On a call with fat cats reported on at Axios by Glen Johnson and Alayna Treene, Schumer tried to blame the Democrats' humongously expensive defeat in Senate races on... anyone but himself, although he had smugly and aggressively handpicked every shit candidate who lost. For example, Schumer told the fat cats that they lost North Carolina because his candidate-- Cal Cunningham, a total loser, "couldn't keep his zipper up" (a standard quip in Schumer's excuse-making since the election). Isn't that funny, when Schumer poisoned the atmosphere for state Senator Erica Smith, the obvious choice for the nomination, with some allusions to a murky scandal. Smith likely would have won the seat. But... too black and too progressive for Schumer. He handed Tillis and the Republicans the North Carolina Senate seat when he sabotaged Smith with a Republican-lite piece of crap who stood for exactly nothing at all and inspired exactly no one but Democratic lobbyists and consultants. As of October 14, Cunningham had outspent Tillis $45,909,049 to 18,461,413, giving Schumer an erection every time he looked at the numbers since he's from an old school that claims the candidate who raises the most money wins. Cunningham sat on the phones all day calling fat cats from Schumer's phone list and never campaigned at all. Schumer and his allies poured another $115,202,768 into the race-- around $15 million more than the Republicans put in to help Tillis. All for naught. All for Schumer's ego. Even while Democratic Governor Roy Cooper was being reelected with 2,834,790 votes ( nearly 200,000 more votes than Tillis and 100,000 more than Trump), Tillis beat Cunningham 2,665,498 (48.7%) to 2,569,965 (46.9%). In other words, well over a quarter million voters cast their ballots for Cooper and then refused to do so for Schumer's pathetic pick.
Schumer was ever worse in Maine, where he did everything he could to sabotage and undermine Berniecrat Betsy Sweet so he could get an uninspiring centrist, Sara Gideon, who never had a chance against Susan Collins. Gideon out-raised Collins-- $68.5 million to 26.5 million-- and lost 417,645 (50.98%) to 347,223 (42.39%), depriving Schumer of another pointless hack who would never make any trouble at all in the Senate.
Although when Schumer tried recruiting Stacey Abrams to run in Georgia, she insisted Rev. Raphael Warnock was the right nominee, Schumer was still grousing on the call-- even as Warnock is outpolling Kelly Loeffler right now in the runoff-- that one of the Democrats' big problems was his inability to persuade Abrams to run.
I doubt Schumer's lack of enthusiasm for Warnock is going to translate into the kind of help Warnock needs to beat Loeffler on the financial front, but in some ways Warnock is better off without Schumer's strings-attached-help. Please consider contributing to Warnock's campaign by clicking on the Senate thermometer on the right and contributing what you can.
Meanhwile, the NY Times reported yesterday that Trump is making it more difficult for Loeffler and Perdue to win next month. A trio of writers asserted that "Trump’s sustained assault on his own party in Georgia, and his repeated claims of election fraud in the state, have intensified worries among Republicans that he could be hurting their ability to win two crucial Senate runoff races next month." Trump won't stop claiming-- and without any evidence all-- that his loss in Georgia "was fraudulent, directing his ire in particular at Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, both conservative Republicans, whom he has accused of not doing enough to help him overturn the result." Trump tweeted that he wished he had never endorsed Kemp in the first place. His "attacks on Georgia’s voting system are part of his overall efforts to undermine the electoral system, as a way of rationalizing his defeat. He has directed his anger at other states, and governors, as he did Monday with Gov. Doug Ducey of Arizona. But unlike in other states, where down-ballot races are largely decided, Mr. Trump’s rhetoric in Georgia could carry long-term political consequences."
Trump’s broadsides have quietly rattled some Republicans in the state, who fear that concerns about the fairness of the presidential election could depress turnout for the Senate races, which will determine whether Democrats or Republicans control the chamber.
After resisting entreaties to appear in Georgia, the president plans to travel there this weekend, though even some of his own aides remain uncertain whether his anger toward state officials will overshadow any support he may lend the party’s two candidates.
“You can’t say the system is rigged but elect these two senators,” said Eric Johnson, a campaign adviser to Kelly Loeffler, one of the G.O.P. Senate candidates, and a former Republican leader of the Georgia Senate. “At some point he either drops it or he says I want everybody to vote and get their friends to vote so that the margins are so large that they can’t steal it.”
The split signifies both an extraordinary dispute over election integrity within the Republican Party and a preview of the control the president may continue to exert over the conservative base even after he leaves office. As Mr. Trump talks seriously about the possibility of mounting another bid for the White House in 2024, his personal goals may not always align with those of his party-- no matter the political stakes.
“I had someone message me just last week saying: ‘Nope, I’m done. Can’t trust the election. Never voting again,’” said Buzz Brockway, a former Republican state representative. “The president has a very dedicated group of supporters who don’t really support the broader Republican Party-- they support him.”
...Already, a handful of Trump allies, citing fears of fraud, are urging supporters to boycott the Senate elections or write in the president’s name-- an option not provided on the Georgia ballot in runoffs.
L. Lin Wood, a conservative Georgia lawyer and a Trump ally, is advising conservatives not to vote in the runoff elections, tweeting on Sunday that he won’t vote in “another fraudulent election with rigged voting machines & fake mail ballots.” Mr. Wood sued unsuccessfully to stop the state’s election certification and is now appealing for an injunction to stop the Jan. 5 runoff contests.
While that remains a fringe position, some Republican strategists and officials worry that the argument for not voting could gain traction if the president continues his attacks.
A note of realism here, based on history. In runoffs in GA (almost anywhere, really), the nazis all show up. The democraps do not.
GA this time may be different. And if trump travels there and makes a further fool of himself, it might cause the democrap voters to decide to make the effort. But in normal circumstances, both nazis would win by 5 points.
Perhaps of the democraps did NOT have a 50-year history of being pussies and corrupt neoliberal capitalist assholes... but that's theoretical.