested by Trump’s campaign and completed by machines. The results of the machine recount show Biden won with a lead of about 12,000 votes. Biden was the first Democrat to win the presidential election in Georgia since 1992. Trump accused Kemp and Raffensperger, both Republicans, of not doing enough to help him overturn the result in the weeks after the election. Kemp and Raffensperger had each resisted numerous attacks from Trump, who called the governor “hapless” and called on the secretary of state to resign.

Georgia officials review Trump phone call as scrutiny intensifies

An investment group of Ikea has acquired almost 11,000 acres of forestland in southeastern Georgia to protect its diverse ecosystems from development.

Most of the stores of the Swedish retail giant are owned and operated by the Ingka Group -- which announced on January 14 that it purchased 10,840 acres of land near the Altamaha River Basin.

The Ingka Group currently operates 378 of the 445 Ikea stores worldwide.

The land, acquired from non-profit conservation organisation The Conservation Fund, is home to more than 350 plant and wildlife species.

Before the European migration to North America, the longleaf pine forest covered more than 90 million acres from southern Virginia to Florida, and as far west as Texas.&nbsp;

But less than 4% of that forest is left, due to land clearing for development and agriculture, and various other factors.

Notably, since 2014, Ingka Investments has bought around 612,821 acres of forestland in the US, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Romania.&nbsp;

In the US, the group owns forest properties in Georgia, Alabama, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas.

The company has also planted close to 7 million seedlings in countries all over the world.

An investment group of Ikea has acquired almost 11,000 acres of forestland in southeastern Georgia to protect its diverse ecosystems from development. Most of the stores of the Swedish retail giant are owned and operated by the Ingka Group -- which announced on January 14 that it purchased 10,840 acres of land near the Altamaha River Basin.

An investment group of Ikea has acquired almost 11,000 acres of forestland in southeastern Georgia to protect its diverse ecosystems from development. Most of the stores of the Swedish retail giant are owned and operated by the Ingka Group -- which announced on January 14 that it purchased 10,840 acres of land near the Altamaha River Basin. The Ingka Group currently operates 378 of the 445 Ikea stores worldwide. The land, acquired from non-profit conservation organisation The Conservation Fund, is home to more than 350 plant and wildlife species. Before the European migration to North America, the longleaf pine forest covered more than 90 million acres from southern Virginia to Florida, and as far west as Texas. But less than 4% of that forest is left, due to land clearing for development and agriculture, and various other factors. Notably, since 2014, Ingka Investments has bought around 612,821 acres of forestland in the US, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Romania. In the US, the group owns forest properties in Georgia, Alabama, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas. The company has also planted close to 7 million seedlings in countries all over the world.

Ikea buys 11,000 acres of forest in Georgia to protect it from development

Democrats on Wednesday completed a sweep of the two U.S. Senate seats up for grabs in runoff elections in the state of Georgia, giving the party control of the chamber and boosting the prospects for President-elect Joe Biden's ambitious legislative agenda.

Raphael Warnock, a Baptist preacher from Martin Luther King Jr.'s former church, beat Republican incumbent Kelly Loeffler to become the first Black senator in the deep South state's history while Democrat Jon Ossoff, a documentary filmaker who at 33 would become the Senate's youngest member, beat Republican David Perdue.

The results would give Democrats narrow control of both chambers of Congress, making it easier to appoint liberal-leaning judges and advance legislative priorities from coronavirus relief to climate change when Biden takes office on Jan. 20.

"Georgia's voters delivered a resounding message yesterday: they want action on the crises we face and they want it right now," Biden said in a statement. He said he would work with both parties to confirm key administration officials quickly.

The Georgia result is a final repudiation of outgoing President Donald Trump, who stands to be the first U.S. president since 1932 to lose the White House and both chambers of Congress in a single term.

Trump held rallies for both Republican candidates, but overshadowed the campaign with false accusations that his own loss in the November presidential election in Georgia was tainted by fraud, repeatedly attacking Republican officials in the state. Hundreds of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Wednesday in an attempt to force Congress to undo Trump's election loss.

With 98% of the vote counted, Warnock led Loeffler by 1.5 percentage points and Ossoff led Perdue by 0.6 percentage points, according to Edison Research. Both are expected to win beyond the margin that would require a recount.

Winning both contests would hand Democrats narrow control of the Senate by creating a 50-50 split and giving Vice President-elect Kamala Harris the tie-breaking vote from Jan. 20. The party already has a thin majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Republicans would retain control of the Senate if they held on to at least one of the Georgia seats.

The campaign's final days were overshadowed by Trump's attempts to pressure Republican Georgia officials to "find" enough votes to overturn Biden's win in the state, as well as his unfounded fraud accusations. He has yet to admit defeat.

"We will never give up, we will never concede," Trump told thousands of supporters at a rally.

'NOT A GREAT WAY TO TURN OUT YOUR VOTERS'

Some Republicans blamed Trump for the loss.

"It turns out that telling the voters that the election is rigged is not a great way to turn out your voters," Senator Mitt Romney, one of Trump's few Republican critics in Congress, told reporters.

The election signaled a shift in the politics of Georgia and the wider deep South. At least 4.5 million voters participated, smashing earlier turnout figures for runoff races. Democrats have worked hard to increase turnout among Black voters, their most reliable supporters in the region.

More than 129,000 voters in the runoffs did not vote in November, according to state data.

Most of them were Democrats, Gabriel Sterling, a Republican state election official, told a news conference: “While Republicans were busy attacking the governor and my boss, Democrats were knocking on doors and getting out the vote.”

In a video message, Warnock, whose Ebenezer Baptist Church is legendary in Georgia because of its role in the civil rights movement under King, recalled his humble upbringing as one of 12 children of a woman who worked in cotton fields.

"Because this is America, the 82-year-old hands that used to pick somebody else's cotton went to the polls and picked her youngest son to be a United States senator," he said.

Declaring victory, Ossoff said he looked forward "to serving you in the United States Senate with integrity, with humility, with honor".

Both Republican senators, following Trump's lead, vowed to fight on. "We will mobilize every available resource and exhaust every legal recourse to ensure all legally cast ballots are counted," Perdue said in a statement.

During the campaign, Republicans had painted Ossoff and Warnock as radicals who would pursue a hard-left agenda. That message failed to resonate with many white suburbanites who have increasingly abandoned the Republican party under Trump.

Trump pressed Vice President Mike Pence to throw out election results in states he narrowly lost when he presides over the counting of electoral votes to certify Biden's victory. Pence has no authority to do so. The joint session of Congress was disrupted by Trump supporters and it is unclear when it will be completed.

Some Republican lawmakers have said they will try to reject some state tallies, which could drag out the certification process but stands no chance of succeeding.

Democrats on Wednesday completed a sweep of the two U.S. Senate seats up for grabs in runoff elections in the state of Georgia, giving the party control of the chamber and boosting the prospects for President-elect Joe Biden's ambitious legislative agenda.

Democrats on Wednesday completed a sweep of the two U.S. Senate seats up for grabs in runoff elections in the state of Georgia, giving the party control of the chamber and boosting the prospects for President-elect Joe Biden's ambitious legislative agenda. Raphael Warnock, a Baptist preacher from Martin Luther King Jr.'s former church, beat Republican incumbent Kelly Loeffler to become the first Black senator in the deep South state's history while Democrat Jon Ossoff, a documentary filmaker who at 33 would become the Senate's youngest member, beat Republican David Perdue. The results would give Democrats narrow control of both chambers of Congress, making it easier to appoint liberal-leaning judges and advance legislative priorities from coronavirus relief to climate change when Biden takes office on Jan. 20. "Georgia's voters delivered a resounding message yesterday: they want action on the crises we face and they want it right now," Biden said in a statement. He said he would work with both parties to confirm key administration officials quickly. The Georgia result is a final repudiation of outgoing President Donald Trump, who stands to be the first U.S. president since 1932 to lose the White House and both chambers of Congress in a single term. Trump held rallies for both Republican candidates, but overshadowed the campaign with false accusations that his own loss in the November presidential election in Georgia was tainted by fraud, repeatedly attacking Republican officials in the state. Hundreds of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Wednesday in an attempt to force Congress to undo Trump's election loss. With 98% of the vote counted, Warnock led Loeffler by 1.5 percentage points and Ossoff led Perdue by 0.6 percentage points, according to Edison Research. Both are expected to win beyond the margin that would require a recount. Winning both contests would hand Democrats narrow control of the Senate by creating a 50-50 split and giving Vice President-elect Kamala Harris the tie-breaking vote from Jan. 20. The party already has a thin majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. Republicans would retain control of the Senate if they held on to at least one of the Georgia seats. The campaign's final days were overshadowed by Trump's attempts to pressure Republican Georgia officials to "find" enough votes to overturn Biden's win in the state, as well as his unfounded fraud accusations. He has yet to admit defeat. "We will never give up, we will never concede," Trump told thousands of supporters at a rally. 'NOT A GREAT WAY TO TURN OUT YOUR VOTERS' Some Republicans blamed Trump for the loss. "It turns out that telling the voters that the election is rigged is not a great way to turn out your voters," Senator Mitt Romney, one of Trump's few Republican critics in Congress, told reporters. The election signaled a shift in the politics of Georgia and the wider deep South. At least 4.5 million voters participated, smashing earlier turnout figures for runoff races. Democrats have worked hard to increase turnout among Black voters, their most reliable supporters in the region. More than 129,000 voters in the runoffs did not vote in November, according to state data. Most of them were Democrats, Gabriel Sterling, a Republican state election official, told a news conference: “While Republicans were busy attacking the governor and my boss, Democrats were knocking on doors and getting out the vote.” In a video message, Warnock, whose Ebenezer Baptist Church is legendary in Georgia because of its role in the civil rights movement under King, recalled his humble upbringing as one of 12 children of a woman who worked in cotton fields. "Because this is America, the 82-year-old hands that used to pick somebody else's cotton went to the polls and picked her youngest son to be a United States senator," he said. Declaring victory, Ossoff said he looked forward "to serving you in the United States Senate with integrity, with humility, with honor". Both Republican senators, following Trump's lead, vowed to fight on. "We will mobilize every available resource and exhaust every legal recourse to ensure all legally cast ballots are counted," Perdue said in a statement. During the campaign, Republicans had painted Ossoff and Warnock as radicals who would pursue a hard-left agenda. That message failed to resonate with many white suburbanites who have increasingly abandoned the Republican party under Trump. Trump pressed Vice President Mike Pence to throw out election results in states he narrowly lost when he presides over the counting of electoral votes to certify Biden's victory. Pence has no authority to do so. The joint session of Congress was disrupted by Trump supporters and it is unclear when it will be completed. Some Republican lawmakers have said they will try to reject some state tallies, which could drag out the certification process but stands no chance of succeeding.

Democrats take control of US Senate as they win second race in Georgia

Democrat Raphael Warnock won Georgia's Senate runoff, becoming 1st black-ever Senator to win the senate seat in Georgia.

United States: Democrat Raphael Warnock wins senate seat in Georgia

All eyes are now on crucial senate runoff in the United States. Votes are now being counted in Georgia. Result to decide who will control the senate for the next 4 years.

United States: All eyes on senate race, votes are being counted in Georgia

Two months after the presidential election, Georgia voters will decide in two runoff elections on Tuesday which party controls the Senate, determining how much President-elect Joe Biden can accomplish during his first two years in the White House.

Because of a fluke of scheduling and the 2019 retirement of Sen. Johnny Isakson, a Republican, both Senate seats in Georgia were on the 2020 ballot. If the Democratic candidates, Jon Ossoff, a documentary film executive, and the Rev. Raphael Warnock, a minister, win, Democrats will hold sway over the Senate by a single vote. If either of the Republican incumbents, Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, prevail, Republicans will retain their Senate majority.

Georgia law requires candidates to capture at least 50% of the vote to be declared a winner — a vestige of segregation-era policies designed to prevent Black candidates from sneaking through a crowded field of white opponents.

Neither of the state’s Senate races reached that threshold in November, forcing both into runoffs. Perdue is facing Ossoff in a regularly scheduled contest, and Loeffler, who was appointed to Isakson’s seat in December 2019, is vying against Warnock, who leads the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, in a special election.

About 3 million voters have already cast their ballots in the races. Here’s what we’re watching for as more voters head to the polls on Election Day.

Both Jon Ossoff and David Perdue want to nationalize their contest.

Perhaps no Republican in Congress has co-opted the Trump political ethos more fully than Perdue, a former corporate executive who made millions of dollars by outsourcing American jobs overseas and has now fully adopted President Donald Trump’s America First message.

Also read|<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/i-will-fight-like-hell-to-hold-on-to-presidency-donald-trump-354509">&nbsp;I will 'fight like hell' to hold on to presidency: Donald Trump</a>

And few Democrats are as representative of the party’s Trump-era resistance than Ossoff, a 33-year-old with a short resume who has proved to be a strong candidate and able fundraiser by emphasizing his commitment to a standard-issue multiracial progressive agenda.

Each man has sought to nationalize the stakes of the campaign. Ossoff has campaigned with former President Barack Obama, Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. Perdue has promised to “fight for Trump” and has called for Georgia’s Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, to resign after Biden won the state.

Both of the candidates have framed the race in terms of its national implications, with Ossoff arguing that only if Georgia elects Democratic senators can Biden enact his legislative agenda — starting with increasing stimulus checks to $2,000 from $600. Perdue has said that he and Loeffler are the last bulwarks against a liberal takeover of Washington.

In November, Perdue won about 88,000 more votes than Ossoff, out of roughly 4.95 million cast. But the general election votes don’t carry over to the runoffs, and there is some evidence in the data for the early voting period that Democratic voters turned out in stronger numbers than Republicans did.

Also read|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/donald-trumps-leaked-audio-tape-reveals-he-wanted-to-find-votes-to-win-us-election-354264">Donald Trump's leaked audio tape reveals he wanted to 'find' votes to win US election</a>

Kelly Loeffler and Raphael Warnock are political novices with very different styles.

Loeffler, a wealthy businesswoman and political newcomer, was Gov. Brian Kemp’s controversial choice last year to step in for Isakson.

Conservative Republicans as well as Trump had backed another candidate. As if to prove them both wrong, Loeffler has embraced a conservative platform and become one of the president’s staunchest loyalists.

During a year in office, she has not become wildly popular among Georgians. In a field of 20 candidates in the November election, she garnered only 26% of the vote.

She has spent much of the past eight weeks in attack mode against Warnock, claiming that he would serve as a “rubber stamp” for socialism while she stands as a bulwark upholding American democracy. But on Monday evening, she aligned herself with Trump’s push to overturn the election results, announcing that she would vote against certifying Biden’s victory in the Electoral College.

She made the announcement after the end of the early voting period — which Democrats are expected to have dominated — and on the eve of Election Day and a rally with Trump as she seeks to gin up Republican turnout.

Warnock has also never run for public office, but he has been politically involved as an advocate for voting rights.

A seasoned orator, Warnock’s campaign stump speech resembles a Sunday morning church service. He shies from outright attacks on his opponent, instead emphasizing his childhood in a Savannah housing project and the influence of his hardworking father.

One exception is the Warnock campaign’s advertising that focused on the swirling controversy over Loeffler’s trades last year of millions of dollars of stock in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic. The Justice Department conducted an investigation into whether Loeffler had traded on insider information gleaned during a Senate coronavirus briefing last January. Investigators notified her in May, however, that the government would not pursue charges.

These are the two most expensive Senate races ever.

The twin contests in Georgia have obliterated past spending records for Senate races, even after a year in which most of the previous marks had already been felled.

The Perdue-Ossoff race, including the spending before the runoff, is the priciest ever, with nearly $470 million in spending, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The No. 2 slot goes to the Loeffler-Warnock contest, which has shelled out more than $362 million so far. And both totals will rise when the final spending figures are reported.

For some perspective, only one Senate race before 2020 had ever topped $200 million.

The spending has meant waves and waves of negative advertisements in recent weeks, with Republicans casting both Democrats, but especially Warnock, as “radical” and too liberal for Georgia. The Democrats have framed the incumbents as out-of-touch rich senators who have traded on their positions to increase their personal wealth while ignoring the needs of Georgians.

In the runoffs alone, nearly $500 million in advertising has been run, most of it negative, according to data from AdImpact, which tracks television and digital buys. There is so much spending that the campaigns are buying tens of millions of dollars in ads in the media markets of neighboring states that spill over into Georgia.

The Democratic candidates themselves have been outraising the Republican incumbents. Each Democrat raised more than $100 million from mid-October to mid-December. But a flood of money into conservative super PACs has meant that the Republicans are outspending the Democrats overall on the airwaves, though some of that advantage is offset by the fact that television stations can charge higher prices for ads to super PACs.

One thing is certain: This election will break turnout records.

Even before the Election Day polls open, these high-stakes races have drawn unprecedented interest.

Already, more than 3 million people have voted, both by absentee ballot and at early voting sites around the state. That breaks the record for a Georgia Senate runoff election that was set in 2008, when 2.1 million people voted.

The early turnout data suggests high participation among Black voters, who make up a large part of Georgia’s Democratic electorate — a good sign for the party. A website that tracks voting shows that 31% of those who have voted so far are Black.

Another positive sign for Democrats is that 100,000 absentee ballots were requested by voters who did not participate in the November election. Many of them are believed to have registered to vote recently.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean that the two Democrats will win. One fact that bodes well for Republicans is the preference among Georgia Republicans to vote on Election Day. Another is that Democrats traditionally haven’t done well in Georgia runoff elections, which historically appeal to voters who are older, whiter and more Republican.

How will Trump’s core supporters respond to an election he says is illegal?

The Georgia contests come 15 days before Biden is to be sworn in, but Perdue and Loeffler have not been able to use their strongest argument — that they and a Republican Senate majority would serve as a check on the incoming Democratic president.

Trump’s repeated efforts to overturn the election results — the latest being a call on Saturday to Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary of state, urging him to “find” more than 11,000 votes — have left the incumbents pledging to fight for the president rather than legislate in a post-Trump political era.

The political far right’s refusal to acknowledge Biden’s victory has led to high-profile calls for conservatives to boycott Georgia’s runoff contests and tweets from the president that the runoff system, embedded in Georgia elections for generations, is itself illegal.

What’s not known is how many core Trump supporters will be so put off by the president’s defeat, and angered by right-wing conspiracy theories about it, that they will abstain from voting in the runoffs.

Republicans have never lost a statewide runoff election in modern Georgia, since Democratic turnout has traditionally fallen from the level of general elections. But for the first time, Democrats have a mature and robust get-out-the-vote operation, and Republicans are the ones worried about their voters’ enthusiasm.

At a rally on Monday night in Dalton, Georgia, Trump again falsely claimed that he won Georgia and vowed to get involved in 2022 primary challenges to sitting Republicans who he said had not been sufficiently loyal to his efforts to overturn the result of the election.

“I’m going to be here in a year and a half,” he said. “And I’m going to be campaigning against your governor and your crazy secretary of state.”

Two months after the presidential election, Georgia voters will decide in two runoff elections on Tuesday which party controls the Senate, determining how much President-elect Joe Biden can accomplish during his first two years in the White House.

Two months after the presidential election, Georgia voters will decide in two runoff elections on Tuesday which party controls the Senate, determining how much President-elect Joe Biden can accomplish during his first two years in the White House. Because of a fluke of scheduling and the 2019 retirement of Sen. Johnny Isakson, a Republican, both Senate seats in Georgia were on the 2020 ballot. If the Democratic candidates, Jon Ossoff, a documentary film executive, and the Rev. Raphael Warnock, a minister, win, Democrats will hold sway over the Senate by a single vote. If either of the Republican incumbents, Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, prevail, Republicans will retain their Senate majority. Georgia law requires candidates to capture at least 50% of the vote to be declared a winner — a vestige of segregation-era policies designed to prevent Black candidates from sneaking through a crowded field of white opponents. Neither of the state’s Senate races reached that threshold in November, forcing both into runoffs. Perdue is facing Ossoff in a regularly scheduled contest, and Loeffler, who was appointed to Isakson’s seat in December 2019, is vying against Warnock, who leads the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, in a special election. About 3 million voters have already cast their ballots in the races. Here’s what we’re watching for as more voters head to the polls on Election Day. Both Jon Ossoff and David Perdue want to nationalize their contest. Perhaps no Republican in Congress has co-opted the Trump political ethos more fully than Perdue, a former corporate executive who made millions of dollars by outsourcing American jobs overseas and has now fully adopted President Donald Trump’s America First message. Also read| I will 'fight like hell' to hold on to presidency: Donald Trump And few Democrats are as representative of the party’s Trump-era resistance than Ossoff, a 33-year-old with a short resume who has proved to be a strong candidate and able fundraiser by emphasizing his commitment to a standard-issue multiracial progressive agenda. Each man has sought to nationalize the stakes of the campaign. Ossoff has campaigned with former President Barack Obama, Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. Perdue has promised to “fight for Trump” and has called for Georgia’s Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, to resign after Biden won the state. Both of the candidates have framed the race in terms of its national implications, with Ossoff arguing that only if Georgia elects Democratic senators can Biden enact his legislative agenda — starting with increasing stimulus checks to $2,000 from $600. Perdue has said that he and Loeffler are the last bulwarks against a liberal takeover of Washington. In November, Perdue won about 88,000 more votes than Ossoff, out of roughly 4.95 million cast. But the general election votes don’t carry over to the runoffs, and there is some evidence in the data for the early voting period that Democratic voters turned out in stronger numbers than Republicans did. Also read| Donald Trump's leaked audio tape reveals he wanted to 'find' votes to win US election Kelly Loeffler and Raphael Warnock are political novices with very different styles. Loeffler, a wealthy businesswoman and political newcomer, was Gov. Brian Kemp’s controversial choice last year to step in for Isakson. Conservative Republicans as well as Trump had backed another candidate. As if to prove them both wrong, Loeffler has embraced a conservative platform and become one of the president’s staunchest loyalists. During a year in office, she has not become wildly popular among Georgians. In a field of 20 candidates in the November election, she garnered only 26% of the vote. She has spent much of the past eight weeks in attack mode against Warnock, claiming that he would serve as a “rubber stamp” for socialism while she stands as a bulwark upholding American democracy. But on Monday evening, she aligned herself with Trump’s push to overturn the election results, announcing that she would vote against certifying Biden’s victory in the Electoral College. She made the announcement after the end of the early voting period — which Democrats are expected to have dominated — and on the eve of Election Day and a rally with Trump as she seeks to gin up Republican turnout. Warnock has also never run for public office, but he has been politically involved as an advocate for voting rights. A seasoned orator, Warnock’s campaign stump speech resembles a Sunday morning church service. He shies from outright attacks on his opponent, instead emphasizing his childhood in a Savannah housing project and the influence of his hardworking father. One exception is the Warnock campaign’s advertising that focused on the swirling controversy over Loeffler’s trades last year of millions of dollars of stock in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic. The Justice Department conducted an investigation into whether Loeffler had traded on insider information gleaned during a Senate coronavirus briefing last January. Investigators notified her in May, however, that the government would not pursue charges. These are the two most expensive Senate races ever. The twin contests in Georgia have obliterated past spending records for Senate races, even after a year in which most of the previous marks had already been felled. The Perdue-Ossoff race, including the spending before the runoff, is the priciest ever, with nearly $470 million in spending, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The No. 2 slot goes to the Loeffler-Warnock contest, which has shelled out more than $362 million so far. And both totals will rise when the final spending figures are reported. For some perspective, only one Senate race before 2020 had ever topped $200 million. The spending has meant waves and waves of negative advertisements in recent weeks, with Republicans casting both Democrats, but especially Warnock, as “radical” and too liberal for Georgia. The Democrats have framed the incumbents as out-of-touch rich senators who have traded on their positions to increase their personal wealth while ignoring the needs of Georgians. In the runoffs alone, nearly $500 million in advertising has been run, most of it negative, according to data from AdImpact, which tracks television and digital buys. There is so much spending that the campaigns are buying tens of millions of dollars in ads in the media markets of neighboring states that spill over into Georgia. The Democratic candidates themselves have been outraising the Republican incumbents. Each Democrat raised more than $100 million from mid-October to mid-December. But a flood of money into conservative super PACs has meant that the Republicans are outspending the Democrats overall on the airwaves, though some of that advantage is offset by the fact that television stations can charge higher prices for ads to super PACs. One thing is certain: This election will break turnout records. Even before the Election Day polls open, these high-stakes races have drawn unprecedented interest. Already, more than 3 million people have voted, both by absentee ballot and at early voting sites around the state. That breaks the record for a Georgia Senate runoff election that was set in 2008, when 2.1 million people voted. The early turnout data suggests high participation among Black voters, who make up a large part of Georgia’s Democratic electorate — a good sign for the party. A website that tracks voting shows that 31% of those who have voted so far are Black. Another positive sign for Democrats is that 100,000 absentee ballots were requested by voters who did not participate in the November election. Many of them are believed to have registered to vote recently. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that the two Democrats will win. One fact that bodes well for Republicans is the preference among Georgia Republicans to vote on Election Day. Another is that Democrats traditionally haven’t done well in Georgia runoff elections, which historically appeal to voters who are older, whiter and more Republican. How will Trump’s core supporters respond to an election he says is illegal? The Georgia contests come 15 days before Biden is to be sworn in, but Perdue and Loeffler have not been able to use their strongest argument — that they and a Republican Senate majority would serve as a check on the incoming Democratic president. Trump’s repeated efforts to overturn the election results — the latest being a call on Saturday to Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary of state, urging him to “find” more than 11,000 votes — have left the incumbents pledging to fight for the president rather than legislate in a post-Trump political era. The political far right’s refusal to acknowledge Biden’s victory has led to high-profile calls for conservatives to boycott Georgia’s runoff contests and tweets from the president that the runoff system, embedded in Georgia elections for generations, is itself illegal. What’s not known is how many core Trump supporters will be so put off by the president’s defeat, and angered by right-wing conspiracy theories about it, that they will abstain from voting in the runoffs. Republicans have never lost a statewide runoff election in modern Georgia, since Democratic turnout has traditionally fallen from the level of general elections. But for the first time, Democrats have a mature and robust get-out-the-vote operation, and Republicans are the ones worried about their voters’ enthusiasm. At a rally on Monday night in Dalton, Georgia, Trump again falsely claimed that he won Georgia and vowed to get involved in 2022 primary challenges to sitting Republicans who he said had not been sufficiently loyal to his efforts to overturn the result of the election. “I’m going to be here in a year and a half,” he said. “And I’m going to be campaigning against your governor and your crazy secretary of state.”

Georgia senate runoffs: What to watch for

U.S. President Donald Trump pressured Georgia's top election official to "find" enough votes to overturn his defeat in the southern state, according to a recording of the hour-long call published by U.S. media on Sunday (January 3).

Donald Trump pressures Georgia official to 'find' votes to overturn election

Nearly 2.1 million people have cast ballots in the U.S. Senate runoff election in Georgia that will determine whether Democrats control both chambers of Congress and the fate of Biden’s agenda.

U.S. judge orders two Georgia counties to halt voter purge

On 5 January, control over the US Senate will be decided by Georgia’s runoff, where the Republicans Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue face the Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff respectively in two races.

Georgia's role in senate races; An historic battle for control of the US Senate | US Election 2020

President Donald Trump is venturing out of Washington on Saturday for his first political appearance since his election defeat to Joe Biden, campaigning in Georgia where two run-off races will decide the fate of the US Senate.

The president takes the stage at 7:00 pm (0000 Sunday GMT) in the southern city of Valdosta, exactly one month before special January 5 elections.

It is just under a month since he was declared the loser in the presidential race.

Yet at a time when most defeated presidents would be working to burnish their legacy, Trump -- who has yet to concede to Biden -- has barely left the White House, sending out a stream of angry tweets challenging the result and demanding that Republicans nationwide defend him.

That includes the party in Georgia, which Biden won by a mere 12,000 votes.&nbsp;

Also Read | <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/donald-trump-allies-take-pennsylvania-vote-complaint-to-us-supreme-court-347797">Donald Trump allies take Pennsylvania vote complaint to US Supreme Court</a>

The stakes in the run-off elections there are sky-high. Former president Barack Obama laid them out at a virtual rally on Friday, saying that "the special election in Georgia is going to determine ultimately the course of the Biden presidency."

If Democratic challengers Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff defeat Republican senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, the Senate will be evenly divided at 50-50, meaning Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris would cast any deciding votes, as the Constitution dictates.

The race has drawn enormous attention, with donors nationwide pouring in hundreds of millions of dollars and with figures as prominent as Obama, Vice President Mike Pence -- and now Trump himself -- scrambling to boost voter turnout.

Mixed messaging

But Trump has placed himself in a difficult spot. Since Biden won the November 3 election, the president has repeatedly, and baselessly, attacked the US electoral system as riddled with "fraud."

Also Read | <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/with-us-senate-majority-in-the-pot-parties-bring-out-big-guns-for-georgia-elections-347720">With US Senate majority in the pot, parties bring out big guns for Georgia elections</a>

Despite an overwhelming series of setbacks in the courts, the president and his lawyers have advanced wild conspiracy theories (one involving long-dead Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez) to explain Biden's victory.&nbsp;

Now analysts say he might have created a political monster -- having undercut Georgia voters' faith in the election system just as he needs them to turn out on January 5.

A headline in the Valdosta Daily Times summed up the conflicted feeling among area voters: "Trump in Valdosta: S.Ga. excited, outraged by presidential visit."&nbsp;

Virus record set

Part of the "outrage" stems from the notion of yet another mass Trump rally coming on a day when the banner headline in the Atlanta Journal Constitution reads: "State sets single-day virus record."

Masks will be required and temperatures taken at the airport rally, local television channel WALB reported.&nbsp;

Trump's ability to excite his supporters remains powerful, and he thrives on the campaign rally setting.

But some voters even in long conservative Georgia are expressing weariness over the constant drama surrounding the president.

Analysts said it could make a crucial difference whether Trump, in Valdosta, merely repeats his litany of election grievances or instead addresses the importance of maintaining Senate control.

"It will be good for the rally if it's about Perdue and Kelley Loeffler and how we need to go vote," Spud Bowen, a Republican businessman from Tifton, Georgia, told the Valdosta Daily Times, "but I am certainly not in the mood to hear any more name-calling."&nbsp;

Thin line

Loeffler and Perdue have walked moved cautiously, urging Georgians to vote without directly challenging Trump's angry complaints.

Loeffler said she was "SO proud to have our President's support."

But Trump has not made things easier for Georgia Republicans, angrily attacking officials in his own party over his loss there, starting with Governor Brian Kemp.

"I'm ashamed that I endorsed him," Trump said of Kemp, furious that the governor did not denounce Republican secretary of state Brad Raffenspberger -- branded an "enemy of the state" by the president -- for certifying the election.&nbsp;

He tweeted against both men again on Saturday, hours before flying to Georgia, suggesting they were not true "Republicans."

It was unclear whether Kemp and Loeffler would attend the rally Saturday; a young Loeffler staff member and family friend of Kemp's, Harrison Deal, died in a car crash Friday.

For the 74-year-old Trump, who is considering a fresh White House run in 2024, the Georgia rally represents a gamble.

His performance there could boost his political chances, said conservative commentator Marc Thiessen.&nbsp;

But "if he lets Democrats take back the Senate because he was focused on rooting out some mythical communist conspiracy to steal the 2020 election, he will go down in ignominy," Thiessen wrote in The Washington Post.

President Donald Trump is venturing out of Washington on Saturday for his first political appearance since his election defeat to Joe Biden, campaigning in Georgia where two run-off races will decide the fate of the US Senate.

President Donald Trump is venturing out of Washington on Saturday for his first political appearance since his election defeat to Joe Biden, campaigning in Georgia where two run-off races will decide the fate of the US Senate. The president takes the stage at 7:00 pm (0000 Sunday GMT) in the southern city of Valdosta, exactly one month before special January 5 elections. It is just under a month since he was declared the loser in the presidential race. Yet at a time when most defeated presidents would be working to burnish their legacy, Trump -- who has yet to concede to Biden -- has barely left the White House, sending out a stream of angry tweets challenging the result and demanding that Republicans nationwide defend him. That includes the party in Georgia, which Biden won by a mere 12,000 votes. Also Read | Donald Trump allies take Pennsylvania vote complaint to US Supreme Court The stakes in the run-off elections there are sky-high. Former president Barack Obama laid them out at a virtual rally on Friday, saying that "the special election in Georgia is going to determine ultimately the course of the Biden presidency." If Democratic challengers Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff defeat Republican senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, the Senate will be evenly divided at 50-50, meaning Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris would cast any deciding votes, as the Constitution dictates. The race has drawn enormous attention, with donors nationwide pouring in hundreds of millions of dollars and with figures as prominent as Obama, Vice President Mike Pence -- and now Trump himself -- scrambling to boost voter turnout. Mixed messaging But Trump has placed himself in a difficult spot. Since Biden won the November 3 election, the president has repeatedly, and baselessly, attacked the US electoral system as riddled with "fraud." Also Read | With US Senate majority in the pot, parties bring out big guns for Georgia elections Despite an overwhelming series of setbacks in the courts, the president and his lawyers have advanced wild conspiracy theories (one involving long-dead Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez) to explain Biden's victory. Now analysts say he might have created a political monster -- having undercut Georgia voters' faith in the election system just as he needs them to turn out on January 5. A headline in the Valdosta Daily Times summed up the conflicted feeling among area voters: "Trump in Valdosta: S.Ga. excited, outraged by presidential visit." Virus record set Part of the "outrage" stems from the notion of yet another mass Trump rally coming on a day when the banner headline in the Atlanta Journal Constitution reads: "State sets single-day virus record." Masks will be required and temperatures taken at the airport rally, local television channel WALB reported. Trump's ability to excite his supporters remains powerful, and he thrives on the campaign rally setting. But some voters even in long conservative Georgia are expressing weariness over the constant drama surrounding the president. Analysts said it could make a crucial difference whether Trump, in Valdosta, merely repeats his litany of election grievances or instead addresses the importance of maintaining Senate control. "It will be good for the rally if it's about Perdue and Kelley Loeffler and how we need to go vote," Spud Bowen, a Republican businessman from Tifton, Georgia, told the Valdosta Daily Times, "but I am certainly not in the mood to hear any more name-calling." Thin line Loeffler and Perdue have walked moved cautiously, urging Georgians to vote without directly challenging Trump's angry complaints. Loeffler said she was "SO proud to have our President's support." But Trump has not made things easier for Georgia Republicans, angrily attacking officials in his own party over his loss there, starting with Governor Brian Kemp. "I'm ashamed that I endorsed him," Trump said of Kemp, furious that the governor did not denounce Republican secretary of state Brad Raffenspberger -- branded an "enemy of the state" by the president -- for certifying the election. He tweeted against both men again on Saturday, hours before flying to Georgia, suggesting they were not true "Republicans." It was unclear whether Kemp and Loeffler would attend the rally Saturday; a young Loeffler staff member and family friend of Kemp's, Harrison Deal, died in a car crash Friday. For the 74-year-old Trump, who is considering a fresh White House run in 2024, the Georgia rally represents a gamble. His performance there could boost his political chances, said conservative commentator Marc Thiessen. But "if he lets Democrats take back the Senate because he was focused on rooting out some mythical communist conspiracy to steal the 2020 election, he will go down in ignominy," Thiessen wrote in The Washington Post.

Trump to appear in Georgia in gamble over control of US Senate

Even when the question of who will be the next US President seems to have settled, the actual power Joe Biden administration will wield has come to be decided on a single election in Georgia in US. The result of this election will decide which party will control US Senate and thereby the effective strength of Biden administration.

Republican Party currently controls US Senate with 52-48 majority. If Democratic party is able to win two Senate seats from Georgia, Republican Party will lose its majority in the Senate. Democratic Party already controls House of Representatives. Both Senate seats in Georgia are currently held by Republican Party.

Knowing the gravity of the situation, both parties have put in their best efforts to campaign for the Senate elections due next month. Major names from both parties are already addressing the people of Georgia

Former President Barack Obama and Vice President Pence campaigned for opposing candidates in Georgia on Friday (December 4), throwing political muscle into the January runoff elections that will determine control of the U.S. Senate.

Also Read | <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/criminal-cruel-and-traitorous-donald-trump-belongs-in-prison-says-his-niece-mary-trump-347718">'Criminal, cruel and traitorous' Donald Trump belongs in prison, says his niece Mary Trump</a>

"You are now once again the center of our civic universe, because the special election in Georgia is going to determine ultimately the course of the Biden presidency and whether Joe Biden and Kamala Harris can deliver legislatively all the commitments they've made," Obama said during a virtual event featuring organized by the Democratic Party of Georgia.

A pair of Georgia U.S. Senate runoffs will be held on January 5 after no candidate won a majority in the Nov. 3 election. Republican Senator David Perdue is seeking re-election against Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff. And Republican incumbent Kelly Loeffler is facing Democrat Raphael Warnock in the other runoff.

Also Read | <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/i-wouldnt-demand-it-be-mandatory-biden-on-vaccine-347715">I wouldn't demand it be mandatory: Biden on vaccine</a> 
 
Pence visited Georgia on Friday, where he received a briefing on the pandemic at the Atlanta headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and then joined a rally for Perdue and Loeffler.

"We're going to keep Georgia. We're going to save the Senate and then we're going to save America," he told supporters.

Trump, a Republican who has still refused to concede to Biden, is scheduled to headline a rally with Perdue and Loeffler on Saturday.

(With Reuters inputs)

Even when the question of who will be the next US President seems to have settled, the actual power Joe Biden administration will wield has come to be decided on a single election in Georgia in US.

Even when the question of who will be the next US President seems to have settled, the actual power Joe Biden administration will wield has come to be decided on a single election in Georgia in US. The result of this election will decide which party will control US Senate and thereby the effective strength of Biden administration. Republican Party currently controls US Senate with 52-48 majority. If Democratic party is able to win two Senate seats from Georgia, Republican Party will lose its majority in the Senate. Democratic Party already controls House of Representatives. Both Senate seats in Georgia are currently held by Republican Party. Knowing the gravity of the situation, both parties have put in their best efforts to campaign for the Senate elections due next month. Major names from both parties are already addressing the people of Georgia Former President Barack Obama and Vice President Pence campaigned for opposing candidates in Georgia on Friday (December 4), throwing political muscle into the January runoff elections that will determine control of the U.S. Senate. Also Read | 'Criminal, cruel and traitorous' Donald Trump belongs in prison, says his niece Mary Trump "You are now once again the center of our civic universe, because the special election in Georgia is going to determine ultimately the course of the Biden presidency and whether Joe Biden and Kamala Harris can deliver legislatively all the commitments they've made," Obama said during a virtual event featuring organized by the Democratic Party of Georgia. A pair of Georgia U.S. Senate runoffs will be held on January 5 after no candidate won a majority in the Nov. 3 election. Republican Senator David Perdue is seeking re-election against Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff. And Republican incumbent Kelly Loeffler is facing Democrat Raphael Warnock in the other runoff. Also Read | I wouldn't demand it be mandatory: Biden on vaccine Pence visited Georgia on Friday, where he received a briefing on the pandemic at the Atlanta headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and then joined a rally for Perdue and Loeffler. "We're going to keep Georgia. We're going to save the Senate and then we're going to save America," he told supporters. Trump, a Republican who has still refused to concede to Biden, is scheduled to headline a rally with Perdue and Loeffler on Saturday. (With Reuters inputs)

With US Senate majority in the pot, parties bring out big guns for Georgia elections

ATLANTA — Some of the biggest names in national politics jumped into the fiercely contested runoffs for two Georgia Senate seats Friday, even as a second recount showed that Joe Biden had maintained his lead in the state and Republicans braced for a visit by President Donald Trump, who has railed against his loss there with baseless claims of fraud.

With Trump set to campaign for the two Republican incumbents, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, on Saturday, Vice President Mike Pence and former President Barack Obama held dueling events to underscore the vital stakes in the special elections: If both Republicans are defeated, control of the Senate will shift to Democrats just as Biden moves into the Oval Office.

Watch |&nbsp;

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/us-election-2020-georgia-finishes-recount-of-votes-confirms-biden-victory-344344/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

Obama appeared virtually at a turn-out-the-vote event for Jon Ossoff, the Democrat facing Perdue, and the Rev. Raphael Warnock, Loeffler’s opponent, and spoke of his frustration in seeing his initiatives blocked by the Republican-controlled Senate when he was in office. “If the Senate is controlled by Republicans who are interested in obstruction and gridlock, rather than progress and helping people, they can block just about anything,” Obama said.

Pence — with Perdue and Loeffler by his side — received a COVID-19 briefing at the Atlanta headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and said later at a rally for the Republican candidates that “we’re going to save the Senate, and then we’re going to save America.”

A second recount of the presidential vote in Georgia has finished, according to the Secretary of State website, showing Biden ahead by about 12,000 votes with 100% of the counties reporting.

New campaign financial reports filed late Thursday showed a staggering influx of money into the state in the first days of runoffs that were expected to set spending records, with more than $300 million booked in television, radio and digital ads, according to data from AdImpact, an ad-tracking firm. Media buyers said the price of ads was soaring, especially for super PACs, to unseen heights.

The Senate races are playing out at a hyperpartisan moment in American politics that has led to a civil war among Georgia Republicans divided over whether to support Trump as he persists with false assertions that the election was stolen from him. In Georgia and elsewhere, the president’s lawyers remain engaged in a failing, last-minute effort to throw the election to Trump.

Even as he tweeted this week that he wanted “a big David and Kelly WIN,” Trump called Brian Kemp, the state’s Republican governor, “hapless” for failing to work to overturn the election results, while also criticizing Georgia’s top election official, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. His sustained assault on Georgia’s voting system prompted an extraordinary rebuke this week from another high-ranking elections official, who warned of violent threats against poll workers and publicly pleaded with the president to cool down his conspiratorial rhetoric.

On Friday, state Sen. Elena Parent, a Democrat on the judiciary subcommittee, which met Thursday, said that she had been the target of violent, anonymous threats that appeared on a public internet chat room.

The president’s appearance in Valdosta, near the Florida border, on Saturday evening comes after a concerted campaign by his advisers and Republican lawmakers to convince him that his presence is vital to increasing turnout among his supporters. Initially reluctant, the president agreed to hold the rally after being told that victories by the Republican Senate candidates would help prove his contention that his own win in Georgia was stolen from him, according to aides familiar with the conversations.

But some Republicans in Georgia and Washington are fearful that Trump will go off-script and potentially attack Kemp or Raffensperger. Party officials also worry that the president’s claims of fraud could backfire, undermining turnout by convincing Republican voters that the special elections are rigged against them anyway.

L. Lin Wood, a lawyer and Republican supporter of Trump, and Sidney Powell, a lawyer who has filed lawsuits on the president’s behalf, urged Georgians on Wednesday not to vote “unless your vote is secure.”

That same day, a number of prominent Georgia Republicans, including former Gov. Nathan Deal, signed an open letter in which they warned that “the debate surrounding the state’s electoral system has made some within our party consider whether voting in the coming runoff election matters.”

The leaders said that the party needed to focus on winning the two Senate seats or risk turning the Senate over to a Democratic Party that “wishes to fundamentally alter the fabric of our nation into something unrecognizable.”

Some senior Republicans in Washington are doing little to hide their concern about the damage that they believe Wood and Powell are inflicting.

“It’s encouraging the president is going down there to rally the troops, because I know there’s some inconsistent messages being sent to his base supporters,” said Sen. John Cornyn of Texas.

Chip Lake, a Georgia-based Republican strategist who most recently worked for Rep. Doug Collins — who unsuccessfully vied in November for Loeffler’s Senate seat — said Friday that Trump was facing “one of the biggest political speeches the president’s ever had to make, because the stakes are that high.”

“If we have any portion of our base that might decide to boycott this election for any reason whatsoever, then we might be handing over the Senate to Democratic control,” Lake said.

Although a hand-recount of the state’s 5 million votes reaffirmed that Biden had indeed won the Georgia election, Trump’s campaign demanded a second machine recount. Fulton County, which includes much of Atlanta and is the state’s most populous, certified its results Friday. As of Friday evening, state election officials had not responded to queries about when they would officially announce the results of the recount or recertify Biden as the winner.

The urgency of the Senate races was reflected in the huge amounts of money pouring into the four campaigns in recent weeks: about $187 million just in online donations from Oct. 15 to Nov. 23, according to federal records from the donation-processing sites ActBlue and WinRed.

In that 40-day period, both Democratic challengers outraised their Republican opponents every day from online contributions and surpassed the previous Senate fundraising record for a full quarter. Warnock raised $63.3 million in online donations, and Ossoff raised $66.4 million.

In that time, the two Republicans raised $58.2 million.

But well-heeled Republicans have erased much of the Democrats’ financial advantage with giant donations to a super PAC that raised $70 million in less than three weeks from a who’s who of Republican megadonors, including Stephen Schwarzman of Blackstone ($15 million) and Ken Griffin of Citadel ($12 million). Media mogul Rupert Murdoch gave $1 million, as did his son, Lachlan, the chief executive of the Fox Corp.

Loeffler, one of the wealthiest members of the Senate, put $23 million of her own money into her campaign to get to the runoff, and her husband, Jeffrey Sprecher, the chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, has donated an additional $10 million to a pro-Loeffler super PAC.

Big contributions from Democratic donors are lagging the Republicans. The leading Senate Democratic super PAC raised a little more than $10 million in the 20 days after the general election, records show. The biggest donation — $2.5 million — came from the organization that Stacey Abrams created, Fair Fight, after her narrow loss in 2018 for the governor’s race.

As Abrams’ star power has increased, Fair Fight itself has emerged as a major magnet for Democratic giving, pulling in nearly $35 million in 40 days that ended Nov. 23. Abrams, widely credited with leading the Democratic renaissance in Georgia, also appeared in the virtual rally Friday for the two Democratic candidates.

“We won this election decisively, and, despite the number of recounts, it keeps giving us the same answer: that Georgia Democrats showed up, that Georgians showed up and that we decided that we wanted to move this nation in the right direction,” Abrams said.

Ossoff voiced a major theme that both Democratic candidates were seeking to exploit: allegations that Loeffler and Perdue benefited from questionable stock trades as they learned about the seriousness of the coronavirus pandemic. “We’re running against, like, the Bonnie and Clyde of political corruption in America, who represent politicians who put themselves over the people,” he said. Perdue and Loeffler have denied any inappropriate financial dealings.

On Friday, Pence rallied on behalf of Loeffler and Perdue in Savannah, where he warned that Democrats would advance a liberal, big-government agenda if they were allowed to seize control of the Senate.

“If you don’t vote, they win,” Pence told the small but enthusiastic crowd at the Savannah airport. “If you don’t vote, there could be nothing to stop Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi from cutting our military, raising taxes and passing the agenda of the radical left.”

Pence was joined at the airport by Perdue but not Loeffler, who returned to Atlanta after a young man on her campaign staff was killed Friday afternoon in a traffic accident.

Before the rally, Pence attended the CDC briefing with the Republican candidates, saying the nation is facing a “challenging time” but also “a season of hope,” with the likely approval of the first coronavirus vaccine coming as soon as next week.

ATLANTA — Some of the biggest names in national politics jumped into the fiercely contested runoffs for two Georgia Senate seats Friday, even as a second recount showed that Joe Biden had maintained his lead in the state and Republicans braced for a visit by President Donald Trump, who has railed against his loss there with baseless claims of fraud.

ATLANTA — Some of the biggest names in national politics jumped into the fiercely contested runoffs for two Georgia Senate seats Friday, even as a second recount showed that Joe Biden had maintained his lead in the state and Republicans braced for a visit by President Donald Trump, who has railed against his loss there with baseless claims of fraud. With Trump set to campaign for the two Republican incumbents, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, on Saturday, Vice President Mike Pence and former President Barack Obama held dueling events to underscore the vital stakes in the special elections: If both Republicans are defeated, control of the Senate will shift to Democrats just as Biden moves into the Oval Office. Watch | Obama appeared virtually at a turn-out-the-vote event for Jon Ossoff, the Democrat facing Perdue, and the Rev. Raphael Warnock, Loeffler’s opponent, and spoke of his frustration in seeing his initiatives blocked by the Republican-controlled Senate when he was in office. “If the Senate is controlled by Republicans who are interested in obstruction and gridlock, rather than progress and helping people, they can block just about anything,” Obama said. Pence — with Perdue and Loeffler by his side — received a COVID-19 briefing at the Atlanta headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and said later at a rally for the Republican candidates that “we’re going to save the Senate, and then we’re going to save America.” A second recount of the presidential vote in Georgia has finished, according to the Secretary of State website, showing Biden ahead by about 12,000 votes with 100% of the counties reporting. New campaign financial reports filed late Thursday showed a staggering influx of money into the state in the first days of runoffs that were expected to set spending records, with more than $300 million booked in television, radio and digital ads, according to data from AdImpact, an ad-tracking firm. Media buyers said the price of ads was soaring, especially for super PACs, to unseen heights. The Senate races are playing out at a hyperpartisan moment in American politics that has led to a civil war among Georgia Republicans divided over whether to support Trump as he persists with false assertions that the election was stolen from him. In Georgia and elsewhere, the president’s lawyers remain engaged in a failing, last-minute effort to throw the election to Trump. Even as he tweeted this week that he wanted “a big David and Kelly WIN,” Trump called Brian Kemp, the state’s Republican governor, “hapless” for failing to work to overturn the election results, while also criticizing Georgia’s top election official, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. His sustained assault on Georgia’s voting system prompted an extraordinary rebuke this week from another high-ranking elections official, who warned of violent threats against poll workers and publicly pleaded with the president to cool down his conspiratorial rhetoric. On Friday, state Sen. Elena Parent, a Democrat on the judiciary subcommittee, which met Thursday, said that she had been the target of violent, anonymous threats that appeared on a public internet chat room. The president’s appearance in Valdosta, near the Florida border, on Saturday evening comes after a concerted campaign by his advisers and Republican lawmakers to convince him that his presence is vital to increasing turnout among his supporters. Initially reluctant, the president agreed to hold the rally after being told that victories by the Republican Senate candidates would help prove his contention that his own win in Georgia was stolen from him, according to aides familiar with the conversations. But some Republicans in Georgia and Washington are fearful that Trump will go off-script and potentially attack Kemp or Raffensperger. Party officials also worry that the president’s claims of fraud could backfire, undermining turnout by convincing Republican voters that the special elections are rigged against them anyway. L. Lin Wood, a lawyer and Republican supporter of Trump, and Sidney Powell, a lawyer who has filed lawsuits on the president’s behalf, urged Georgians on Wednesday not to vote “unless your vote is secure.” That same day, a number of prominent Georgia Republicans, including former Gov. Nathan Deal, signed an open letter in which they warned that “the debate surrounding the state’s electoral system has made some within our party consider whether voting in the coming runoff election matters.” The leaders said that the party needed to focus on winning the two Senate seats or risk turning the Senate over to a Democratic Party that “wishes to fundamentally alter the fabric of our nation into something unrecognizable.” Some senior Republicans in Washington are doing little to hide their concern about the damage that they believe Wood and Powell are inflicting. “It’s encouraging the president is going down there to rally the troops, because I know there’s some inconsistent messages being sent to his base supporters,” said Sen. John Cornyn of Texas. Chip Lake, a Georgia-based Republican strategist who most recently worked for Rep. Doug Collins — who unsuccessfully vied in November for Loeffler’s Senate seat — said Friday that Trump was facing “one of the biggest political speeches the president’s ever had to make, because the stakes are that high.” “If we have any portion of our base that might decide to boycott this election for any reason whatsoever, then we might be handing over the Senate to Democratic control,” Lake said. Although a hand-recount of the state’s 5 million votes reaffirmed that Biden had indeed won the Georgia election, Trump’s campaign demanded a second machine recount. Fulton County, which includes much of Atlanta and is the state’s most populous, certified its results Friday. As of Friday evening, state election officials had not responded to queries about when they would officially announce the results of the recount or recertify Biden as the winner. The urgency of the Senate races was reflected in the huge amounts of money pouring into the four campaigns in recent weeks: about $187 million just in online donations from Oct. 15 to Nov. 23, according to federal records from the donation-processing sites ActBlue and WinRed. In that 40-day period, both Democratic challengers outraised their Republican opponents every day from online contributions and surpassed the previous Senate fundraising record for a full quarter. Warnock raised $63.3 million in online donations, and Ossoff raised $66.4 million. In that time, the two Republicans raised $58.2 million. But well-heeled Republicans have erased much of the Democrats’ financial advantage with giant donations to a super PAC that raised $70 million in less than three weeks from a who’s who of Republican megadonors, including Stephen Schwarzman of Blackstone ($15 million) and Ken Griffin of Citadel ($12 million). Media mogul Rupert Murdoch gave $1 million, as did his son, Lachlan, the chief executive of the Fox Corp. Loeffler, one of the wealthiest members of the Senate, put $23 million of her own money into her campaign to get to the runoff, and her husband, Jeffrey Sprecher, the chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, has donated an additional $10 million to a pro-Loeffler super PAC. Big contributions from Democratic donors are lagging the Republicans. The leading Senate Democratic super PAC raised a little more than $10 million in the 20 days after the general election, records show. The biggest donation — $2.5 million — came from the organization that Stacey Abrams created, Fair Fight, after her narrow loss in 2018 for the governor’s race. As Abrams’ star power has increased, Fair Fight itself has emerged as a major magnet for Democratic giving, pulling in nearly $35 million in 40 days that ended Nov. 23. Abrams, widely credited with leading the Democratic renaissance in Georgia, also appeared in the virtual rally Friday for the two Democratic candidates. “We won this election decisively, and, despite the number of recounts, it keeps giving us the same answer: that Georgia Democrats showed up, that Georgians showed up and that we decided that we wanted to move this nation in the right direction,” Abrams said. Ossoff voiced a major theme that both Democratic candidates were seeking to exploit: allegations that Loeffler and Perdue benefited from questionable stock trades as they learned about the seriousness of the coronavirus pandemic. “We’re running against, like, the Bonnie and Clyde of political corruption in America, who represent politicians who put themselves over the people,” he said. Perdue and Loeffler have denied any inappropriate financial dealings. On Friday, Pence rallied on behalf of Loeffler and Perdue in Savannah, where he warned that Democrats would advance a liberal, big-government agenda if they were allowed to seize control of the Senate. “If you don’t vote, they win,” Pence told the small but enthusiastic crowd at the Savannah airport. “If you don’t vote, there could be nothing to stop Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi from cutting our military, raising taxes and passing the agenda of the radical left.” Pence was joined at the airport by Perdue but not Loeffler, who returned to Atlanta after a young man on her campaign staff was killed Friday afternoon in a traffic accident. Before the rally, Pence attended the CDC briefing with the Republican candidates, saying the nation is facing a “challenging time” but also “a season of hope,” with the likely approval of the first coronavirus vaccine coming as soon as next week.

A gathering political storm hits Georgia, with Trump on the way

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/topics/donald-trump">Donald Trump's</a>&nbsp;options to claim presidency despite losing the election to President-elect <a href="https://www.wionews.com/topics/joe-biden">Joe Biden</a>&nbsp;seems to end as in the latest Republican lawmakers from Republicans have ruled out any attempt to change the verdict of the state.&nbsp;

The Trump's campaign is trying to change the results of key battleground states and in one such move, Trump met Republican lawmakers from Michigan on Friday.

Also read | <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/youre-fired-twitter-to-hand-over-potus-account-to-biden-whether-trump-concedes-or-not-344466">You're fired: Twitter to hand over POTUS account to Biden, whether Trump concedes or not</a>

Trump met Senate majority leader Mike Shirkey and the house speaker Lee Chatfield at the White House, who said that they don't have any "information" that would change "change the outcome of the election in Michigan".

"We have not yet been made aware of any information that would change the outcome of the election in Michigan and as legislative leaders, we will follow the law and follow the normal process regarding Michigan’s electors," the joint statement of the Republicans said. &nbsp;

"Michigan's certification process should be a deliberate process free from threats and intimidation."

Trump received another blow on Friday after Georgia became the first of those states to formally certify its results, claiming that Biden won it by 12,670 votes.&nbsp;

Trump's claims on the verdict of Michigan also invited criticism from several Republicans, including Senator Mitt Romney who said: "It is difficult to imagine a worse, more undemocratic action by a sitting American president".

Other Senate Republicans Ben Sasse and Joni Ernst also slammed Trump's strategy to overturn the outcome.&nbsp;

Donald Trump's options to claim presidency despite losing the election to President-elect Joe Biden seems to end as in the latest Republican lawmakers from Republicans have ruled out any attempt to change the verdict of the state.

Donald Trump's options to claim presidency despite losing the election to President-elect Joe Biden seems to end as in the latest Republican lawmakers from Republicans have ruled out any attempt to change the verdict of the state. The Trump's campaign is trying to change the results of key battleground states and in one such move, Trump met Republican lawmakers from Michigan on Friday. Also read | You're fired: Twitter to hand over POTUS account to Biden, whether Trump concedes or not Trump met Senate majority leader Mike Shirkey and the house speaker Lee Chatfield at the White House, who said that they don't have any "information" that would change "change the outcome of the election in Michigan". "We have not yet been made aware of any information that would change the outcome of the election in Michigan and as legislative leaders, we will follow the law and follow the normal process regarding Michigan’s electors," the joint statement of the Republicans said. "Michigan's certification process should be a deliberate process free from threats and intimidation." Trump received another blow on Friday after Georgia became the first of those states to formally certify its results, claiming that Biden won it by 12,670 votes. Trump's claims on the verdict of Michigan also invited criticism from several Republicans, including Senator Mitt Romney who said: "It is difficult to imagine a worse, more undemocratic action by a sitting American president". Other Senate Republicans Ben Sasse and Joni Ernst also slammed Trump's strategy to overturn the outcome.

Multiple blows narrow Donald Trump's options to retain presidency

Democratic president-elect Joe Biden has narrowly won Georgia after a manual recount of all the ballots cast was completed there in the <a href="https://www.wionews.com/us-election">presidential election</a>, a local official announced Thursday.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/us-election-2020-trump-refuses-to-concede-bidens-camp-gets-to-work-343775" hreflang="en">US election 2020: Trump refuses to concede, Biden's camp gets to work</a>

"The audit confirmed that the original machine count accurately portrayed the winner of the election," a statement posted on the website of Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger said.

"Like other Republicans. I’m disappointed, our candidate didn’t win Georgia’s electoral votes," said Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who called himself a proud Trump supporter. "I live by the motto that numbers don’t lie. As secretary of state, I believe that the numbers that we have presented today are correct."

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Democratic candidate Joe Biden won with 306 electoral votes to Trump's 232 nationwide. Biden is the first Democratic presidential candidate to win the southern state in almost three decades.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/donald-trump-asks-judge-to-declare-him-winner-in-pennsylvania-344151" hreflang="en">Donald Trump asks judge to declare him winner in Pennsylvania</a>

In Georgia, Biden's original winning margin was just over 14,000 votes. The recount found the error rate was no greater than 0.73 per cent in any county and Biden won the state with a narrow margin of 0.5 per cent.&nbsp;

But Gabriel Sterling, a Republican who serves as Georgia's voting system implementation manager, told CNN on Thursday: "One of the big complaints is these machines somehow flipped votes or changed votes or did stuff. They didn't, at least not in Georgia. We proved it."

Democratic president-elect Joe Biden has narrowly won Georgia after a manual recount of all the ballots cast was completed there in the presidential election, a local official announced Thursday.

Democratic president-elect Joe Biden has narrowly won Georgia after a manual recount of all the ballots cast was completed there in the presidential election, a local official announced Thursday. Also read: US election 2020: Trump refuses to concede, Biden's camp gets to work "The audit confirmed that the original machine count accurately portrayed the winner of the election," a statement posted on the website of Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger said. "Like other Republicans. I’m disappointed, our candidate didn’t win Georgia’s electoral votes," said Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who called himself a proud Trump supporter. "I live by the motto that numbers don’t lie. As secretary of state, I believe that the numbers that we have presented today are correct." × Democratic candidate Joe Biden won with 306 electoral votes to Trump's 232 nationwide. Biden is the first Democratic presidential candidate to win the southern state in almost three decades. Also read: Donald Trump asks judge to declare him winner in Pennsylvania In Georgia, Biden's original winning margin was just over 14,000 votes. The recount found the error rate was no greater than 0.73 per cent in any county and Biden won the state with a narrow margin of 0.5 per cent. But Gabriel Sterling, a Republican who serves as Georgia's voting system implementation manager, told CNN on Thursday: "One of the big complaints is these machines somehow flipped votes or changed votes or did stuff. They didn't, at least not in Georgia. We proved it."

US elections results 2020: Joe Biden wins Georgia after recount, says state election official

Georgia confirmed Democratic President-elect Joe Biden as the winner of the Nov. 3 election in the state as it completed a hand audit of ballots on Thursday, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said.

Georgia confirms Biden's victory in state as it completes hand audit of ballots

The recount of votes in the state of Georgia has finished. Recount confirmed the victory of Joe Biden after statewide audit.

US Election 2020: Georgia finishes recount of votes, confirms Biden victory

President-elect Joe Biden has won the crucial state of Georgia. This is the first time in last 28 years that a democrat has flipped a traditionally blue state. Meanwhile Donald Trump has won North Carolina.

Breaking News: US President-elect Joe Biden sweeps Georgia, Donald Trump wins North Carolina

Georgia will re-count all paper ballots cast in the Nov. 3 presidential election by hand, the state's top election official said on Wednesday, a mammoth task that must be completed by Nov. 20.

Georgia to re-count presidential election ballots by hand

President Donald Trump's campaign on Wednesday took another step in its legal strategy to upend his US election loss by filing a lawsuit in Michigan while Georgia announced a recount and President-elect Joe Biden focused on laying the foundation of his incoming administration.

The Republican president's team went to federal court to try to block Michigan, a Midwestern battleground state that he won in 2016, from certifying the November 3 election results. 
&nbsp;

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Trump trailed by roughly 148,000 votes, or 2.6 percentage points, in unofficial Michigan vote totals.

Biden has a slimmer lead of just over 14,000 votes, or 0.3 points, in Georgia, a southern state that has not been carried by Democrats since 1992.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced a hand recount of all ballots cast there, which he said was expected to begin this week and would be completed in time to certify the results by a Nov. 20 deadline.

"It'll take every bit of the time that we have left, for sure. It's a big lift," Raffensperger told a news conference.

Trump has declined to concede the election to Biden, instead of lodging a flurry of lawsuits in pivotal states to try to back up his unsupported claims of widespread voting fraud. The Michigan lawsuit also made allegations of misconduct in the voting, with the focus on the Democratic stronghold of Wayne County, which includes Detroit.

Jake Rollow, a spokesman for the Michigan Department of State, said the Trump campaign was promoting false claims to erode public confidence in Michigan's elections.

"It does not change the truth: Michigan's elections were conducted fairly, securely, transparently, and the results are an accurate reflection of the will of the people," Rollow said in a statement.

Prominent Republican lawmakers and other Trump allies have backed the president's strategy, saying he has the right to contest the election results. The suit was filed one day after Biden called Trump's failure to concede an "embarrassment."

Judges have tossed out several of the Trump lawsuits, and legal experts say the litigation has scant chance of changing the election outcome.

While acknowledging there was "no silver bullet" that would overturn the election, Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh said Wednesday's developments were part of a process that could pave the way for a second Trump four-year term.

Earlier, the Trump campaign said it had evidence that a handful of dead people in Georgia had voted in last week's election.

Biden last Saturday clinched victory in the election as he won a series of battleground states to exceed the 270 electoral votes needed in the state-by-state Electoral College. Biden was winning the national popular vote by more than 5 million votes, with some states still counting ballots.

Biden planned to meet with advisers on Wednesday who is helping him prepare to take office on Inauguration Day, Jan. 20.

Trump placed a memorial wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery, his first public appearance other than two golf outings since Biden was projected the winner on Saturday.

While Trump made no remarks at the cemetery, in Twitter posts on Wednesday he kept up his narrative of voter fraud, referring to "a mountain of corruption &amp; dishonesty" while assailing pollsters.

Nearly 80% of Americans, including half of Republicans, say Biden won the election, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday.

Trump's refusal to accept defeat, even as world leaders congratulate Biden and look to their future relations with the United States, caps a volatile nearly four years in office with the country deeply polarized and facing a sharp resurgence in coronavirus cases. During the campaign, Trump had refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power.

The Trump administration is not cooperating with Biden's transition team, which has been unable to move into federal government office space or tap funds to hire staff.

The election outcome in a small number of states remained undecided with Trump holding a lead in North Carolina and Biden ahead in Arizona in addition to Georgia. Recounts are unlikely to change the outcomes.

To remain in office, Trump would need to win all three undecided states plus overturn the results in one or more states in Biden's column.

President Donald Trump's campaign on Wednesday took another step in its legal strategy to upend his US election loss by filing a lawsuit in Michigan while Georgia announced a recount and President-elect Joe Biden focused on laying the foundation of his incoming administration.

President Donald Trump's campaign on Wednesday took another step in its legal strategy to upend his US election loss by filing a lawsuit in Michigan while Georgia announced a recount and President-elect Joe Biden focused on laying the foundation of his incoming administration. The Republican president's team went to federal court to try to block Michigan, a Midwestern battleground state that he won in 2016, from certifying the November 3 election results. Trump trailed by roughly 148,000 votes, or 2.6 percentage points, in unofficial Michigan vote totals. Biden has a slimmer lead of just over 14,000 votes, or 0.3 points, in Georgia, a southern state that has not been carried by Democrats since 1992. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced a hand recount of all ballots cast there, which he said was expected to begin this week and would be completed in time to certify the results by a Nov. 20 deadline. "It'll take every bit of the time that we have left, for sure. It's a big lift," Raffensperger told a news conference. Trump has declined to concede the election to Biden, instead of lodging a flurry of lawsuits in pivotal states to try to back up his unsupported claims of widespread voting fraud. The Michigan lawsuit also made allegations of misconduct in the voting, with the focus on the Democratic stronghold of Wayne County, which includes Detroit. Jake Rollow, a spokesman for the Michigan Department of State, said the Trump campaign was promoting false claims to erode public confidence in Michigan's elections. "It does not change the truth: Michigan's elections were conducted fairly, securely, transparently, and the results are an accurate reflection of the will of the people," Rollow said in a statement. Prominent Republican lawmakers and other Trump allies have backed the president's strategy, saying he has the right to contest the election results. The suit was filed one day after Biden called Trump's failure to concede an "embarrassment." Judges have tossed out several of the Trump lawsuits, and legal experts say the litigation has scant chance of changing the election outcome. While acknowledging there was "no silver bullet" that would overturn the election, Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh said Wednesday's developments were part of a process that could pave the way for a second Trump four-year term. Earlier, the Trump campaign said it had evidence that a handful of dead people in Georgia had voted in last week's election. Biden last Saturday clinched victory in the election as he won a series of battleground states to exceed the 270 electoral votes needed in the state-by-state Electoral College. Biden was winning the national popular vote by more than 5 million votes, with some states still counting ballots. Biden planned to meet with advisers on Wednesday who is helping him prepare to take office on Inauguration Day, Jan. 20. Trump placed a memorial wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery, his first public appearance other than two golf outings since Biden was projected the winner on Saturday. While Trump made no remarks at the cemetery, in Twitter posts on Wednesday he kept up his narrative of voter fraud, referring to "a mountain of corruption & dishonesty" while assailing pollsters. Nearly 80% of Americans, including half of Republicans, say Biden won the election, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday. Trump's refusal to accept defeat, even as world leaders congratulate Biden and look to their future relations with the United States, caps a volatile nearly four years in office with the country deeply polarized and facing a sharp resurgence in coronavirus cases. During the campaign, Trump had refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power. The Trump administration is not cooperating with Biden's transition team, which has been unable to move into federal government office space or tap funds to hire staff. The election outcome in a small number of states remained undecided with Trump holding a lead in North Carolina and Biden ahead in Arizona in addition to Georgia. Recounts are unlikely to change the outcomes. To remain in office, Trump would need to win all three undecided states plus overturn the results in one or more states in Biden's column.

Donald Trump files new lawsuit challenging poll results, Georgia announces recount 

Georgia's secretary of state has ordered a full hand recount of the state's presidential election race. Donald Trump team had earlier demanded a recount in Georgia.

Georgia orders full hand recount of all votes in presidential race

Tsophi is one of several villages in the Marneuli region of Georgia where ethnic Armenians and Azerbaijanis live and work together. Watch this report to know more.

Armenians and Azerbaijanis live in harmony in Georgian village​

Dozens were injured when Georgian police fired water cannon against hundreds of protesters who gathered outside the Central Election Commission (CEC) on Sunday to support an opposition call for a rerun of Oct. 31 parliamentary elections.

The protesters say the polls were rigged.

Police reportedly also used tear gas. They have, however, denied it.

The demonstrators had marched to the CEC building from the capital`s main Rustaveli avenue, where thousands of people held a peaceful rally.

Opposition leaders called on supporters to leave the scene after many protesters became soaked or injured, but said the next protest would be held on Monday.

The opposition is demanding the resignation of the CEC chief, Tamar Zhvania, and the calling of fresh elections.

According to official results, the ruling Georgian Dream party won 48.23% of the vote, with the largest opposition party, the United National Movement (UNM), taking 27.18%.

After the result gave the ruling party the right to form a government, eight opposition parties, including the UNM, said they would boycott parliament.

The opposition accuses the ruling party and its supporters of vote buying, making threats against voters and observers and of violations during the counting process. Georgian Dream leaders have denied the accusations.

Protesters moved to the CEC building after the 8 p.m. deadline to dismiss the electoral commission head and to start talks on a fresh vote passed without a response from the government.

(with inputs)

Dozens were injured when Georgian police fired water cannon against hundreds of protesters who gathered outside the Central Election Commission (CEC) on Sunday to support an opposition call for a rerun of Oct.

Dozens were injured when Georgian police fired water cannon against hundreds of protesters who gathered outside the Central Election Commission (CEC) on Sunday to support an opposition call for a rerun of Oct. 31 parliamentary elections. The protesters say the polls were rigged. Police reportedly also used tear gas. They have, however, denied it. The demonstrators had marched to the CEC building from the capital`s main Rustaveli avenue, where thousands of people held a peaceful rally. Opposition leaders called on supporters to leave the scene after many protesters became soaked or injured, but said the next protest would be held on Monday. The opposition is demanding the resignation of the CEC chief, Tamar Zhvania, and the calling of fresh elections. According to official results, the ruling Georgian Dream party won 48.23% of the vote, with the largest opposition party, the United National Movement (UNM), taking 27.18%. After the result gave the ruling party the right to form a government, eight opposition parties, including the UNM, said they would boycott parliament. The opposition accuses the ruling party and its supporters of vote buying, making threats against voters and observers and of violations during the counting process. Georgian Dream leaders have denied the accusations. Protesters moved to the CEC building after the 8 p.m. deadline to dismiss the electoral commission head and to start talks on a fresh vote passed without a response from the government. (with inputs)

Police in ex-Soviet Georgia fire water cannon on election protesters

Thousands of protestors were injured when cannons and tear gas were fired by Georgian police outside the Central Election Commission (CEC) during anti-govt protest.

Georgia: Police fires tear gas and cannons on the protestors outside the CEC

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