Donald Trump’s Georgia Rally Was, as Usual, All About Him

C-Span/Zuma

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

Donald Trump’s Monday night rally in Dalton, Georgia, was intended, ostensibly, to garner support for Republican senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue ahead of the state’s Tuesday runoff election, which will determine the balance of power in the Senate.

But the rally seemed more like final opportunity for Trump to savor the pomp and circumstance of the presidency and to repeat the tired, thoroughly debunked claims of election fraud he’s been peddling since before Election Day.

After arriving on Marine One two hours after he was originally scheduled to speak, Trump launched into a roughly 80-minute rant in which he railed against “big tech” and the “fake news media”; threatened to campaign against Georgia’s Republican Gov. Brian Kemp during the next gubernatorial primary; incited chants of “lock her up”—referring to Hillary Clinton—from the largely maskless crowd; and insisted, despite three separate tallies favoring Biden, that he had won the presidential election in Georgia.

“You can lose, and that’s acceptable,” Trump said, “but when you win in a landslide and they steal it and it’s rigged, it’s not acceptable.” Throughout the evening, Trump repeatedly and falsely claimed victory: “I’ve had two elections, I won both of them. I actually did much better in the second one.” 

Trump deployed a litany of specific-yet-bogus numbers to bolster his false claims, just as he had during his problematic call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Saturday. State officials should be conducting an “audit,” he insisted yet again, of election results that have been verified repeatedly.

Perdue, who is quarantining after coming into close contact with someone with the coronavirus, gave a brief virtual address. Loeffler spoke for about 90 seconds, closing with a vow to object to the Electoral College’s vote on Wednesday. The rest was pure Trump Show.

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate