Voters in Georgia are heading to the polls today in two U.S. Senate runoff elections that will decide the balance of power on Capitol Hill. The special election comes as Congress is expected to formalize the Electoral College votes that made Joe Biden the next President of the United States, despite push back from some Congressional republicans who say they plan to block the process. GBH Morning Edition host Joe Mathieu spoke with WBZ political analyst and GBH News contributor Jon Keller about this busy week in politics. The transcript below has been edited for clarity.
Joe Mathieu: Let's start with Georgia. Voting is underway. And Jon, they say both races are still too close to call. Is that how you see it?
Jon Keller: The polling was pretty accurate in Georgia in the presidential race, but I would like to manage your listeners' expectations a little bit here, Joe. It's Georgia. David Perdue was duly elected six years ago. He's a native Georgian [and] he's going to be tough to beat. Kelly Loeffler was not elected. She was appointed to fill a vacancy. She's not from Georgia, she's from Illinois. So it wouldn't surprise me at all to see a split or even to see Republicans take both of them. No question, it's a fascinating referendum once again on President Trump, and it does have important implications. The Senate majority leader, which is elected by the majority party or in a 50/50 split by the party of the vice president, i.e. the Democrats, they control the flow of legislation to the floor. But I'm not sure it's as make or break as some of us in the media have cast it, Joe.
Mathieu: Well, Wall Street has been treating it like we just woke up to this idea yesterday of a blue wave. The market's sold off, analysts said, "by God, anything could happen. If the Democrats win, they'll raise taxes, they'll revoke the Trump tax cuts. They'll crack down on companies through regulation." You don't see it like that?
Keller: Well, first of all, the market boomed after Biden won the election, so I'm not so sure that's what the market is saying. But look, keep in mind, even with a two-vote edge for the Republicans — say they win both seats tonight in Georgia — yes, McConnell remains the majority leader. But that's not to say every vote is going to be decided on straight party line. Can Mitt Romney always be counted on to vote with Mitch McConnell? Not necessarily. And how about Lisa Murkowski, the Republican senator from Alaska? This past cycle, Alaska went to ranked choice voting. And it's a jungle primary, meaning there's no partisan primaries anymore in an Alaska statewide race. So she's not afraid of voting off the Trumpian reservation with or without Trump there out of fear of a primary challenger. Things are going to be very fluid. That goes for the Democrats, too. Can Joe Manchin always be counted to vote with Chuck Schumer? There's going to be a lot of variables to watch going forward, Joe.
Mathieu: Let's talk about Kelly Loeffler again for a moment. She was at that Trump rally last night. He called her up to the podium. The candidate believes, Jon Keller, that the last election was fraudulent, but is also urging people to vote today using that same system.
Keller: It's kind of hard to follow without a couple of stiff drinks or at least some kind of mind-altering substance because the whole argument is so mind-bending. Much credit was given for the narrow Biden win in Georgia to the Black vote — rightly so — as well as much note was made of the emerging urbanization of Georgia and the fact that those urban areas increasingly vote blue. Rightly so. But let's not forget the role that a relatively modest but significant number of relatively affluent, well-educated Republicans in the suburban areas, the difference that they made in that race by either voting straight up for Biden or giving the whole thing a pass. And I'm wondering this morning what they make of this fantasy land of the election was stolen [and] the now-infamous phone call over the weekend where Donald Trump babbled and blubbered for an hour to the Secretary of State. I think that might be, in hindsight tomorrow, a key factor in what happens tonight.
Mathieu: Let's talk about tomorrow. And by the way, we might not know who won Georgia until then. More than 100 Republicans in the House, at least a dozen Republican senators now with Loeffler, will move to block the confirmation of the Electoral College vote. How dangerous is this? Congressman Louie Gohmert from Texas has even suggested on national television violence in the streets to match Antifa and Black Lives Matter.
Keller: Well, on one level, when Louie Gohmert is leading a movement, I don't think there's all that much cause for becoming frantic about the productivity of that movement. He is dumber than a fence post, and that's kind of insulting to my fencepost friends.
Mathieu: I appreciate that, but the Proud Boys say they're coming to D.C., and we've seen some ugly shows the last couple of months.
Keller: And there's every reason to be concerned about ugliness here in Washington where I am this morning. The National Guard has been called up [and] every D.C. police officer has been mobilized by Mayor Bowser here. And the last two pro-Trump rallies here — one in mid-November, one in mid-December — resulted in a lot of street fighting, some stabbings, police officers were hurt. It's no joke. So we'll see. It's certainly a white knuckle time here in the district.
Mathieu: So is this the final spasm or just the beginning of the next presidential run for Donald Trump?
Keller: Well, my guess is it's the final spasm. And back up and look at the bigger picture here. We are going to come out of this pandemic hopefully sooner rather than later, likely later on this year. And once we do, I firmly believe — you mentioned the markets before — the market's going to go nuts. There's a lot of pent up economic demand. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are going to be buoyed by this wave, the extent to which they converted into some kind of rough facsimile of consensus government, maybe with a few moments of bipartisanship. I know [that's] an antique concept, but they have an opportunity to have people feeling much, much better about the way things are going and about our country. And as that tide comes in, the tide of real venal Trumpism, I think, starts to recede. I hope I'm right.
