'Epic': Trump Touts Upcoming Georgia Rally as 'Crucial' for GOP to Reclaim White House in 2024

Just week ago, Trump sent a letter to Georgia's Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Governor Brian Kemp demanding that they decertify the 2020 presidential election results in the state, citing reports of 43,000 DeKalb County absentee ballots allegedly illegally counted.

Former US President Donald Trump is heading off to Perry, Georgia to hold what he described as an "epic rally" on 25 September. The ex-POTUS will be delivering a speech in support of a state GOP candidate, former NFL player Herschel Walker, aiming to unseat Senate Democrat Raphael Warnock and tip the balance in the Republicans' favour in the upper chamber.

"Georgia is critical to our efforts to take back the House and Senate in 2022, and then the White House in 2024, which is why this rally is so important to me".

Donald Trump

45th US President

The GOP is just one seat away from securing a majority in the Senate. While this will not save them from potential filibusters by the Democrats, a majority would still allow them to pass certain bills, such as budgets, unilaterally if needed. The GOP also needs five seats to flip the balance in their favour in the House, making the 2022 midterms all the more important for the party.

Trump to Raise 2020 Voter Fraud Allegations at Rally, Touch on Arizona Audit Issue

However, Trump will also touch on other issues at the Perry rally, namely the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, in which he narrowly lost to Biden in Georgia. On his Telegram channel, the ex-president announced he would be raising the issue of the Arizona forensic audit of the state's election results in 2020, which found "44,000 possibly illegal ballots cast".

"Massive fraud was found in the Arizona Forensic Audit, sometimes referred to as 'Fraudit'. The numbers are Election Changing!"

Donald Trump

45th US President

Georgia's top election official, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, has already reacted to the Trump's upcoming speech at the rally in Perry, forecasting that the ex-president will be reviving once again his claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election. Raffensperger, who resisted Trump's calls in January 2021 to seek grounds for overturning or decertifying the state election results, alleged that the former POTUS does not believe what he is saying and knows he lost last year.

"He’s going to come, and he’s going to say what he’s going to say, but he knows in his heart that he lost".

Brad Raffensperger

Georgia Secretary of State

Just a week ago, Trump sent a letter to Raffensperger and Governor Brian Kemp, asking them to "decertify" the 2020 election results or find another "correct legal remedy" to stop the "illegitimate" presidency of Joe Biden. Trump cited 43,000 DeKalb County absentee ballots, which had been allegedly illegally counted in November 2020 in violation of the proper chain of custody rules.

The ex-POTUS apparently referred to the findings of a local news outlet, Georgia Star News, which studied absentee ballot drop box transfer forms in DeKalb County. The media outlet found that 46% of all local ballots had been delivered to the elections registrar the day after being collected, while another 26% had no receipt time recorded by the said registrar.

Both acts violated the regulations established by the Georgia election authorities not long before the 2020 election, where Biden surpassed Trump in the state by a razor-thin margin. The Republican candidate then accused the Democrats of organising widespread voter fraud across several states to "steal the election" from him. Trump's legal team, however, failed to prove these allegations in court and have the election results cancelled.