WASHINGTON — President-elect Joe Biden and President Donald Trump will both make final in-person pitches in Georgia's Senate races Monday ahead of runoff elections Tuesday.
Biden is scheduled to travel to Atlanta to campaign for Democratic candidates Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock. He was expected to speak at an event at 4:30 p.m.
Trump, meanwhile, was scheduled to hold a rally in Dalton on Monday night to boost support for Republican Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue. Vice President Mike Pence was to deliver remarks at a separate event in Georgia in the early afternoon.
Trump was to speak a day after audio of an hourlong phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger surfaced in which Trump begged Raffensperger to overturn the state's election results, which showed Biden winning by just under 12,000 votes.
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris said at a campaign event Sunday in Georgia that the audio revealed "the voice of desperation."
"It was a bald, bald-faced, bold abuse of power by the president of the United States," Harris said. "That is a direct attack on our democracy, and if David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler had one piece of steel in their spines, one shred of integrity, they would be out here defending Georgia voters from that kind of assault."
In other transition news:
- Biden and incoming first lady Jill Biden will forgo the traditional inaugural parade on Jan. 20, the Presidential Inaugural Committee announced Sunday.
- Raffensperger reacted Monday to the leaked audio of his conversation with Trump, saying that he never thought it was appropriate to speak to the president about the results and that Trump's conversations with Georgia election officials could pose a conflict of interest that warrants investigating.
- Asked at a House Democratic leadership news conference whether lawmakers should take any action over the phone call, caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said he had not read the transcript, adding: "We're not looking backward. We're looking forward to the inauguration of Joe Biden on January 20." House Democrats are instead focused on addressing the coronavirus pandemic and the economic crisis in the new Congress, he said. While Jeffries would not say whether the House will again back a bill to raise direct coronavirus stimulus payments to $2,000, he said further Covid-19 relief was "unfinished business."
- Incoming White House press secretary Jen Psaki said to expect more Cabinet announcements this week.
- Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., a possible 2024 presidential candidate, said in a statement Sunday that he will not join his fellow Senate Republicans in objecting to counting certified electoral votes Wednesday.
