Democrats took control of the US Senate on Wednesday with dramatic electoral victories in Georgia, beating Donald Trump’s party with a crushing defeat two weeks after the president left and giving Joe Biden overall power in Washington.
The Republican debacle in Georgia was sparked when Jon Ossoff was proclaimed the winner of the second of the two Senate elections at stake.
Trump supporters, furious at his electoral defeat, launched a violent assault on the United States Capitol, disrupting the session of Congress to certify Biden’s victory and plunging Washington into chaos.
A defiant Trump, speaking to his supporters at a rally before the riots, insisted: “We will never give up, we will never concede” defeat.
At the end of his four-year term, Trump managed to lose the White House, the House of Representatives and now the Senate to the Democrats.
Georgia, a southern state that has leaned towards Republicans for two decades, has given a political surprise twice in two months: in November, when Democrat Biden narrowly beat Trump, and then in the second round, where they were ousted. two Republican senators in office loyal to Trump.
The narrow and historic victories of documentary producer Ossoff, who at 33 became the youngest United States Senator since Biden himself took office in 1973, and of Reverend Raphael Warnock, the first African American to represent Georgia in the Senate, they will end a divided government in Washington.
They will also give Biden a golden opportunity to present his legislative agenda in plenary.
Warnock, 51, defeated Kelly Loeffler, a 50-year-old businesswoman appointed to the Senate in December 2019, while Ossoff, who becomes Georgia’s first Jewish senator, outclassed David Perdue, 71.
With the upper house split in two, future Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris will decide the vote in the event of a tie. Democrats now control both houses of Congress.
– L’administration Biden gagne –
Ending Republican dominance in the Senate has significant implications for the Biden administration, especially since Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has offered staunch resistance to former President Barack Obama’s agenda.
Biden, in particular, will have a much better chance of securing his Senate cabinet candidates.
Equally important is that Democrats control the legislation that reaches the plenary session. Biden has made it clear that his immediate priority is to push for relief for American families affected by the deadly coronavirus pandemic.
Biden’s federal justices and any Supreme Court election should also get more support in the Upper House, with fewer obstacles.
The accusations against the Republican camp were swift: many admitted that Trump directly damaged Loeffler and Perdue’s chances by questioning the integrity of the very election they sought to win.
“Depressed Republican turnout. Period, ”tweeted Matt Mackowiak, chairman of the Republican Party of Travis County, Texas. “Epic disaster for the Republican Party of untold damage”.
Trump launched a relentless and indecent effort to overturn the presidential election results and focused on Georgia.
But it failed. Republican voters may have stayed at home, refusing to participate in an election their president called a fraud. On the other hand, independent and moderate Republicans may be frustrated by his anti-democratic antics and withdraw their support.
pmh / sst / gm / mps / rsr
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