President Donald Trump demanded Tuesday that Georgia "call off" its upcoming runoff elections over his claims of fraud, giving Republicans a new headache in their fight to keep control of the U.S. Senate.
Repeating his attacks about mail-in voting, Trump angrily urged Republican Gov. Brian Kemp to "do something" about absentee votes that are expected to be cast predominantly by Democrats in the pair of make-or-break Senate contests.
"You allowed your state to be scammed," Trump warned Kemp on Twitter, presumably referring to the presidential election.
"Call off election. It won't be needed. We will all WIN!" Trump tweeted.
Trump has repeatedly claimed that hundreds of thousands of mail-in votes were fraudulently cast.
His campaign has lost dozens of lawsuits challenging the results, but he insists he will eventually win vindication from the conservative Supreme Court.
In Georgia and elsewhere, the president is claiming that elections officials failed to match voters' signatures to those on file.
Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a onetime Trump supporter, has dismissed those claims as false.
Trump has branded Kemp as "hapless" and now says he regrets ever backing him for the post. He derided the mild-mannered Raffensperger as an "enemy of the people."
The GOP infighting could backfire on the party in the must-win Senate run offs set for Jan. 5.
Trump is planning a campaign rally Saturday to support Sen. David Perdue and Sen. Kelly Loeffler, neither of whom managed to clear 50% of the votes against Democratic challengers on Nov. 3.
Republicans are clinging to a 50-48 lead in the Senate, meaning they need to win at least one of the runoffs to keep control in the new Congress.
