MILNER, Georgia—A crowd of hundreds of Georgia conservatives, who flocked to Rock Springs Church on Monday to listen to a speech by Vice President Mike Pence, served as a barometer for the mood among GOP voters ahead of the joint session of Congress on Jan. 6.
Lawmakers on Wednesday are scheduled to vet each state’s Electoral College votes.
The crowd was loudest when Pence passed on his greeting from President Donald Trump. They broke into chants of “four more years” and “stop the steal,” which showed their support for the president’s ongoing challenges to the presidential election.
Pence traveled to Georgia to rally supporters to vote for Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) and Republican candidate for U.S. Senate David Perdue. The vice president made the case for why reelecting Loeffler and Perdue would be crucial for the conservative agenda. The crowd responded well to his appeal but the sporadic interjections from the attendees all suggested that Trump’s base is most concerned about the outcome of the electoral challenges.
“We want you to do the right thing on January 6,” a man from the crowd shouted as Pence was asking the supporters to do the “right thing” and vote for Loeffler and Perdue. A few minutes later, a woman shouted a similar request.
“I know we all got our doubts about the last election,” Pence said when the crowd chanted “stop the steal.”
“I promise you, come this Wednesday, we’ll have our day in Congress. We’ll hear the objections. We’ll hear the evidence, but tomorrow is Georgia’s day.”
The rural community surrounding the church was still peppered with Trump-Pence 2020 flags and lawn signs on Jan. 4, another suggestion that Trump’s supporters here don’t consider the election over.
During a media availability earlier the same day, Loeffler sidestepped questions about a recording of Trump’s conversation with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. During the conversation, the president itemized a long list of categories of potentially illegal votes cast during the general election in the Peach State. The president urged Raffensperger to order a signature audit in Georgia’s Fulton County. Legacy media outlets focused their coverage on Trump’s remarks about how many votes he needs to overturn the election, while brushing past the president’s specific concerns.
“My full focus is on tomorrow, January 5th. In this election, everything is at stake for this country. I am focused on that exclusively because this affects every single Georgian,” Loeffler said.
A group of 12 Republican senators and at least 55 members of the House have committed to lodging an objection on Jan. 6 to Democratic slates of electors from Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada, and New Mexico. The House and Senate will hold separate sessions for up to two hours of debate for each state objection, followed by a vote on which electors to count. Republican electors in the seven states have cast procedural votes for Trump, which will be opened alongside the state-certified votes for Biden.
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