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Dems poised to take Senate as Congress meets to certify Biden win
US Congress will hold a joint session later in the day to grant one final certification to President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.
A Democratic candidate is projected to win one of the two runoff elections in Georgia that hold the key to the Senate, and a fellow party nominee expanded his lead in the second race on Wednesday, setting up a potentially stunning upset defeat for Republicans in their stronghold.
US Congress will hold a joint session later in the day to grant one final certification to President-elect Joe Biden’s victory. Republican lawmakers allied to President Donald Trump have announced plans to object to the certification, which will drag out what has been a largely ceremonial process but will not change the outcome, or reverse Biden’s election.
Democrat Raphael Warnock defeated Kelly Loeffler, the sitting Republican senator, by more than 60,000 votes, while Jon Ossoff, the other Democrat, was ahead of David Perdue, the incumbent senator, by over 17,000, expanding his overnight lead and tightening his grip on the race.
Warnock and Ossoff’s wins — if and when the second happens — will raise the number of Democrats in the Senate from current 48 to 50, splitting the majority in the 100-member chamber with Republicans. But with Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris’s tie-breaking vote as president of the Senate, Democrats will be in control.
Democrat control of the Senate will complete a trifecta, with the House of Representatives and the White House already in the bag, starting January 20.
With both chambers of Congress in Democratic control, Biden will have an easier time pursuing his legislative agenda. And the Senate win, on its own, will allow his nominees to be confirmed easily, especially those that Republicans were threatening to block.
In response to the Georgia election outcome, Biden said: “Georgia’s voters delivered a resounding message yesterday: they want action on the crises we face and they want it right now. On Covid-19, on economic relief, on climate, on racial justice, on voting rights and so much more. They want us to move, but move together.”
“It looks like we will emerge from yesterday’s election with Democratic leadership in the House and the Senate, and of course I’m pleased that we will be able to work with Speaker (Nancy) Pelosi and a Majority Leader (Charles) Schumer,” he said in a statement.
“We were told we couldn’t win this election, but tonight, we proved that with hope, hard work, and the people by our side, anything is possible,” said Warnock in a brief victory speech. “May my story be an inspiration to some young person who is trying to grasp and grab hold of the American dream.”
Warnock will be the first African American senator from Georgia. He is reverend of the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church of Atlanta, which was once led by Martin Luther King Jr, the civil rights leader.
And Ossoff, a journalist and documentary filmmaker, will be the first Jewish senator from Georgia. Shortly before he overtook Perdue, his campaign said in a statement , “When all the votes are counted, we fully expect that Jon Ossoff will have won this election to represent Georgia in the United States Senate. The outstanding vote is squarely in parts of the state where Jon’s performance has been dominant. We look forward to seeing the process through in the coming hours and moving ahead so Jon can start fighting for all Georgians in the US Senate.”
Outgoing President Trump was tracking the runoffs closely, but only to pounce on technical glitches and difficulties to bolster his baseless claims of election fraud as he continued to pursue his doomed efforts to overturn his defeat to Biden. “Looks like they are setting up a big ‘voter dump’ against the Republican candidates. Waiting to see how many votes they need?” he tweeted during a pause in counting.
Trump remained largely focused on the upcoming certification of Biden’s victory by Congress at the joint session later in the day. Lawmakers allied to him intend to object to the certification, but do not have the numbers to block the certification or reject.
The president and his allies have been pressuring vice-president Mike Pence, who will preside over the joint session, to reject the certification, overstepping his constitutional authority. Pence is reported to have conveyed to Trump at a meeting on Tuesday that he does not have the power to reject or return the certificates to the states. Trump issued a statement denying Pence said that to him, but, notably, Pence did not endorse the denial, not directly or through surrogates.
“States want to correct their votes, which they now know were based on irregularities and fraud, plus corrupt process never received legislative approval,” Trump wrote in a tweet Wednesday morning, just hours before the start of the joint session. “All Mike Pence has to do is send them back to the States, AND WE WIN. Do it Mike, this is a time for extreme courage!”
Trump’s own lawyer Jay Sekulow disagrees with the president. “Some have speculated that the vice president could simply say, ‘I’m not going to accept these electors. ‘I don’t think that’s what the Constitution has in mind. If that were the case, any VP could refuse any election,” he said on a radio show, according to CNN.
Trump, who is consumed by an obsession to overturn his election defeat, will plough on nevertheless. He is addressing a rally in support of his baseless claims ahead of the joint session called the “Save America March”. He will reiterate his false claims of election fraud and will pile up more pressure on his vice-president, testing his unwavering loyalty.
