Fox Business host blames Trump for Senate losses in Georgia
In response, a Trump campaign spokesperson blames the Republican Senate for not passing coronavirus relief checks
Published
Citation From the January 6, 2020, edition of Fox Business' Varney & Company
STUART VARNEY (HOST): President Trump came out and campaigned for both Republican candidates in Georgia but Democrats got more people to come out and vote in yesterday's election. Tim Murtaugh joins us, Trump Communications Director. Tim, that looks to me like the president hurt the Republican turnout in yesterday's Georgia election. What say you?
TIM MURTAUGH (GUEST): Oh, no. I don't think so. I mean, the president went and rallied Georgia voters. And I think it's important to remember, Stu, that a couple of things about these races in Georgia. First of all, Kelly Loeffler hasn't conceded yet. And it looks like the David Perdue race is likely headed to a recount in the runoff.
But a couple things about those races. Remember, in between November and last night's election, Georgia didn't do anything to clean up its voter rolls. And this was run under the same operative constrictions where the state had entered into a consent decree with --
VARNEY: Yeah, but Tim --
MURTAUGH: Stacey Abrams' outfit where it was --
VARNEY: I do apologize for interrupting --
MURTAUGH: Stuart listen --
VARNEY: I do apologize for interrupting. But look, I've heard this before. And you had somebody in the Trump campaign going out and saying don't vote. The whole system in Georgia --
MURTAUGH: No, no one from -- no, Stuart. I will take issue with that. No one from the Trump campaign ever did that. And in fact the president energetically went to Georgia twice.
VARNEY: I can't remember who it was, but somebody said it and it didn't do you any good.
MURTAUGH: No one from this campaign ever said that. The president vigorously campaigned in Georgia twice. Another important point to remember here is that what this race boils down to --
VARNEY: I don't understand why the Republican turnout actually went down and the Democrat turnout went up.
MURTAUGH: What this race boiled down to, in the end, was the question of the $2000 payment.
You had one set of candidates who were saying vote for us and you'll get $2000 in cash. And on the other side we had proof that out of Washington that that $2000 was not going to be forthcoming. It was a very effective argument in the closing days.
And I think it is not to be overlooked what impact that had on the race. Turnout and vote-switching and otherwise. People knew what the choices were. You had Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue siding with the president, supporting the $2000 payments but on the other side you had the Democrats who were able to make the case that they were the ones who would get the $2000 passed because, of course, it did not come out of the Senate in Washington as it currently is constructed.