Sen. Kelly Loeffler warned Sunday that if Democrats take full control of the federal government by winning both Senate seats in Georgia’s runoff elections, they will change the rules to prevent another party from ever taking power again.
“We won’t get a second chance,” the Georgia Republican said on “Fox News Sunday.” “If we lose this election, we could lose the future of the country because we know [Senate Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer wants to abolish the filibuster, get rid of the Electoral College, have D.C. statehood, raise our taxes, and the list goes on.”
As a result of such structural changes, “it would be impossible for Republicans to win the majority again,” she said.
Ms. Loeffler faces Democrat Raphael Warnock in Tuesday’s election, while Republican Sen. David Perdue is being challenged by Democrat Jon Ossoff. If Democrats win both races, they will take control of the Senate, while Republicans need just one Georgia seat to retain the Senate majority.
She noted that Mr. Warnock has refused to say whether he would vote to pack the Supreme Court, calling him one of Mr. Schumer’s “agents of change.”
The early turnout has surpassed 3 million votes, a trend that favors the Democrats, but Ms. Loeffler predicted that GOP voters would show up in full force on Election Day.
“Georgians are fired up. They are ready to get out and vote on Tuesday because they know the future of the country is on the ballot here in Georgia,” she said. “It’s a choice. It’s a stark contrast between the freedoms, our way of life here in Georgia, or socialism, government control.”
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” data-conversation=”none”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>Sen. Loeffler says if she and Sen. Perdue lose the runoffs, Chuck Schumer will "structurally change" America and "it would be impossible for Republicans to win the majority again." <a href=”https://t.co/9NuyP1Q9vt”>pic.twitter.com/9NuyP1Q9vt</a></p>— The Recount (@therecount) <a href=”https://twitter.com/therecount/status/1345744275280162816?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>January 3, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8”></script>
President Trump is scheduled to hold a rally Monday for the Republicans in Dalton, although he created headaches for the Georgia senators by vetoing the National Defense Authorization Act, which both senators supported.
The GOP-controlled Senate overrode the veto on Friday, but the Georgia Senate Republicans were both absent from the vote. Mr. Perdue has self-quarantined after coming into contact with a staffer who tested positive, while Ms. Loeffler said she was campaigning in Georgia.
“I voted to support the NDAA. The bill that came out of conference was very different from what we’ve been promised,” she said.
Asked by Fox host Bret Baier if she would have voted to sustain the veto, she sidestepped the question, saying, “Look, what’s at stake here is our military and our freedoms.”
“I have fought for our military and made sure that we get the funding we need, and we are going to continue to do that,” Ms. Loeffler said. “But if we don’t win on Jan. 5, our military will be defunded and worse.”
Twelve Senate Republicans have said they will vote against certifying the Electoral College results unless there is an audit of the vote in disputed states. Ms. Loeffler is not among them, although she said she is “seriously looking at that.”
“We have to make sure that Georgia and all of Americans trust our voting process,” she said. “But my No. 1 objective right now has to be winning on Jan. 5 so that we can get to the bottom of what happened in these elections.”
She said that unless Republicans keep the Senate, such an audit will never be conducted.
“We know that Democrats will never get to the bottom of it,” she said. “That’s what we’re fighting here for, and I’m continuing to fight for this president. He’s fought for us and so we’re going to stay on top of that.”
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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