Trump, Biden rally in Georgia ahead of runoffs

U.S. President Donald Trump rallied his supporters in Georgia on Monday (January 4) ahead of a high-stakes runoff there that will set who controls the Senate.

Incumbent GOP Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler are battling to keep their seats - and the Republicans' Senate majority.

It would let the party block Democratic President-elect Joe Biden's legislative agenda.

"They're not taking this White House. We're going to fight like hell."

But Trump spent much of the rally railing against Biden's victory in the presidential election last November.

In a phone call recorded on Saturday, Trump pressured Georgia's top election official, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, to find enough votes to overturn his defeat in the state, and repeated his unsubstantiated claims of a fraudulent election.

Raffensperger maintains that there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the state.

And on Monday, Trump vowed to campaign against Raffensperger's reelection.

"But I'm gonna be here in a year and a half and I'm gonna be campaigning against your governor and your crazy secretary of state."

Biden was also in Georgia Monday campaigning for Democratic challengers Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock.

Both of them would need to win in order to flip the Senate in the Democrats' favor, with Democratic Vice President-elect Kamala Harris holding a tie-breaking vote.

"Folks, this is it, this is it. It's a new year and tomorrow can be a new day for Atlanta, for Georgia and for America."

Georgia has long been a staunch Republican state.

Biden's surprise victory there has raised Democrats' hopes of winning this week's runoff, but Ossoff and Warnock still face an uphill battle in the conservative state.

The Georgia races have shattered spending and early voting records, with 3 million ballots already cast before Monday evening.