On Tuesday, former President Donald Trump, who endorsed Perdue, suggested that something was fishy about that race.
Robinson’s argument is a little all over the place, but essentially boils down to this: Trump’s endorsement record is very strong so, um, there must be something wrong in Georgia where a number of his preferred candidates — including Perdue — lost.
“President Trump’s endorsement is the single most powerful force in the universe of American politics. There’s never been anything quite like it. Trump-endorsed candidates overwhelmingly prevailed in the latest GOP primaries by a margin of 24-4. In fact, President Trump is running the table on the GOP establishment in the 2022 races. His record stands at 92-7 at the moment. …
“That’s what makes the primary results in Georgia last night so curious and so suspect. Georgia is the only state where President Trump’s endorsements did not count.”
Robinson also notes Trump-endorsed candidates fared better in a poll released a month before the Georgia election compared to the final results. That’s it. That the extent of the argument.
So, because Trump’s record of endorsements in 2022 is generally strong, the fact that he endorsed a bunch of candidates in Georgia who lost must mean that there were shenanigans happening.
“Something stinks in Georgia,” concludes Robinson. “The numbers are funny because many of these races were rigged.”
Now, let’s consider what Robinson is alleging here.
According to Robinson, those numbers are “funny” and “rigged.” Which is a pretty big claim to make without any evidence other than a month-old poll and suggestions that Trump’s endorsement had mattered in other states and, therefore, had to matter more in Georgia.
Is Robinson claiming that more than 600,000 votes — Kemp’s winning margin — were somehow fraudulent? If so, how? That sort of massive election fraud would be extremely hard to cover up, no?
Let me suggest an alternative — and sane — explanation. Georgia Republicans are, yes, generally supportive of Trump. But there remains some lingering resentment that Trump’s relentless focus on the 2020 election may have cost the GOP two Senate seats in January 2021 runoffs — and, with them, the Senate majority. Therefore, backing candidates solely because they are willing to endorse Trump’s baseless election claims may be less appealing to Georgia Republican voters than voters in other states where Trump’s endorsement has mattered more.
That seems slightly more plausible than Robinson’s fact-free suggestion of hundreds of thousands of votes being somehow manipulated to hurt Trump, right?