Georgia’s Democrats have already started to complain about their two new senators, Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, who were sworn in on Wednesday by Vice President Kamala Harris, according to a new report.
Both men won tough contests against Republican candidates in Peach State, gaining Senate control over Democrats in the process.
But an important issue raised by critics is that President Biden adopted a coronavirus relief plan that would send checks for $ 1,400 to many Americans – while Warnock and Ossoff campaigned with a $ 2,000 pledge.
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“Warnock and Ossoff made a point of endorsing and saying exclusively ‘checks for $ 2,000’,” Democrat Oscar Zaro told Mediaite. “Many people in my district voted blue in the second round for two main reasons. One: Loeffler and Perdue denied us relief during COVID while making millions; and two checks for $ 2,000.”
In the second round of the January 5 election, there were a series of campaign events defending the $ 2,000 stimulus check proposal in the days after former President Trump signed a $ 600 check plan in late December.
Then-elected President Joe Biden takes the stage with Georgia’s Democratic Senate candidates Raphael Warnock, on the right, and Jon Ossoff, on the left, in Atlanta, Monday, January 4, 2021. (AP Photo / Carolyn Kaster)
Senate Republicans blocked a $ 2,000 plan at the time, although they had support from Trump.
“If you send Jon and the reverend to Washington, those checks for $ 2,000 will be discarded, restoring the hope and decency of so many people who are fighting now,” said Biden at a rally for the two candidates on January 4.
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Reelect the GOP Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, on the other hand, would guarantee that “those checks will never get there,” he argued.
Rogelio Linares, a Democratic canvasser during the runoff elections, told Mediaite that he feels “like s —” on the issue and called it “a betrayal of the working class.
“I was lying to people who trusted that,” he said. “At the time, I didn’t know it was a lie. But it wasn’t the reality.”
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Another Peach State voter, Justin Wade, told the agency that the $ 1,400 checks are “a bad sign” and noted that Democrats and supporting PACs poured record campaign spending into the state in their effort to win the Senate – just to get away from the $ 2,000 total right away.
In a series of tweets and interviews on television, Ossoff raised the question of $ 2,000 and attacked his opponent, Perdue, over payments.
“If David Perdue really wanted $ 2,000 direct relief checks for the people, he would be on the Senate floor demanding that McConnell put the House bill up for vote,” Ossoff tweeted at one point.
The $ 2,000 check issue has become so prominent in disputes in Georgia that even Republican candidates have endorsed the request for bigger checks.
But now Biden is supporting a $ 1,400 plan. In addition to the $ 600 check in December, the total amounts to $ 2,000 – but critics say the campaign message was clear. He demanded checks for $ 2,000.
Progressives from other states, including “squad” representatives Alexandia Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar and Cori Bush, also criticized the $ 1,400 change.
A Fox News poll conducted in the runoff elections also found that 43% of Georgia voters saw the coronavirus pandemic as the country’s most important issue, and 72% said they felt that Congress had done very little to help Americans individually.
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Due to Ossoff and Warnock’s victories, Democrats and the two independent senators who agree with them have a 50-50 split in the Senate, with Vice President Kamala Harris representing a tiebreaker vote. And while Democratic Senator from West Virginia, Joe Manchin, said he would “absolutely not” vote on checks for $ 2,000, he could still pass with little Republican support.
Spokesmen for Warnock and Ossoff did not immediately respond to Fox News’s requests for comment.