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If the form is at least in part substance, today’s inauguration of the 117th Congress of the United States of America speaks volumes about the clouds that accompany the dawn of the Biden era. In the country where the pandemic continues to claim victims, to the point that in Los Angeles coffins are missing to bury the dead, the swearing in of the newly elected and the vote for the re-election of the speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi takes place without the usual ceremonial pomp: the parliamentarians appear only for the oath, without guests, and for the vote. Over the past few months, over 50 members have tested positive and one young MP has died. The new Parliament includes over 60 new MPs, including the 14 Republicans who stole seats from opponents, although the House will continue to have a dem majority. Control of the Senate, on the other hand, will depend on the two ballots on January 5 in Georgia, the southern state, a former republican stronghold, torn by 12 thousand votes from the Democrat to the presidential elections on November 3.
A sense of suspension characterizes the oath of a Congress that is effectively suspended, as are the very real possibilities of President-elect Joe Biden to move forward with his legislative agenda with ease. Tuesday 5 January is the day of reckoning, with the decisive double ballot for control of the Senate. The next day, on Capitol Hill, another appointment will mark the uneventful dawn of the Biden presidency, when it will be staged the latest attempt by Donald Trump’s loyalists – including a dozen senators – to subvert the electoral result. A move with no chance of success, but one that speaks volumes about the incendiary political climate that continues to breathe in Washington. Especially since the initiative is also supported by Vice President Mike Pence, who will be responsible, as president of the Senate, to oversee the session and declare Biden the winner.
The elections in Georgia are the terrain that will decide how much the Biden administration will have to depend on the moods of the Republicans to carry out its agenda. If one or both of the incumbent Republican senators – David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler – win, the GOP would retain a narrow majority; in the event of a double defeat, however, the parties would end up with 50 seats each and the elected vice president Kamala Harris would tip the balance, a scenario that would hand the entire Congress to the dem, paving the way for Biden’s ambitions. Democrat Jon Ossoff, a documentary filmmaker, is Perdue’s challenger, while Reverend Raphael Warnock, senior pastor of Atlanta’s historic black Ebenezer Baptist Church, is Loeffler’s alternative.
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Brian Snyder / Reuters
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The stakes explain why, in the past two months, the challenge in Georgia has reached record numbers, both in terms of publicity and early voting. Both parties flooded the southern state with a tsunami of television advertising. The early vote, already the protagonist of the presidential elections, has broken the records recorded so far for the ballots, with 3 million votes already cast. “These are crazy numbers,” said Michael McDonald, a political science professor at the University of Florida quoted by Reuters.
Voter turnout, crucial to the Democrats’ chances, was robust; about a third of the votes come from African American voters, up from about 27% in November. Bobby Jenkins, Democratic president in rural Randolph County, said he was confident about the high turnout in early voting in his county after an aggressive door-to-door push to get the black vote. “It all depends on how many Republicans show up on election day,” he said.
The two ballots attracted a staggering $ 490 million in ad spend, according to monitoring firm AdImpact. Biden’s political team has devoted at least $ 18 million to the democratic effort, according to a source cited by Reuters.
As happened for the presidential elections, the outcome of the two ballots may not be immediate: in the case of very close results, the results could remain unclear for days and any legal disputes could prolong the process. It took more than a week to confirm Biden’s victory, and two recounting prompted the state’s final certification in December.
Both Biden and Trump on Monday will join their respective candidates in the closing events of the election campaign. Biden will speak alongside Ossoff and Warnock in Atlanta on Monday, while Vice President Harris will campaign today in Savannah. Trump will visit Republican Whitfield County, northwestern Georgia on Monday, but many observers point out that so far his behavior has harmed rather than helped the local GOP’s chances. Repeating for two months now that the elections in Georgia were “illegal and invalid” could have undermined the confidence of Republicans, deterring them from participating in the vote.
On the other hand, there is no good blood between the president and party leaders in Georgia: Trump has asked both Governor Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, both Republicans, to step down after refusing to support his accusations of fraud. The two candidates, Loeffler and Perdue, have maintained an awkward balance, supporting Trump’s allegations while presenting themselves as a “firewall” against democratic conquest. Democrats Ossoff and Warnock, for their part, have accused Republicans of downplaying the pandemic by profiting from the sale of shares. The investigation did not lead to any allegations, and both Perdue and Loeffler said they did not personally direct sales. Perdue was absent on the closing days of the election campaign after being exposed to the virus. Republicans have planned a nightly election party in Atlanta, while Democrats have said they want to avoid events in person due to the pandemic.
If for the Democrats the goal is univocal, to win in Georgia and dominate Congress, the Republican party continues to be a stormy sea. Donald Trump, at odds with anyone who does not support his crusade against the November 3 outcome, attacked the Republican-controlled Senate for lifting the presidential veto on the defense law, along with his powerful leader Mitch McConnell for blocking his request. a $ 2,000 anti-Covid check to Americans. McConnell’s house and speaker Nancy Pelosi’s – reports the CNN – were vandalized after the Senate standoff at higher checks of $ 2,000 each to Americans for pandemic aid.
For The Donald, what matters more than anything now is the January 6 loyalty test, when Congress must ratify the Electoral College vote. At this time the news of at least 11 Republican senators ready to vote against the count of electoral votes, proposing an electoral commission to conduct a “10-day emergency audit” on electoral performance in the disputed states. The group includes Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and James Lankford of Oklahoma.
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Nearly a dozen Republican senators and senators-elect announce plans to vote against counting electoral votes next week when Congress is expected to certify President-elect Joe Biden’s victory — despite no credible evidence of widespread voter fraud https://t.co/hsTJX7zG76pic.twitter.com/xBG0lS6ZhI
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) January 3, 2021
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US Vice President Pence, who so far had decided not to support moves aimed at not conceding the victory to Biden, now seems to be open to the initiative of the group of Republican senators. “Pence – assured his head of Cabinet, Marc Short – welcomes the efforts of members of the House and Senate to use the authority they have under the law to raise objections and present evidence before Congress and the people American ”and shares“ the concerns of millions of Americans about voting fraud and irregularities ”. An important change of strategy given that Pence, as President of the Senate, will be responsible for overseeing Wednesday’s session and declaring Biden the winner. The move by Trump’s loyalists is doomed to fail, but for him it would still be a result: a Republican party on fire and more firewood, in line with the “wild” demonstration promised for the Epiphany day in front of Capitol Hill. With the keywords #StopTheSteal and #DoNotCertify, the MarchForTrump summoned the diehard Trumpians for 9am at White House Ellipse, the park south of the White House. “I’ll be there and it will be a historic day,” he promised on Twitter.
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