Mike Pence rallies Peach State Republicans, says ‘election contests continue’ for Donald Trump

Mike Pence has explosive testimony — will he use it? Image via AP.

The Vice President of the United States visited Savannah Friday, making the case to Republicans to return their Senators to Washington D.C., and making the case that the 2020 Presidential election is not over.

Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, facing runoff challenges on the Jan. 5 ballot in Georgia, got support from Vice President Mike Pence at an outdoor event in the coastal city that served as a warmup for President Donald Trump‘s visit Saturday night.

The Vice President had been in Georgia two weeks prior, rallying for the incumbents in the Atlanta area and contending that the Presidential election was not over.

Since that time, Republicans stoked doubts about the legitimacy of the Georgia vote count, before realizing that telling people the votes were fraudulent may not be a turnout driver.

However, Pence’s language suggested that the White House is sticking to its position that the 2020 election is still in the balance.

“As our election contests continue here in Georgia and in courts across the country,” Pence vowed that the administration will “keep fighting until every legal vote is counted and every illegal vote is thrown out, and never stop fighting until we make America great again.”

If those words sound familiar, they should. Pence said essentially the same thing two weeks prior.

“As our election contest continues here in Georgia and in courts throughout the country, I’ll make you a promise,” Pence said in November. “We’re going to keep fighting until every legal vote is counted. We’re going to keep fighting until every illegal vote is thrown out. And whatever the outcome, we will never stop fighting to make America great again!”

Pence returned to the parallel tracks of litigating an election he lost and trying to turn out the vote for an election in the coming weeks, striking a balance between the two discrete emotional appeals.

“We’re on them, we’re watching,” Pence said. “I know we’ve got doubt about the last election. Some people are saying don’t vote.”

“If you don’t vote, they win,” Pence said. “I promise you we’re going to keep on fighting. We can fight for our President and we can fight for more Republicans in the Senate at the same time.”

In contrast to the President’s protests of vote by mail, Pence pleaded with Georgians to vote as soon as possible, either “absentee, early voting, [or] even on Election Day.”